Defense Acquisition University Secure Systems Design Course Experiment

The Cybersecurity and Information Systems Information Analysis Center (CSIAC) developed a course experiment with the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) Cybersecurity Enterprise Team which was executed on 17-18 May 2017. The goal of this exercise was to study the techniques and strategies used to provide cybersecurity-based training, in an effort to educate the entire acquisition workforce (all career fields/positions) to apply cybersecurity best practices and techniques. In collaboration with DAU and George Mason University (Arlington, VA), CSIAC hosted a total of 24 acquisition professionals and educators to participate in the Cybersecurity Secure Design Workshop. Day 1 was facilitated by CSIAC and DAU staff and included excellent participation and insight from acquisition practitioners. The learning objective was to “Identify cybersecurity principles that must be considered throughout the acquisition lifecycle.” Participants from the Navy, Air Force, Army, and industry were asked to identify cybersecurity issues that related specifically to their organizations. They were then broken into small groups and asked to work through a related cybersecurity case study at different stages of the acquisition lifecycle. Day 2 consisted of educators from DAU, CSIAC, and George Mason working through participant responses and identifying training gaps and the needs of the acquisition workforce (see Appendix B for details). Additional workshops, cybersecurity articles, and jointly authored curriculum are expected outputs of this workshop. A plan of action was developed and a road map was created for all action items. Comments from practitioners were extremely positive and a strong working relationship between DAU, CSIAC, and George Mason was developed.