Paper Status Tracking

Journals by Title

Journals by Subject

Contact us

	[email protected]
	3275638434

	Paper Publishing WeChat

Useful Links

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Article

Open Access

Curriculum Development for a Doctoral Program in Cybersecurity

Author(s)

Donna M. Schaeffer, Patrick Olson

Full-Text PDF Download XML 267 Views

DOI:10.17265/1548-6591/2018.04.001

Affiliation(s)

Marymount University, Virginia, USA; National University-San Jose, California, USA

ABSTRACT

Almost daily and current media has stories about data breaches, hacking, privacy, and security. In today’s digital society, security of our personal information is a major concern for individuals, security of corporate data is a bottom line issue for organizations, and security of the physical and economic infrastructure is a national concern. The interconnectedness of our systems results in bigger and more complex risks. For individuals, their financial well-being and personal safety may be at risk. For companies, security risks drive costs up and impact revenues. Companies may lose their ability gain and maintain customers. For the nation, the economy, public safety and health are at risk. In recent years, countries and non-governmental organizations have created frameworks for enhancing the security and resilience of critical infrastructures and providing safe and secure systems for the public. Some examples include Executive Order 13636, “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” by then-President of the United States Barack Obama, the United Nations (UN) International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA), and China’s Information and Communications Technology Governance Regime. Such frameworks can provide a basis for designing a curriculum and developing courses for academic programs in cybersecurity. This paper describes three frameworks and proposes a doctoral-level curriculum that synthesizes the frameworks to provide graduates with the necessary competencies to be cybersecurity experts in the global arena.

KEYWORDS

cybersecurity, curriculum development, globalization

Cite this paper

Journal of US-China Public Administration, April 2018, Vol. 15, No. 4, 155-162

References

Denscombe, M. (2010). Good research guide: For small-scale social research projects (4th ed.). Berkshire, GBR: Open University Press.

Gao, C. (2017). China plans to build world-famous cybersecurity schools in 10 years. Retrieved from https://thediplomat. com/2017/08/china-plans-to-build-world-famous-cyber-security-schools-in-ten-years/

Jing, M. (2017). China plans network of influential cybersecurity schools. Retrieved from http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/ article/2106919/china-plans-network-influential-cybersecurity-schools

Kessler, G. C., & Ramsay, J. D. (2014). A proposed curriculum in cybersecurity education targeting homeland security students. Proceedings from the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). January 6-9, Waikoloa, HI, USA.

National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2014). Framework for improving critical infrastructure cybersecurity. Retrieved from https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cyberframework/cybersecurity-framework-021214.pdf

National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2017). Mission, vision, core competencies, and core values. Retrieved from https://www.nist.gov/about-nist/our-organization/mission-vision-values

Ramsay, J., Cutrer, D., & Raffel, R. (2010). Development of an outcomes-based, undergraduate curriculum in homeland security. Homeland Security Affairs Journal, 6(2). Retrieved from http://www.hsaj.org/?article=6.2.4

Sacks, S. (2018). China’s emerging cyber governance system. Retrieved from https://www.csis.org/chinas-emerging-cyber- governance-system

Stringer, E. T. (2013). Action research. London: Sage Publications.

Taylor, C., & Alves-Foss, J. (2005). The need for information assurance curriculum standards. Proceedings from the 2005 Computer, Information, and Systems Sciences, and Engineering (CISSE 05). June, Atlanta, GA.

Yang, Z. (2017). China is massively expanding its cyber capabilities. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/ china-massively-expanding-its-cyber-capabilities-22577