Experiences From a Multi-National Course in Cybersecurity Awareness Raising

Abstract

The European Union (EU), as well as the entire world, is facing emerging challenges in the cybersecurity domain. Two of the most prominent challenges are citizens’ cybersecurity awareness which is the first line of defense against cybersecurity incidents, and the cybersecurity skill gap expected to lead to a future shortage of cybersecurity professionals. This paper presents an effort to combat those issues through the implementation of an intra-European course on cybersecurity awareness. The course engages university students from four EU member states who learn about increasing cybersecurity awareness while practically developing cybersecurity awareness activities for preadolescents. The paper provides an overview of the course and lessons learned from implementing it in international cooperation. The intention is to provide a guide for the development of such courses and outline success factors others can adopt and pitfalls that should be avoided.