PETE-S – Penetration Testing & Embedded Security in Depth

The growing shortage of specialists in the fields of penetration testing and embedded security brings new challenges and perspectives to teaching, as experts in these fields are urgently needed in industry/business. Due to the continued increase in networking through the IoT, there is no end in sight to this trend. All companies - across all industries (even those whose main field of activity is not IT) - are now confronted with new dangers and need experts to meet the resulting challenges. One of the consequences of this is that IT security companies have too few specialists to cope with the order situation. Large companies that have set up their own pentesting departments face the same problem.

PETE-S will now counteract this shortage of skilled workers in the long term, as networking and digitalisation will continue to increase. PETE-S will work closely with the business community to address these trends and the associated requirements. The two planned specialisations will be implemented with the help of continuous round tables and feedback sessions. Not only traditional IT security companies whose main focus is pentesting are and will be involved, but also companies that "only" have an IT (security) department. Companies focussing on embedded or IoT development are also part of this process. In a first round of surveys, the requirements for graduates are defined; this takes place in the form of round tables with the selected companies. The implementation in teaching is then planned by adapting existing courses or designing new ones - the survey of any necessary further training for lecturers and the survey of material requirements are also part of the first phase. The first discussions on this were already held as part of the application process. In the second year of the project, the first teaching content will already be taught and feedback will be obtained from students and lecturers. The Penetration Testing Lab will be set up at the same time. As ELVIS has already shown - more than expected - the practice-orientated teaching is of immense value for the motivation of the students: the theory learned here is also tested in practice in their free time - away from compulsory courses. The establishment of the Pentesting Lab is also supported by the companies in an advisory capacity.

This results in 3 unique selling points for the Hochschule Campus Wien - to date, no other university of applied sciences in Austria offers the specialisations

• "IoT/Embedded Security" and
• "Penetration Testing" and no other university of applied sciences has a dedicated
• penetration testing lab.