Cybersecurity in Organizational Practice

Cybersecurity in Organizational Practice

To register, please apply for this seminar through the central seminar assignment system.

We are proud to announce that the 2025 version of this seminar was selected as Busy-Beaver runner-up, and hence voted as of the three best seminars by the student council!

Content

In this seminar, we will learn how cybersecurity is practically implemented in organizations (enterprises, public agencies, NGOs, etc.) and discuss why academic cybersecurity concepts are often not followed in practice. We will read and discuss papers on cybersecurity in organizations, frequently utilizing human-centered research methods such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, and case studies.

We will read various recent scientific publications on cybersecurity in organizational practice and foundational papers, some of which have been around for over two decades. We will discuss those papers in the seminar based on presentations by student teams. Throughout the seminar, we will reflect upon our own (current and future) experience with cybersecurity in organizational practice. We will learn to negotiate cybersecurity strategies with other stakeholders in our future professions.

Topics might include 

• Organizational Security Research Methods, 
• Regulations, Norms, and Frameworks, 
• Various Roles in Organizational Security,
• Human-Centered Security,
• Economics of Information Security,
• Organizational (Security) Leadership, Change Management, Communication,
• Secure Software Development in Organizations, and
• How to Find and Read Scientific Papers.

 

Time & Location

The seminar will take place on Tuesdays from 10:15 to 11:45. There will be irregular seminar meetings, where there will be lecture-style teaching, group discussions, presentations, etc. The exact schedule will be discussed at the seminar start. As the grading will happen during these sessions you can only sign up if you are available on all Tuesdays in the semester.
The kick-off session will take place on October 13th at 10:15 in TBA.

Location: TBA

 

Tasks & Grading

• Grading will be based on (group) presentations, discussion participation, and further hand-ins.
• Regular attendance is required to pass the seminar.

 

Registration & Prerequisites

All students must register using the central seminar assignment system. There are no formal prerequisites for this course. However, to succeed in this seminar, you should consider the following:

• You should be interested in perfecting your presentation skills. Throughout the seminar, you will give multiple (smaller) presentations, and we expect you to progress in your skills over time.
• You should be interested in learning to read and understand a variety of research papers, their methods, and their limitations, and you should be willing to discuss this.
• You should be interested in questioning your position and approach to cybersecurity and able to consider the perspectives of various organizational stakeholders.

• You must be interested in interdisciplinary perspectives on cybersecurity, expanding the mathematical and engineering approach to a more human-centered perspective.