George Mason University Wins $500,000 Grant for Cyber Security Research
Last month we covered Loyola University Maryland’s world-renowned program in Cyber Security, but it’s fellow DC school George Mason University’s School of Management that recently won a $500,000 Nation Science Foundation (NSF) Grant for Cyber Security Education Research.
The NSF grant is intended to support research into what core competencies are needed to lead in the field of cyber security. As an emerging, multidisciplinary field, cyber security raises a particularly thorny set of questions about effective leadership. While the implementation of cyber security requires advanced technical knowledge, the field is now increasingly understood as a core component of organizational strategy–a central concern not just for technical experts but CEOs and corporate boards. Leaders in cyber security face the difficult task of translating objectives and communicating with both technical staff and non-technical executives.
That’s part of why George Mason’s research program will bring together experts from academia, government and the private sector to share ideas in interviews, workshops and focus groups. As a step toward determining core competencies, the researchers will measure how cyber security leaders spend their time, what their priorities, functions, and activities are, and what features of their organizations contribute to or hamper their success.
The research project will last until July 2015 and its results will be announced in a series of workshops, publications, and forums, where the hope of both George Mason University and NSF is it will go on to influence academia, government, and the private sector. DC with its unique blend of public and private industries, and policy and business experts, makes a natural home for both the cyber security industry and cyber security education.
