Speaker survey - Cybersecurity Essential Training Workshop 2026

Help validate the workshop model.

Thank you for being part of the University of Oklahoma Cybersecurity Essential Training Workshop. We are writing up the workshop as a research paper on how short, hands-on training can help the workforce keep pace with fast-moving cyber threats - and your perspective as a leader in your field would strengthen it.

About 10 minutes

The survey has 8 short sections. It asks which threats matter most for the workforce, where you see preparedness gaps, and your read on our defense-first teaching approach. Results are reported only in aggregate - no names.

Section A

Threat Landscape

For each topic, rate importance for the workforce today and preparedness of the general workforce. Scale: 1 = very low, 5 = very high.

1. Steganography & hidden-data detection

Hiding secret data inside ordinary images, audio, or video, so a normal-looking file can carry a hidden payload past scanners and data-loss tools.

Importance

Preparedness

2. Adversarial attacks on AI / image-recognition systems

Small, often near-invisible changes to an input that make AI models - such as image classifiers - confidently misclassify; a security weakness specific to machine-learning systems.

Importance

Preparedness

3. AI/LLM-powered phishing & social engineering at scale

Phishing and social engineering made faster, cleaner, and more personalized by AI and large language models, including messages that evade traditional email checks.

Importance

Preparedness

4. Deepfakes & synthetic identity

AI-generated voice or video that impersonates real people, and fabricated-but-believable personas - used to bypass human trust in finance, helpdesk, and executive workflows.

Importance

Preparedness

5. Web-application attacks (e.g., SQL injection)

Injecting malicious commands through a web application's input fields to read, alter, or steal data from its database - still among the most common web vulnerabilities.

Importance

Preparedness

6. Evil-twin / rogue Wi-Fi access points

A fake Wi-Fi hotspot that mimics a legitimate one so an attacker can intercept or manipulate a victim's traffic in offices, clinics, or public spaces.

Importance

Preparedness

7. RF, sub-GHz, and NFC / nearby-device attacks

Intercepting, cloning, or spoofing the wireless signals (RF, Bluetooth, NFC) that everyday devices and access cards broadcast at close range.

Importance

Preparedness

8. USB and peripheral-based attacks

Malicious USB devices or cables that impersonate a keyboard or network device to take over a computer in seconds, with no download required.

Importance

Preparedness

9. Quantum risk & post-quantum cryptography readiness

The risk that future quantum computers break today's encryption, including harvest-now-decrypt-later risk, and the migration to post-quantum cryptography now reaching real products.

Importance

Preparedness

10. Account security: credentials, passwords, MFA

Protecting accounts and devices against weak or reused credentials through password managers, multi-factor authentication, and hardware roots of trust.

Importance

Preparedness