Strategic Importance of Education in Cybersecurity

Pavel Beňo; Roman Hrmo

doi:10.3991/ijep.v16i5.60763

Authors

Pavel Beňo Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0995-9425
Roman Hrmo DTI University, Dubnica nad Váhom, Slovakia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2458-2706

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v16i5.60763

Keywords:

cyber security, education, SWOT, threats

Abstract

This paper examines the strategic importance of cybersecurity education as a pedagogical and managerial mechanism for strengthening organisational resilience. Responding to the need for practice-orientated engineering pedagogy, the paper formulates a guiding research question: How can role-specific cybersecurity education be selected, justified, and evaluated so that it supports resilient behaviour across organisational levels? The study combines a structured narrative review of cybersecurity education and awareness approaches with a transparent SWOT-based analytical framework. SWOT is used as a managerial self-assessment tool for identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in both the general cybersecurity environment and the human-factor dimension. The paper distinguishes gamification from games, explains the rationale for selecting educational approaches, and proposes operational criteria for translating SWOT findings into training requirements. The contribution is intended for educators, cybersecurity managers, and organisational leaders who design or evaluate cybersecurity awareness programmes in engineering-orientated, technical, and socio-technical environments.

Author Biographies

Pavel Beňo, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia

Pavel Beňo is currently working at Comenius University in Bratislava and at Trnava University in Trnava, has a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Applied Informatics in Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic, in the field of Remote Laboratories, security and Cloud Computing. He is a research assistant and creator of the cloud computing technology for university and REMLABNET purposes. He is also an expert in network security and penetration testing in computer crime prevention. He is the author of many publications in the field of informatics, security and education. For many years he has worked as a teacher with research in pedagogy and didactics of the sciences.

Roman Hrmo, DTI University, Dubnica nad Váhom, Slovakia

Roman Hrmo is a Professor at the Department of didactics of vocational subjects at the DTI University, Slovakia. A leading expert in engineering pedagogy, he serves on the doctoral council for Didactics of Technical Subjects. He has contributed to internationally recognised research and led multiple scientific projects. He holds memberships in key bodies, including the Executive of IGIP, EUR-ACE® Label Committee of ENAEE, and serves as President of the Slovak Monitoring Committee of IGIP.