Cybersecurity Awareness Research for College Students

Overview

This project began as a standard ENG 111 research assignment and evolved into a professional cybersecurity awareness and policy proposal focused on protecting college students from modern cyber threats. The final deliverable is a researched open letter addressed to the NOVA IT Department and Office of Student Affairs, advocating for institutional cybersecurity changes based on peer-reviewed research and real-world threat trends. Rather than treating the assignment as purely academic, I approached it as a cybersecurity research case study centered on student safety, digital literacy, and long-term risk reduction.

Problem Statement

College students are among the most targeted demographics for cybercrime due to:

Weak or reused passwords
Poor phishing detection skills
Unsafe public Wi-Fi usage
High reliance on online academic and financial platforms
Lack of required cybersecurity education

These vulnerabilities frequently lead to:

Identity theft
Financial fraud
Compromised academic accounts
Long-term credit and financial aid damage

Research shows that many students overestimate their technical ability while still failing to recognize basic cyber threats (Hobbs).

Research & Evidence

This project is supported by credible academic and industry sources, including:

Armas et al. - Building a Cybersecurity Culture in Higher Education
- Demonstrates how early, required cybersecurity education significantly reduces campus-wide incidents.
Hobbs - Cybersecurity Awareness in Higher Education
- Identifies major knowledge gaps between perceived and actual student cybersecurity competence.
National Cybersecurity Alliance
- Provides real-world data on student targeting patterns and practical prevention strategies.

All sources are cited using MLA format and documented in a formal Works Cited page.

Proposed Solutions

1. Mandatory Cybersecurity Awareness Course

A required first-semester course (similar to SDV 100) covering:

Phishing and scam identification
Strong password practices
Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Device and account security
Safe network usage

Research indicates that early training produces long-term secure habits and reduces incident frequency.

2. Continuous Cybersecurity Awareness Initiatives

Monthly newsletters
Scam and phishing alerts
Security update reminders
Interactive workshops

These initiatives reinforce cybersecurity as a shared responsibility, not solely an IT department task.

Skills Demonstrated

Cybersecurity research and analysis
Policy proposal writing
Audience-focused technical communication
Academic research synthesis
MLA documentation and citation
Translating academic work into real-world cybersecurity advocacy

Why This Project Matters

This project demonstrates my ability to:

Convert academic coursework into practical cybersecurity initiatives
Advocate for institutional security improvements
Communicate cybersecurity risks to non-technical decision makers
Apply research skills to real-world IT and cybersecurity challenges

It reflects my broader goal of working in IT and Cybersecurity roles focused on prevention, awareness, and risk reduction.

Full Research Paper (Open Letter)

Because this platform does not support embedded document previews, the full researched open letter is available via Google Docs for easy viewing. For the complete paper - including the problem analysis, research integration, proposed solutions, and MLA Works Cited - view the document below: Improving Cybersecurity Awareness for NOVA Students (Full Paper): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LbBKPixybIiEg_OfjAwxt4YhC_H0rOaGhyK59gycFC4/edit?usp=sharing This document includes:

Full researched open letter addressed to NOVA administration
Integrated peer-reviewed academic sources
Real-world cybersecurity risk analysis for college students
Actionable policy and training recommendations
MLA-formatted in-text citations and Works Cited

Outcome

Completed a 3-4 page researched open letter meeting formal academic and professional standards
Published the project publicly on GitHub with full structure, sources, and documentation
Shared findings through LinkedIn to promote cybersecurity awareness beyond the classroom

Next steps: This work could be expanded into:

Campus security awareness campaigns
Student cybersecurity training modules
Policy proposals for other higher-education institutions

Related projects

Sentilops – Financial Intelligence Automation System

Built an AI-assisted finance-intelligence pipeline that ingests newsletters and business content, extracts structured signals, routes actions, stores knowledge, and alerts on relevant financial and cash-flow insights.

Read case study

NOVA CASHFLOW – Financial Literacy Community Automation

Built community, research, newsletter, and financial-intelligence workflows supporting NOVA CASHFLOW's practical financial-literacy mission for students and young professionals.

Read case study

Finance + Real Estate Intelligence Automation Suite

A reusable automation architecture for extracting, classifying, storing, and routing finance and real-estate intelligence from newsletters, research sources, and business content.

Read case study

SentinelOps – AI-Assisted Phishing Investigation Platform

Built a Python-based phishing investigation platform that automates webpage evidence collection, IOC extraction, phishing risk scoring, and analyst-ready reporting using Playwright, OpenRouter, and SQLite.

Read case study View project

SmishGuard – USPS Smishing Detection & IOC Extraction

Analyzed a real-world USPS SMS phishing campaign and developed a Python-based CLI tool to automate smishing triage, extract indicators of compromise (IOCs), generate incident response documentation, and create detection rules.

Read case study View project

Enterprise Help Desk Lab – osTicket on Microsoft Azure

Deployed and secured a cloud-hosted enterprise help desk system in Microsoft Azure using Ubuntu, Apache, MySQL, and osTicket. Implemented SLA tiers, department-based routing, structured triage workflows, and simulated enterprise IT operations.

Read case study View project

CupidSecure – AI-Powered Romance Scam Detection

Built an end-to-end AI security platform that analyzes dating conversations for romance-scam patterns, scores financial risk, and provides a training simulator and threat dashboard — winner of 1st Place in the Blockchain, Cyber & Security track at HackFax × PatriotHacks 2026.

Read case study View project

LinkedIn Content Automation Engine (Make.com, OpenRouter, Gamma AI)

Built an end-to-end LinkedIn content engine that turns TLDR newsletters into SOC-focused posts with AI-generated Gamma slide decks, fully automated and scheduled in Make.com.

Read case study View project

SOAR + EDR Automated Incident Response (LimaCharlie, Tines, Slack, HTML Email)

Developed a fully automated detection-to-isolation workflow: LimaCharlie detects suspicious activity, Tines generates Slack and email alerts, collects analyst approval, and isolates the endpoint via API—confirming success in Slack.

Read case study View project

LCPS Gift Card Phishing Incident Analysis (BEC Investigation)

Investigated and documented a real-world Business Email Compromise (BEC) phishing attempt targeting an LCPS email account. Performed email header forensics, social engineering analysis, framework mapping, and produced a formal incident report and visual case-study poster.

Read case study View project

Active Directory 2.0: SIEM + SOAR Auto-Response (Splunk, Slack, Shuffle)

Built an end-to-end detection-to-response pipeline: Splunk detects unauthorized successful RDP logins, Shuffle collects analyst approval by email, then disables the domain account in AD via LDAP and confirms in Slack.

Read case study View project

Cloud SOC Honeypot: Microsoft Sentinel Attack Map (Azure)

Built a cloud-based SOC lab: deployed a Windows honeypot VM in Azure, captured 44,000+ brute-force attempts, forwarded logs to Log Analytics, integrated with Microsoft Sentinel, enriched attacker IPs with GeoIP, and visualized global attack sources on a live map.

Read case study View project

Windows Recovery Project: BIOS Boot Failure (Error 1962)

Troubleshot and restored a compromised Windows desktop that failed with BIOS Error 1962: 'No Operating System Found.' Adjusted BIOS boot configuration, attempted DISM/SFC repairs, then performed a clean OS reinstall via bootable USB to recover full functionality.

Read case study View project

IntelliPath AI: Personalized Learning Through AI-Driven Video Summaries

Developing an AI-powered platform that transforms YouTube videos into structured summaries, actionable notes, and personalized learning paths. Features include transcript analysis, AI assistant chat, sidebar navigation with history/folders, payment integration, and cloud-based persistence.

Read case study View project

Astray: Lost Kingdoms (Python Pixel RPG)

Building a 16-bit RPG in Python using Pygame, featuring interactive menus, real-time cutscenes, object-oriented game logic, and a story-driven quest system. Demonstrates software development skills, creativity, and iterative project management.

Read case study View project