Building a cyber AI workforce

By JAMIE ABELL on July 15, 2024

Artificial intelligence has impacted cybersecurity through opportunities and challenges. Cybersecurity can be enhanced by using AI tools, and AI needs to be secured and trustworthy as well. In early March, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $530K (DGE 1663184) grant to Towson University’s Center for Interdisciplinary and Innovative Cybersecurity (Cyber4All Center) to lead the development of a cyber AI program of study option for National Security Agency (NSA) Centers of Academic Excellence (NCAE-C) institutions.  

The NSA first designated TU as a CAE for cyber defense education in 2002 and in cyber operations in 2014. With this grant, TU has convened experts working in cyber and AI to develop the knowledge units (KUs) and a program of study in AI in cybersecurity for post-secondary education. Beginning spring 2025, schools across the nation with CAE designations in cyber defense and cyber operations may be able to pilot the program.

“Though AI will likely become foundational to all disciplines, access to AI models and techniques is leading to rapid application of AI to the problem of cybersecurity,” says Sidd Kaza, associate provost and dean of graduate studies at TU. “The Cyber4All Center is poised to lead this effort in addressing emerging threats and creating solutions to challenges in cyber AI. Once completed, the program of study will equip students with knowledge and skills to tackle the evolving cybersecurity landscape.”

The project includes a series of workshops that convened more than 150 cybersecurity and AI experts from government and academia. The first took place at the Cyber4All Center in March; the second in Louisville, Kentucky, in April; and the final will take place in Annapolis, Maryland, in July. The goal of each workshop, led by principal investigators of the grant Blair Taylor, director of the Cyber4All Center; Kaza; and Md Sajidul Islam Sajid, a professor in the Department of Computer & Information Sciences (CIS) is to develop the KUs that will comprise the program of study for secure AI and AI for cybersecurity. Other members of CIS including Mike McGuire, Wasila Lalouani and Ronnie Wang also attended. 

AI is also being treated as a first-class citizen in the development of these KUs. TU CIS doctoral student Paige Zaleppa Flores is working with the team on the research and design of two customized ChatGPT-4o models that behave like a workshop participant and a member of the leadership—giving suggestions on KUs in real time during the interactive workshops. This AI “team member” will help draft the KUs, with the goal that AI is used for developing and updating curricular guidelines of the future.

“I'm excited for this opportunity to help lead the way in building an AI- and cyber-skilled workforce,” says Taylor. “The NSA CAE model has helped schools build cybersecurity programs and is a natural segue to cyber AI programs that will train the next generation of AI professionals to meet the security needs of federal, state, local and tribal governments.”