A Comprehensive Undergraduate Information Assurance Program

Abstract

This paper describes the experience of our institution in creating a comprehensive undergraduate information assurance (IA) program. An interdisciplinary approach was undertaken in order to include a larger portion of the student body and faculty and thus influence a broader audience. The program includes a wide variety of mutually supporting information assurance activities including a research center, coursework, an information warfare laboratory, a cyber defense exercise, an outreach program, conferences, trips, summer internships, a guest speaker program, a National Security Agency Liaison program, summer student internships, faculty sabbaticals and a student information warfare club. This paper organizes discussion of these activities into the student experience, building faculty expertise, and organizational support. The catalyst for these activities has been the formation of the Military Academy's dedicated information assurance research center, the Information Technology and Operations Center (ITOC), and the continuing support from and interaction with the National Security Agency. The primary goal of this paper is to provide a descriptive resource to educators who wish to implement an undergraduate or graduate level information assurance program. It is our sincere hope to inspire and aid others in starting similar programs.

Full-spectrum information security education

“…This program encompasses six core modules: The courses "Fundamentals of Security Engineering", "Risk Analysis / Certification and Accreditation", "Applied Computer Cryptography", "Legal Impacts of Computer Security Solutions", "Applied Network Security", and a module "Security Engineering Internship". Much of the same course topics are also present in the undergraduate information assurance program at ITOC, United States Military Academy, West Point as described in Conti et al [7] and in other CoE accredited undergraduate programs in the U.S. However, Conti et al also describes to importance of information security integration throughout the curriculum, which cannot be constrained solely to specialized courses.…”

A method for incorporating usable security into computer security courses

“…The reading list for Massachusetts Institute of Technology's open courseware includes papers on Usable Security. In a comprehensive undergraduate information assurance program described in [17], student teams from undergraduate institutions set up networks and try to secure them from attacks conducted by a team from the National Security Agency and the 1 st Information Operations Command. While students learn about protecting national infrastructure from realistic attacks, the program could be augmented to include possible attacks against civilian systems by exploiting human factors.…”

Educating Students to Create Trustworthy Systems

“…The fact that we don't understand how security arises from users' interactions with systems is a major problem. 9 Part of this gap arises from issues in measurement and focus. Traditionally, the CS and CE approaches to information assurance have been concerned with verifying system requirements.…”