Practice-Oriented Smartphone Security Exercises for Developing Cybersecurity Mindset in High School Students

Advancements in technology and the increase in Internet usage through mobile devices have led to greater visibility of organizations and individuals to cybercrimes. Teenagers being easy targets of these cybercrimes, there is a need to educate them on cybersecurity trends since training students on existing cyberattacks is viewed as a powerful tool to teach cybersecurity. We present a pedagogical approach to train students to identify new threats and respond to mitigate them. This is accomplished through observatory, experiential, and real-life practice-oriented cybersecurity exercises. Seven malicious android applications targeting malware class and phishing, namely Email-Lite-Scare, Shop-Shock-Struck, CyberSafe Practices, Play-Read-Disrupt, Fish-A-Phish, Chat-Phish, and Spy-The-Trojan, have been developed. Psychological learning is emphasized in this approach by exercising the application extensively. The underlying goals of this work are to develop a security mindset, spread awareness on threats associated with smartphone/tablet usage, and to inculcate interest in cybersecurity careers among high school students.