- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2022
Enhancing Cybersecurity Education in the Netherlands
The European Commission via its Technical Support Instrument (TSI) supports the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to consolidate the results of the first Automated Vulnerability Research student challenge by organising a second edition and extend this activity into an annual event, well embedded in academic master curricula.
Context
The importance of cybersecurity is widely acknowledged across the EU. The rapid digitisation of sectors, and the deep social dependence on digital devices make cybersecurity a top priority for policy makers, and a key area of interest for educational institutes and industry. To ensure that our digital infrastructures remain safe against attacks, it is crucial to invest in the capability to build safer software products and digital services, which is one of the objectives of the Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy. Automated Vulnerability Research (AVR) is an important technology field to achieve that objective, and a prerequisite for safer products.
Support delivered
The main goal of this project was to design and implement an AVR Challenge amongst Dutch universities. This is a multi-stakeholder activity involving universities and key cybersecurity organizations. The project contributed towards the availability and application of cutting-edge AVR capabilities in the Netherlands and the EU, and helps keep critical systems and infrastructures secure and provides the EU cybersecurity industry with new market opportunities through broadening of product and service portfolios, and the launch of new startups. The project helped embed Automated Vulnerability Research into academic cybersecurity curricula in the Netherlands and stimulated further joint research and (inter)national business and research partnerships.
Results achieved
The project delivered materials to help embed AVR Challenges into academic curricula and to support follow-up adoption. The results include a playbook for a second AVR challenge in the Netherlands, specification of required IT products and services, participant guidance materials and support in the preparation, coordination and promotion of the challenge. Furthermore, the project collaborated with Dutch universities, cybersecurity industry representatives, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, cybersecurity collaboration platform dcypher and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO to ensure that results and lessons learned are taken up, and lead to a stronger national AVR innovation community.
Useful links
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here: