Cybersecurity Within the Curricula of Informatics: The Estonian Perspective

Abstract

While the needs for generic IT staff have been generally addressed in many places, the lack of specialized workforce is a growing problem, especially in cybersecurity - falling behind in addressing cybercrime can lead to serious problems. Not only should the common cybersecurity awareness be raised, but more people should also be guided to specialize in cybersecurity. The cost of cybersecurity education and awareness campaigns is far less than the price of dealing with enormous consequences of cybercrime – in 2018, 600 Billion was reported in CSIS [17] by Internet Society, and it doubles annually.

In some countries, the problem has been recognized more than in others. The Estonian CyberSecurity Strategy (2019) points out the need to educate all citizens, improve education in schools and find new talents for the field [11]. The new curriculum of Informatics of which $\frac{1}{3}$ covers the cyber skills was developed in 2017, new materials will be available in 2019. In this paper we provide an overview of Estonian digital safety and cybersecurity curricula as well as discuss how to educate the masses and what to do with talents (how to detect talent and build up the talent pool). We will look at three years’ work and studies (including the Cyber Olympics program) to offer ideas and perhaps inspiration to other countries. We also list a number of initiatives and tools that could help in updating the cybersecurity education and channeling resources in a more effective way.