June 11, 2025
At the end of May 2025, Lena Schramm, a graduate of the double master's program at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA) and the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech), presented the results of her research work on cybersecurity skills at the 62nd ACM SIGMIS Computers and People Research (CPR) 2025 conference in Waco, Texas. The annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is one of the most important scientific forums for topics relating to the interface between people, organizations and IT.
Lena Schramm researched the topic of cybersecurity and the human factor in a team with Professors Dr. Andreas P. Schmidt (HKA), Raymund Lin and Hsiao-Lan Wei (Taiwan Tech). In her paper "Beyond Technical Training: A Cybersecurity Skills Framework for Non-Professionals", she presented a newly developed Cybersecurity Skills Assessment Framework that is specifically geared towards non-technical employees.
Her work focused on two questions:
What skills are critical for employees to prevent and defend against cyberattacks?
How can a structured framework be developed to measure and specifically promote these skills?
In an era of increasing AI-based threats - from deepfakes and automated social engineering attacks to geopolitically motivated attacks - the human factors in IT security are increasingly coming into focus.
Based on 16 qualitative interviews with cybersecurity experts, Lena Schramm identified five technical ("hard skills") and six social ("soft skills") key competencies that are crucial for a secure digital working environment.
The Cybersecurity Skills Assessment Framework (CSAF) presented offers companies and institutions a structured approach to identifying and developing the necessary technical and social skills in a targeted manner. Particular emphasis was placed on the role of soft skills such as communication skills, a sense of responsibility and empathy as essential building blocks of a secure digital workplace. The framework presented provides organizations and authorities with a sound basis for identifying important skills and developing targeted training and awareness measures. The aim is to empower employees to actively contribute to cyber security as a "human firewall".
The work presented is part of Lena Schramm's master's thesis, in which she compared the security behavior of employees in Taiwan and Germany. The thesis was carried out as part of HKA's double master's program together with Taiwan Tech and was also jointly supervised by professors from both institutions - an example of active international cooperation and intercultural research experience.
"I am very grateful that the program gave me this opportunity - I was able to benefit enormously both professionally and personally during this time," says Lena Schramm.
We are proud that the HKA's double master's program not only enables students to gain international perspectives and promotes intercultural exchange, but also opens doors to global research networks for young talents. Participation in the conference was supported by HKA's International Office through internationalization funds provided by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg.
