Cybersecurity Concentration

Students will be introduced to networking technology and the integral part it plays in business and society. Organizations expect the communication in information systems will be reliable, effective, and secure. Topics include network protocols, services, and topologies, information security, high-speed LAN/WAN topologies, client-server technology, security vulnerabilities, network troubleshooting Students will gain factual, conceptual, and applied knowledge regarding network communications, security, technology evolution, infrastructure components, management functions, business processes, and design issues.

This course is a thorough review of the foundational protocols used on the Internet and modern enterprise networks. With a focus on protocols aligned with the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and OSI models, students will explore the development and structure of protocols, their role in data communications, and integration within network-based applications. Students will engage in hands-on activities aimed at protocol analysis, network troubleshooting, and protocol-related security concerns.

This course provides an introduction to computer and data network security. Students will examine the rationale and necessity for securing computer systems and data networks, as well as methodologies for implementing security, security policies, best current practices, testing security, and incident response.

Students will be introduced to the foundational technologies and security principles of web-based applications. This includes communication protocols, data formatting standards, client and server-side scripting, databases programming, and interactions within a tiered-application architecture. Students will gain a perspective on the importance of web applications in the modern enterprise with a focus on security threats, common vulnerabilities, and the practical application of security controls to mitigate those risks.

Students will gain a global and comprehensive understanding of information assurance. We will discuss international information assurance issues, information assurance models, security architectures, risk assessment, incident response, cryptography, government and business guidelines and criteria, compliance, audits, business continuity, and disaster recovery. We will examine the inter-relationships between these topics and the goal of achieving a balance between information assurance and systems performance.

This course will introduce students to operating system concepts and other forms of systems software. Students will learn about standard operating systems functional components such as memory, process/thread, file system, input/output, storage and device management. Additional topics include data representation, imaging, virtualization, and the history/future of systems software. Hands-on experiential learning will be used to reinforce concepts.