How To Deal With The Awareness Of Cyber Hazards And Security In (Higher) Education?

Cyber Security of information systems and infrastructure has turned out to be one of the most important issues in recent years. Many people, both children and adults, use portable devices such as mobile phones and tablets in their day to day life, to access computer networks that are connected through the Internet. However, as internet use includes the use of many tools that use shared applications, such as navigation, access to information, trends in social networks, news content, entertainment and office applications (e-mail, calendar, etc.), it has also become an arena for hazards such as user identity theft, privacy sabotage, malicious code, cyber bullying and others. Whilst cyber security has been researched in the literature, few studies addressed cyber security awareness and users’ indifference in cyber security behavior. Moreover, the awareness of cyber security threats among various clusters of users (such as IT experts vs. non-experts, older vs. younger users) has not been fully evaluated. The aim of this paper is to enhance cyber awareness of individuals and thereby equip and prepare them for safer and better work and life, by providing theoretical and practical solutions related to cyber security awareness of various clusters of users, such as elementary and secondary school children, students, employees and retired people. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are as follows: 1. Develop recommendations for curricula changes at each level of the evaluated education systems and practice. 2. Develop a cyber awareness education framework (CAEF) using suggested recommendations for curricula changes at all levels of education. We expect to understand which factors are involved in the cyber awareness gap and how to narrow or even eliminate the gap through specific recommendations, i.e. how to improve the cyber awareness of individuals in the curricula at various levels of the education system