According to The Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 46% of UK businesses and charities reported a cyber-attack during the year. Institutions, schools and individuals have all fall victim to phishing scams, hacks and other cyber-crime. As on-line services become a way of life, not everyone has the knowledge and skills to protect themselves and their digital assets. Cyber for Your Subject: Bringing Security to the College Classroom aims to begin to address this knowledge gap with an accessible, embedded educational course created for college age learners and faculty that don’t have a prior computing or technical background.
Dundee and Angus College collaborated with Skills Development Scotland and created a course for awareness and skills development that highlights the importance of cyber security for everyone. Now, after a successful trial, all colleges in Scotland are invited to be a part of the next phase which will give lecturers and students some exposure to this important topic.
Starting in March 2023, Dundee and Angus College will give lecturers access to all materials and resources needed to deliver the unit to a class over an 8 week period and will also provide weekly lecturer led classes and online staff support to assist delivery. All participating students have an opportunity to achieve an accredited SQA unit.
Any interested lecturers, or college administrators are invited to one of our upcoming training sessions. Please register today!
Cyber for Your Subject: Bringing Security to the College Classroom - Information Sessions
Thursday 19th January, 10 am - 10:30am
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/embedding-cyber-into-college-courses-inf…
Thursday 26th January, 4:30pm - 5:00pm
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/embedding-cyber-into-non-tech-college-co…
Adam Gummer, a Cyber Security Lecturer Dundee and Angus College, answers some questions about how this course can be effective addition in any college classroom or subject.
Why was this program started?
The program was started to help provide students and staff of a non-IT background an introduction to cyber security and the importance of being cyber security aware. Cyber security has become a major issue for the whole education sector and especially after the cyber-attack at D&A, we decided to work closely with SDS to provide our staff and students a cyber security fundamentals course to give them the knowledge that may help prevent them from being victims of cyber attacks in the future. The course has really helped highlight the need for cyber security to be taught across all disciplines and how important it is to try stay safe from cyber-attacks.
What are some examples of why this is important for college educators?
As a cyber security specialist I believe that it is important for all college educators to implement some form of cyber security training into all there frameworks as it can help students stay safe at college and home by providing them with the knowledge and tips on how to protect themselves, but can also help the education sector as a whole by making sure everyone is implementing the same cyber security practises which in turn can help provide an extra layer of security for the students and the college as a whole.
Why is this not just an exclusively ‘tech’ programme?
A lot of people generally believe that cyber security is just based around the computing industry and doesn’t really affect the other working industries, but as a college we wanted to highlight that no matter what industry you may be studying for i.e., sports, hairdressing, art, engineering cyber security still plays a major role in helping these industries protect their assets and data from cyber-attack. Cyber security is a major issue and providing the knowledge to less technical students and staff can enhance the security of college but also provided them with the knowledge to keep themselves safe no matter if they are protecting there home or work environments.
What might surprise students about this programme?
The programme really highlights the need for cyber security to be implemented in the day-to-day tasks of everyday life and how important this is. The students who undertake this course will find it fun, interactive and most importantly a great educational experience providing them with the knowledge to stay safe well passed the educational experience. The most surprising thing for the student during the teaching of this course was how important it is to implement good cyber security practises in their everyday lives, while the other side of that was, how surprised they were to find out how easy it can be to fall victim of a cyber-attack. The framework really highlighted that keeping information safe and not oversharing on sites like social media, which a lot of people do, is the first step in good cyber security practise.
