The CARE Lab hosted its first 6-hour virtual workshop on Monday, June 7th, 2021. It introduced attendees to the SE topic, tactics and persuasion techniques used, SE playbooks, and relevance to cyberattacks and cybersecurity. The workshop shared case studies on shoulder surfing, pretexting, and privacy, and also covered MITRE ATT&CK’s application to SE. Attendees engaged in a safe, ethical, and fun hands-on social engineering activity in teams and then shared their experiences. The workshop ended with an interactive discussion with implementing SE training and education at their respective organizations, the role of ethics in training and education, and a Q&A session with workshop organizers.
The workshop hosted 22 educators (11 middle/high school, 3 community college, 8 university). Overall, we are comfortable saying that our workshop was a success and that attendees found its various components useful:
Here are some excerpts from the attendees:
“I enjoyed the workshop. The timing was good. The activities gave us a glimpse into what the students would experience. Lots of information that I need to reflect upon.”
“With our education system having been forced to work within a digital environment this past year, it’s evident that more awareness needs to be built in our teaching about the potholes and pitfalls of working in an online environment. I would like to participate in this workshop so I can be better informed before passing on information to my students and colleagues.”
We are happy to report that we also compensated 10 middle/high school educators at the rate of $25/hr for the 6 hour workshop.
This event and evaluation are considered research and are part of the education and outreach efforts of NSF Award # 2032292.