Introduction
While the demand for information security professionals is increasing according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008–2018 projections, students' interest in information technology (IT) disciplines has been steadily declining since 2000 [1] and enrollments in IT academic programs have continued to decline sharply [2]. As the new global economy highly depends on information systems, it is critical for U.S. companies to have access to a talented pool of individuals who are skilled in confronting threats to information security, responding to emergencies, protecting vital IT assets, and helping to create policies that ensure the privacy of individuals. Information security is a dynamic field as security threats are becoming complex and originate from very diverse sources. Therefore, the information security fields, particularly ones related to homeland security can benefit from a diverse workforce. However, recent studies assert that minorities and particularly women constitute a very small percentage of IT security workforce. Clearly, educational pipeline is also not promising in all IT disciplines. Pedagogical factors that inhibit student interest in information security fields have been extensively discussed in the literature [3]–[7]. Among them, students consistently cite inadequate laboratories, limited opportunities for professional development and growth and a lack of exciting and meaningful tasks [7]. We need innovative approaches to better recruit, retain, and engage students in the information security fields. In this paper, we present how virtual computing technologies and collaborative learning can be integrated in order to achieve some of these goals.