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1. Changes in High-School Student Attitude and Perception Towards Cybersecurity Through the Use of an Interactive Animated Visualization Framework

   https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125195  

   Sudha, Sai Suma; Aguayo, Gabriel Castro; Angulo, Abel R; Kothakapu, Jyothirmai; Niyaz, Quamar; Yang, Xiaoli; Javaid, Ahmad Y (May 2023, IEEE)

   The enormous advancement of digital technology and the Internet usage have significantly improved our lives, but have threatened our security and privacy as well. Cyberattacks may have harmful long-term implications to individuals and organizations. High school students are accessible targets for various cybercrimes due to the lack of cybersecurity knowledge and cyber-safe practices. It is important that education about cybersecurity awareness and cyber hygiene practices must begin at a young age. Offering cybersecurity knowledge through interactive tutorials and game-based techniques may increase students' interest in this domain. To develop a security mindset and improve the perception and attitude towards cybersecurity, we created an interactive cybersecurity framework for high school students. Through this framework, we attempt to effectively educate students in cybersecurity through interactive animated visualization modules developed in Unity 3D engine, enabling learning of physical, software, and mathematical aspects of cybersecurity. Each topic in the visualization tool is explained in four stages including information, interaction, explanation, and assessment. Several surveys have been conducted to determine whether this framework enhances users' cognitive abilities. 

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2. An Integrated Modeling Framework for Application Layer Security

   Kannan U; Swamidurai R (July 2022, Neuroquantology)

   Cybersecurity is a complex problem. To study the complexity underneath the system and forecast possible future cyber events, we used system dynamics (SD)modeling and simulation.Network operations are normally modeled and simulated using the discrete-event simulation (DES) techniques. Since the primary focus of the DES modeling is packet traffic, the cyberattacks and resulting defenses are viewed from the layer 3 (network layer) of the open system interconnection (OSI) model. This does not discover more harmful attacks that might occur at higher(layer 4 and above) OSI layers. There are 32 million small businesses across the United States and 81 percent of them do not have cybersecurity personnel. Today’s extraordinary (COVID-19) situation, application layer (layer 7) security is the key concern for everyone, because every business revenue is heavily dependent on online/always-on presence. Research shows that almost 70 percent of successful cyber attacks are happening at the application layer. This paper presents a new integrated SD modeling framework for the application layer security to help small businesses from cyberattacks. 

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3. Examination of Cybersecurity Technologies, Practices, Challenges, and Wish List in K-12 School Districts

   Florence Martin, Julie Bacak (June 2023, Journal of cybersecurity education research practice)

   With the growth in digital teaching and learning, there has been a sharp rise in the number of cybersecurity attacks on K-12 school networks. This has demonstrated a need for security technologies and cybersecurity education. This study examined security technologies used, effective security practices, challenges, concerns, and wish list of technology leaders in K-12 settings. Data collected from 23 district websites and from interviews with 12 district technology leaders were analyzed. Top security practices included cloud-based technologies, segregated network/V-LAN, two-factor authentication, limiting access, and use of Clever or Class Link. Top challenges included keeping users informed, lack of buy-in from staff and decision-makers, lack of expertise to implement modern best practices, and cost of resources. Top concerns included possible cyberattacks, leaked student data, and lack of user awareness. Finally, their wish list included technology personnel, access to Clever of Class Link, external system diagnostic checks, professional development for staff, and replacing aging infrastructure. The findings have implications for K-12 administrators, technology leaders, and teachers. 

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4. The Effect of Driving Style on Responses to Unexpected Vehicle Cyberattacks

   https://doi.org/10.3390/safety9010005  

   Zhang, Fangda; Wang, Meng; Parker, Jah’inaya; Roberts, Shannon C (March 2023, Safety)

   Vehicle cybersecurity is a serious concern, as modern vehicles are vulnerable to cyberattacks. How drivers respond to situations induced by vehicle cyberattacks is safety critical. This paper sought to understand the effect of human drivers’ risky driving style on response behavior to unexpected vehicle cyberattacks. A driving simulator study was conducted wherein 32 participants experienced a series of simulated drives in which unexpected events caused by vehicle cyberattacks were presented. Participants’ response behavior was assessed by their change in velocity after the cybersecurity events occurred, their post-event acceleration, as well as time to first reaction. Risky driving style was portrayed by scores on the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) and the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS). Half of the participants also received training regarding vehicle cybersecurity before the experiment. Results suggest that when encountering certain cyberattack-induced unexpected events, whether one received training, driving scenario, participants’ gender, DBQ-Violation scores, together with their sensation seeking measured by disinhibition, had a significant impact on their response behavior. Although both the DBQ and sensation seeking have been constantly reported to be linked with risky and aberrant driving behavior, we found that drivers with higher sensation seeking tended to respond to unexpected driving situations induced by vehicle cyberattacks in a less risky and potentially safer manner. This study incorporates not only human factors into the safety research of vehicle cybersecurity, but also builds direct connections between drivers’ risky driving style, which may come from their inherent risk-taking tendency, to response behavior to vehicle cyberattacks. 

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5. Toward Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable Cybersecurity Artifacts

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3546096.3546104  

   Balenson, David; Benzel, Terry; Eide, Eric; Emmerich, David; Johnson, David; Mirkovic, Jelena; Tinnel, Laura (August 2022, CSET '22: Proceedings of the 15th Workshop on Cyber Security Experimentation and Test)

   Hussain, Alefiya; Tarman, Thomas (Ed.)

   Researchers in experimental cybersecurity are increasingly sharing the code, data, and other artifacts associated with their studies. This trend is encouraged and rewarded by conferences and journals through practices such as artifact evaluation and badging. While these trends in sharing artifacts are promising, the cybersecurity community is still far from an ecosystem in which artifacts are FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. The lack of established standards and best practices for sharing and reuse results in artifacts that are often difficult to find and reuse; in addition, the lack of community standards results in artifacts that may be incomplete and low-quality. In this paper we describe our experience in creating an online community hub, called SEARCCH, to promote the sharing and reuse of artifacts for cybersecurity research. Based on our experience, we offer lessons learned: issues that must be addressed to further promote FAIR principles in experimental cybersecurity. 

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