Unit 8 – Lesson 1 – “Cybersecurity Diplomacy in Action”
12 Days
This lesson explores how cybersecurity is both a deeply technical and a deeply political space. The cybersecurity technology that is the focus of this unit is end to end encryption. The political issue is encryption backdoors (also known as The Cryptowars), which are methods of getting around encryption or authentication in a system. Students learn about the National Security Council (NSC) and explore competing social values and ideologies that are forces in The Cryptowars. Building on this foundation, students then dive into a deeper understanding of the values and tensions by participating in a simulation where they play different roles in the National Security Council tasked with making a recommendation to the President of the United States. A goal of the simulation is to reveal how cybersecurity practices are highly complex and variable causing tensions between what ethical duties are, to whom the ethical concern should be considered, and whose interests should be invested in protecting. The lesson ends by engaging students in analyzing the relationship between ethics and laws and reflecting on their own personal values and beliefs.