Curricula Designer 2024: Enhanced Web Application for Cybersecurity Program Design

Inhalt:
In the modern digital world, cybersecurity is a critical discipline. However, not only purely technical aspects should be reflected, also interdisciplinary challenges must be addressed. One of the biggest issues of today is the lack of cybersecurity experts and the skills gap, i.e. the difference between the actual knowledge and skills of graduates and expectations from the job market. In this paper, we present a software tool that has the ambition to significantly improve the current state in cybersecurity training and teaching. We present a web application called Curricula Designer based on the latest ENISA European Cybersecurity Skills Framework (ECSF) and its deployment in the first pilot in academia. We show the methodology for designing a new cybersecurity study program based on the ECSF, explain how to use the software tools for the implementation of the methodology, create a novel study program using the tools and methodology and provide our experience from the pilot. Furthermore, we present findings and recommendations for ECSF updates. Overall, the paper serves as a good-practice example for building cybersecurity study programs using the ECSF.