Students interested in cyber security can now earn an information-assurance (IA) certificate that will qualify them to work in federal agencies through a new series of courses offered by IST.
The certificate includes a minimum of three courses (9 credits) with additional coursework available. Required are a network security course and a class on the legal/regulatory/ethical environment of security and privacy.
Other elective IA courses focus on wireless networks, database and Web security, and information systems security.
"Security is a major issue, and more and more companies are encouraging research and training in this area," said Chao-Hsien Chu, associate professor in charge of the IA track. "With these courses, students will learn to assess systems' vulnerability, understand how people attack systems and then develop an understanding of how to defend against attacks."
As part of their coursework, students will work in IST's Computer Security Laboratory where they will have first-hand experience with configuring worm attack and defense simulations, intrusion detection, virtual private networks (VPN) and firewalls. The lab has state-of-the-art equipment from Cisco Systems and is supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation and Cisco.
Peng Liu, assistant professor, led the development of the security lab.
The National Security Agency (NSA) has designated Penn State as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. Students who complete the curriculum will earn a certificate of National Training Standard for Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professionals.
The Information Assurance theme track is offered only at University Park.
