CyberWise: Virtual Security Learning Platform

Payton Howard, Mark Ferraro, Sajal Bhatia

2025

Abstract

Security awareness training is a crucial aspect of ensuring and upholding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems. This project addresses the need for improved security awareness training among staff and faculty members at the university. Our learning platform, CyberWise, leverages a virtual machine in conjunction with a Blackboard course to provide hands-on training modules for email security, secure browsing techniques, viruses, and password best practices. Participants in the CyberWise learning platform engage in realistic scenarios designed to improve learning comprehension about security best practices. The results of CyberWise demonstrated significant improvements in participants’ confidence and skills in key areas of cybersecurity. Participants also indicated a high likelihood of applying the training to their daily work, with 90% feeling very or extremely likely to do so. CyberWise contributes to the field of cybersecurity by providing an effective, hands-on solution for security awareness training that allows staff and faculty members of the university to learn about security-related topics in an environment that looks and feels familiar to them. The interactive and simulation-based approach used in CyberWise not only serves to enhance user engagement, but also ensures a better application of security best practices compared to traditional training methods. This project underscores the value of immersive and practical training environments in the development of a robust security culture within higher educational institutions.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Howard P., Ferraro M. and Bhatia S. (2025). CyberWise: Virtual Security Learning Platform. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP; ISBN 978-989-758-735-1, SciTePress, pages 416-425. DOI: 10.5220/0013378400003899

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icissp25,
author={Payton Howard and Mark Ferraro and Sajal Bhatia},
title={CyberWise: Virtual Security Learning Platform},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP},
year={2025},
pages={416-425},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013378400003899},
isbn={978-989-758-735-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP
TI - CyberWise: Virtual Security Learning Platform
SN - 978-989-758-735-1
AU - Howard P.
AU - Ferraro M.
AU - Bhatia S.
PY - 2025
SP - 416
EP - 425
DO - 10.5220/0013378400003899
PB - SciTePress