Guidelines to Develop Consumers Cyber Resilience Capabilities in the IoE Ecosystem

Abstract

The IoE ecosystem presents ongoing cybersecurity challenges that need to be addressed by all actors to effectively defend against the dynamics of the relevant cyber threat landscape. The consumer IoT market constitutes a key element of the IoE ecosystem that must be protected from cyber criminals. To effectively defend against cybercriminals, consumers must adopt a more active role and become more resilient to attacks. This means that they need to be able to proactively anticipate attacks, defend and effectively respond to a security incident. To this end, it is essential to promote the development of basic technical skills to a level appropriate for consumers. This is an important aspect that should drive the design of specialized cybersecurity curricula in the context of the IoE ecosystem. This research work provides guidelines to curricula designers and trainers as to the thematic areas they should consider in the design and delivery of specialized cybersecurity curricula to build consumers’ cyber resilience competencies in the context of the IoE ecosystem. For each thematic area, the key topics to consider in the design of the curricula are specified, highlighting specific skills and knowledge that should be developed. The design of such curricula can contribute in upskilling consumers and improving the cyber resilience level across society.