CHEESE: Cyber Human Ecosystem of Engaged Security Education

This project from Purdue University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposes to develop a set of cybersecurity learning tools on a dynamic, publicly available, web-based learning platform aimed at bringing together a community of cybersecurity researchers, educators, practitioners and students. By presenting these learning tools exclusively through a web interface, this project aims to enable ease of use and access to security education and hands-on activities. In addition to supplementing traditional cybersecurity instruction, the broader goal is to create a cybersecurity learning ecosystem that is continually updated with emerging trends in cybersecurity research as well as recently discovered security attacks. The researchers will seek contributions in both these areas from a broad community of students and faculty at community colleges, minority-serving institutions and organizations such as Women in Cybersecurity, while incorporating reward mechanisms that encourage contribution.

The proposed Cyber Human Ecosystem of Engaged Security Education (CHEESE) platform will employ the National Data Service (NDS) Labs Workbench and container technology to host a growing collection of user-contributed publicly accessible demonstrations of diverse cybersecurity concepts. Container technology provides completely independent work environments for each user and simplifies the subsequent transfer to other platforms with minimal effort. The NDS Workbench provides a user interface to container management, development and orchestration capabilities that greatly simplify the process of contributing and launching these containerized applications while automatically scaling resources in response to increased usage. CHEESE will engage a broad community of users ranging from faculty, high school teachers, students to researchers and professionals to request, contribute and evaluate the hosted cybersecurity demonstrations. The effectiveness of CHEESE in imparting practical cybersecurity knowledge will be evaluated in several undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity courses. Various organizations such as the IEEE, Big Data Hubs and Women in Cybersecurity will be leveraged to conduct training and outreach events using CHEESE to broaden community participation beyond the core user community. CHEESE will help develop a cybersecurity literate workforce that can learn from prior cybersecurity incidents and employ the latest tools and secure coding practices to avoid common pitfalls associated with these incidents.