Education in Cybersecurity – A Case Study

The inclusion of soft skills linked to Cybersecurity and cyber defense in the academic curricula of higher education courses is a very current issue. Several studies have been carried out in this regard, given the increasing importance of creating awareness about good practices in accessing computer networks, particularly the Internet. These studies primarily consist of recommendations on building the curricula of such courses, guiding the correct ways to do this. Our approach here is from the perspective of the students who may be the target of these cybersecurity skills. In this sense, we are developing a study in a Portuguese higher education institution to understand what higher education students think about this issue and their perception of the need for training in the area. We will ask students from various areas of education about this topic. We will then present an extended study when the preliminary results of a pilot test study are completed and shown. We questioned 423 students from the Informatics Engineering Degree course and analyzed the data obtained in the survey. Since then, this analysis of the data obtained in this study allows us to conclude that the students who participated in this study are very aware of issues related to cyber security and the need to be taught at least the fundamental concepts of cyber hygiene and cyber protection to all to all higher education students. In addition to this first conclusion, most of these students are concerned about the causes and consequences of cyber-attacks and the lack of knowledge that most people have about this problem.