Background In the era of accelerating Agentic AI, critical infrastructure sectors have become increasingly vulnerable as they are interconnected with multiple internal and external systems. Furthermore, the growing use of the internet for digital education and activities such as gaming and social media has made students a soft target for attackers. Due to the lack of cybersecurity and cyber-risk education, there is a nationwide scarcity of cyber talent. The motivation for this research is threefold: to protect student identities given their significant online activity, to enable cyber literacy among teachers and students in Grades 9–12 to help develop a cyber-aware future workforce, and to build awareness of cyber risks through real-time case studies so students can understand critical infrastructure and the safety considerations associated with it. Methods We developed nine case studies across various domains—transportation, supply chains, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, AI data centers, energy infrastructure, water utilities, and banking and finance. Each case study follows a standard structure that includes a scenario overview, key assets at risk, a threat event, and impact analysis across multiple dimensions, a simplified risk-analysis model suitable for high-school learners, and diagrammatic representations for summarization. Results These realistic use cases across diverse domains provide comprehensive insights into real-world scenarios and recommended best practices. Teachers can use them to demonstrate layered defense, cyber-risk reduction, and cyber-resilience strategies. The case studies can be easily integrated into STEM, technology, and cyber-career-readiness curricula. Conclusion This research provides a scalable, reusable, and pedagogically sound approach to building cyber literacy among high-school students. The case studies across critical-infrastructure domains help students understand the importance of cyber resilience and the interdisciplinary nature of digital risk. The framework can be extended to hands-on labs, simulations, and learning modules, contributing to national efforts to strengthen cybersecurity awareness and workforce readiness.
Vajpayee et al. (Mon,) studied this question.