A Conceptual Learning Framework of Cybersecurity Education for Military and Law Enforcement: Workforce Development

Current Trends And Affairs In Cyber Security

The Internet of things (IoT), such as computers and mobile applications, is rapidly increasing (Bhardwaj, 2017). These applications and smart devices will only continue to expand and migrate into 5G networks (Saha et al., 2017). Along with the growing number of smart technologies comes increased security vulnerabilities like malware, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and socially engineered attacks (Humayun et al., 2020). For example, during the pandemic, sectors like education and commerce were largely forced online. Consequently, malicious attackers had a favorable environment to generate their attacks. Hence, there were growing numbers of attacks that involved ransomware, DDoS, malware, malicious domains, malicious Websites, spam e-mail, and malicious social media messaging. Malware and phishing Websites were identified as having the highest increase throughout 2020 (Khan et al., 2020). Hospitals and healthcare organizations were the top targets for these attacks (Hijji & Alam, 2021).

In 2021, public focus shifted to the impact of ransomware attacks, which may or may not have been made public. Some private entities that were unprepared paid the demanded ransom, hoping to keep their victimization private.