Educating for AI Cybersecurity Work and Research: Ethics, Systems Thinking, and Communication Requirements

TL;DR

This study examines perceptions of cybersecurity educators and managers regarding the importance of ethics, systems thinking, and communication skills in AI-enabled cybersecurity work, highlighting ethics as a key factor and noting perception gaps.

Contribution

It reveals the strong link between non-technical skills and perceived technical readiness in AI cybersecurity, emphasizing ethics' central role and highlighting perception discrepancies.

Findings

Ethics is most strongly associated with technical preparedness.

Instructors overestimate students' non-technical skills compared to managers.

Both groups see ethics as crucial in AI cybersecurity competence.

Abstract

The present study explored managerial and instructor perceptions of their freshly employed cybersecurity workers' or students' preparedness to work effectively in a changing cybersecurity environment that includes AI tools. Specifically, we related perceptions of technical preparedness to ethical, systems thinking, and communication skills. We found that managers and professors perceive preparedness to use AI tools in cybersecurity to be significantly associated with all three non-technical skill sets. Most important, ethics is a clear leader in the network of relationships. Contrary to expectations that ethical concerns are left behind in the rush to adopt the most advanced AI tools in security, both higher education instructors and managers appreciate their role and see them closely associated with technical prowess. Another significant finding is that professors over-estimate students' preparedness for ethical, system thinking, and communication abilities compared to IT managers' perceptions of their newly employed IT workers.