CYBER.ORG Releases First National K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards

Last week, CYBER.ORG, formerly the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC), released the first national learning standards for cybersecurity for K-12 students. The standards are envisioned as a way to increase student cybersecurity literacy while simultaneous building a robust pipeline of future cybersecurity talent

According to Kevin Nolten, Director of Academic Outreach, Cyber.org, “The national K-12 cybersecurity learning standards are critical to providing the next generation of students with the skills and knowledge to pursue cybersecurity careers, ultimately helping solve the cybersecurity workforce gap.”

He added, “For the first time, educators have a roadmap for uniformly teaching cybersecurity to students in each grade band across the country. We are thankful to all our partners who dedicated their time to making the standards an incredible success and look forward to helping states adopt the standards in the coming year.”

The K-12 cybersecurity learning standards center around three core themes – Computing Systems (CS), Digital Citizenship (DC) and Security (SEC) – all of which represent key fundamentals in cybersecurity education. Each core concept covers a range of pertinent cybersecurity topics, from the Internet of Things (IoT) to Threat Actors.

The first-ever K-12 cybersecurity learning standards will support CYBER.ORG’s mission to address the growing cybersecurity workforce crisis by increasing foundational cybersecurity awareness, access to cybersecurity education and interest in the cybersecurity profession.