Cybersecurity Workforce Development: A Peer Mentoring Approach

In this paper we present a peer mentoring framework for students in an introductory Information Systems class (IS 300: Management of Information Systems) to interact with peers in an upper level elective course in cybersecurity (IS 471: Data Analytics for Cybersecurity). The purpose of this framework is to encourage more students to explore cybersecurity careers through peer led cybersecurity discussions. We discuss preliminary results from a peer interaction for the spring 2016 semester. Our initial results show an increased interest in cybersecurity for the IS 300 students. Moreover, we see that post the interactions both groups have a clearer interest and understanding of cybersecurity.