Bachelor of Science in Information Assurance Security - Information Technology Concentration

Information assurance and security professionals design, install, configure, manage, and troubleshoot an organization’s security policies, processes, network, hardware, and software infrastructure. They apply tools and technologies to ensure that the organization is secure. The Bachelors of Science in Information Assurance and Security degree allows undergraduate learners to acquire and apply various processes, tools, technologies, and methods of securing an enterprise; including security policies, social engineering, access control, authentication, perimeter security, disaster recovery and business continuity, risk management, incident response, viruses, malware, spam, encryption, and other infrastructure security techniques that include governance and strategic alignment of IT and business. In addition to information assurance and security expertise, learners in this concentration demonstrate the business, interpersonal, and communication skills required to influence internal decision making and overall organizational effectiveness. Successful graduates of this concentration are prepared to pursue careers as information security consultants, managers, or security administrators.

Outcomes:

• Explain how security can be implemented through network communication protocols and supporting network hardware.
• Demonstrate the ability to incorporate secure practices into the design and development of software programs, database architecture and web-based applications using a security development lifecycle model.
• Describe how the interaction of computer architecture, operating systems, networking components and databases result in the achievement of an organization’s mission.
• Demonstrate the proficiency of both a current programming language and scripting language. Examine and explain the benefits of a Computer Incident Response Team and demonstrate the use of tools to audit, detect and investigate the elements of an attack.
• Recognize, explain and analyze regulations, statutes and laws regarding computer systems security compliance issues.
• Employ techniques for the collection, analyzing and reporting of digital evidence captured from computers, mobile devices and storage systems to support criminal investigations.
• Describe and plan the formation of security polices resulting from a comprehensive risk assessment analysis.
• Explain how an organization’s digital assets are protected by the development of both a Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan.
• Apply and demonstrate critical thinking skills in areas of advanced research through the design of research papers that could benefit the industry.

Degree Requirements

Courses: General Education

ECON210	Principles of Macroeconomics	4.5
ENGL101	Composition and Critical Thinking	4.5
ENGL103	Composition: Writing and Research	4.5
ENGL206	Technical and Professional Writing	4.5
HIST101	Modern American History: 1950 to the 21st Century	4.5
LITR201	Literature: A Reflection of Life	4.5
MATH112	Analytic College Algebra	4.5
MATH203	Applications of Discrete Mathematics	4.5
MATH301	Data Driven Statistics	4.5
PHIL301	Ethics for Professionals	4.5
	or
PHIL306	Ethics for the Information Age	4.5
PSYC102	Introductory Psychology	4.5
	or
SOCL102	Introductory Sociology	4.5
SCI101	Introduction to the Sciences	4.5
SCI103	Lab - Science and Technology	1.5
SCI201	Environmental Science and Sustainability	4.5
SCI203	Lab - Environmental Science and Sustainability	1.5
UNIV104	Academic and Career Success	4.5
	Total Credit Hours:	66

Courses: Core

CSS150	Introduction to Computer Security	4
CSS200	Principles of Network Security	4
CSS250	Security Risk Management	4
CSS260	Scripting with Perl	4
CSS280	Ethical Hacking	4
CSS300	Vulnerability Assessment and Management	4
CSS321	Software Assurance	4
CSS332	Database and Web Vulnerabilities and Security	4
CSS340	Operating System Security	4
CSS350	Computer Forensics I	4
CSS351	Computer Forensics II	4
CSS370	Security Architecture	4
CSS380	Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning	4
CSS410	Cloud Computing, Privacy and Security	4
CSS430	Advanced Research in IAS and IT Management	4
CSS441	Security Compliance	4
CSS450	Security Capstone	4
IT254	Spreadsheet Applications	4
	Total Credit Hours:	72

Courses: Concentration

CS104	Problem Solving Concepts With C++	4
CS146	Introduction to UNIX	4
CS246	Structured Query Language	4
CS250	Fundamentals of Database Systems	4
CS352	Advanced Database Systems	4
IT205	Fundamentals of Networking	4
IT300	Computer Networks and Communications	4
IT340	Client/Server System and Network Administration	4
IT375	IT Management Strategy	4
IT400	Information Technology Architectures	4

One of the following

CS115	Programming With C++	4
IT115	Programming With Java	4
CS116	C# Programming	4

One of the following

CS215	Intermediate C++ Programming	4
IT215	Intermediate Java Programming	4
CS216	Intermediate C# Programming	4
	Total Credit Hours:	48

Total Credit Hours: 186

Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS)

The University curriculum for this program has been certified by the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) for education standards in computer systems security as follows:

NSTISSI-4011

National Training Standard for Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professionals, dated 20 June 1994

CNSSI-4012

National Information Assurance Training Standard for Senior Systems Managers, dated June 2004; Supersedes NSTISSI No. 4012, dated August 1997

CNSSI-4013

National Information Assurance Training Standard For System Administrators (SA), dated March 2004

CNSSI-4014

Information Assurance Training Standard for Information Systems Security Officers, dated April 2004; Supersedes

NSTISSI No. 4014, dated August 1997

CNSSI-4016

National Information Assurance Training Standard For Risk Analysts, dated November 2005

Locations

• Colorado Springs
• Aurora (Denver Area)