Chair: John Harris
Every day another cyber threat, data breach, or online crime is highlighted in the news. These incidences impact individuals as well as every type of industry, including banking, retail, insurance, governments, and educational institutions around the world. Over the next three years, the demand for cybersecurity experts will be at an all-time high. The website, Cybersecurityventures.com, predicts “there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity positions by 2021.” This is echoed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which reported that, “Employment of information security analysts is projected to grow 28 percent from 2016 to 2026, much faster than the average for all occupations. Demand for information security analysts is expected to be very high, as these analysts will be needed to create innovative solutions to prevent hackers from stealing critical information or causing problems for computer networks.”
The Cyber Security Administration (CSA) major at St. Francis University is specifically designed to develop the new generation of Information Security specialists. It embraces state of the art digital acumen delivered in a hands-on, real-world format to meet the needs of a variety of students, including online instruction and application. The program is aligned with national cybersecurity professional job performance standards and frameworks, as well as industry needs, and is mapped to federal and national standards, such as the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE). The Cybersecurity program also provides students with the ability to sit for multiple, industry recognized, certification exams while pursuing their degree. Each course is designed to focus on skill validation and includes lab exercises aligned with industry required competencies and cybersecurity competitions. The CSA program at St. Francis University incorporates the necessary flexibility to meet the ever-changing cybersecurity and technology landscape, and prepares you to enter the workforce as a cyber security professional in varying disciplines and specialty areas. Although it is available for any student, it is particularly advantageous for students in Computer Science, MIS, and Business majors who are also interested in information security or infrastructure protection positions in the government, private industry, or health care fields. Students eager to understand how present local, national, and world events and actions in cyber security can impact their future will also benefit from various course offerings within the Cyber Security Administration major.
The Cyber Security Administration program instructs students with the most current materials, topics, case studies and tools available in the field. With a focus in “hands-on” learning, students will use industry leading digital forensic software; have the opportunity to participate in work-study programs and internships at a variety of organizations; prepare to obtain the AccessData Certified Examiner® certification, and become a Digital Forensic Examiner in a wide variety of government agencies and businesses; and, prepare to practice computer forensics, incident response, cybersecurity administration, and ethical hacking/penetration testing. Teaching students to manage and lead, in accordance with laws and regulations, an enterprise information security program that promotes and attains national security, agency, and inter-agency goals is also a primary tenet of the program.
Students receive a comprehensive and customizable education that focuses on both the fundamentals of information systems as well as advanced topics in specialized concentrations such as cyber security, threat assessment, digital forensics, and infrastructure protection.
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