Securing Security through Education

Abstract

Traditionally security has been the pervasive factor in organizational growth but its importance has surpassed that of any other issue in retaining a competitive advantage. Security is, therefore, of paramount importance in the retention of organizational innovation. The key in building a secure environment lies in an organizations ability to react to changing threats both from within and external to the case. The objective of security is to protect corporate knowledge as well that of the tangible asset. It is ironic that to secure knowledge the organization must expand its knowledge of security. To this end universities are currently striving to produce educational programmes to meet industrial demand for this core requirement. The amalgamation of theoretical research and industrial practice in Third level programmes is vital to ensure ongoing industrial support for academia. To this end the case under investigation strives to produce IT graduates with the ability to utilize theoretical knowledge, particularly of security, in a practitioners domain. The construction and implementation of any course is very much emergent, given the unique institutional nature of academic programmes. This paper conducts an analysis of an approach in delivering practical, as well as theoretical, knowledge of security, using a unique project to enable the learners to utilize the theoretical knowledge gained through the classroom.