To facilitate the effective instruction of core cybersecurity principles to non-technical students, we are delighted to present our OSF-wiki page. This platform offers access to essential cybersecurity modules.

Feel free to use the provided link or navigate directly to specific contents from the list below:

https://osf.io/qukj4/wiki/home/

Cybersecurity has strong roots in computer science. This means that the traditional starting point for cybersecurity problems and solutions comes from a computer science perspective, which is quite technical and will be perceived as very technical by non-computer scientists.

As a result, the technological underpinnings and terminological idiosyncrasies of cybersecurity research may initially be inaccessible to psychology students. However, without a proper understanding of the technical foundations, common terminology, and key concepts in cybersecurity, it is difficult to understand the role of psychology in cybersecurity, to contribute to the scientific debate on cybersecurity, and to engage in interdisciplinary exchanges on a common basis of understanding and communication.

Speaking the language of cybersecurity is necessary for high-impact contributions from psychology in cybersecurity, for cybersecurity as a career perspective for psychologists, and for fruitful interdisciplinary exchange. Therefore, psychologists need a basic understanding of the terminology, key concepts, and technical foundations of cybersecurity.

Content

The existing learning modules aim to provide psychologists with a better understanding of the technological underpinnings of cybersecurity from a layperson’s perspective. To this end, the modules explain the fundamentals of cybersecurity at a basic level, using everyday examples that lay people can relate to, so that a working understanding can be developed for psychologists without requiring prior in-depth knowledge of computer science cybersecurity. Using a modular approach, the content is designed in such a way that teachers can select content according to their needs and interests to design their own courses.

Based on the ACM curriculum recommendations for cybersecurity, this module provides knowledge on the following domains of cybersecurity:

Contents of Every Module

Each module contains the following information

  • A brief summary of the module and the topics it covers
  • A description of the learning objectives of the current module
  • The learning materials for the module, including references and digressions on how human behaviour and experience play a role in this topic
  • Further information such as references to (scientific) review articles that are easy to understand that are easy to understand and references to videos, blog posts, etc.

Each paragraph is short and concise to allow teachers to easily create slides from the materials.