CRIM.5750 Contemporary Security Studies (3cr)
This course examines the complex nature of key domestic and international security threats and responses. Topics include terrorism and insurgency, transnational organized crime, WMD proliferation, cyber-security, intelligence, national and homeland security strategies, critical infrastructure protection, and theories of international security.
CRIM.5780 Intelligence Analysis Policy and Practice (3cr)
Students will examine the tradecraft of intelligence collection and analysis from various perspectives. Topics will include strategies, tactics, legal and ethical implications, sources, means, methods, limitations, covert action, methods of analysis, and case studies of prominent intelligence successes and failures in the last half century.
Requirements:
CSCE Graduate Restrictions
CRIM.5910 Research Design (3cr)
Research design is a graduate-level introduction to methodology as used in criminology/criminal justice. The course surveys the research design enterprise and covers a host of issues on the measurement and collection of data, and other procedures that influence whether a research study will lead the investigator to scientifically rigorous information. This course explains various strategies for devising social science studies, compares the relative benefits of various designs, and identifies the tools necessary to conduct studies that will yield data worthy of analysis and interpretation. This material will be valuable for students who will conduct research and administrators who must evaluate the research of others.
Requirements:
CSCE Graduate Restrictions
CRIM.6580 Issues in Computer Crime and Cyber Security (3cr)
This course will examine the history and evolving nature of the relationship between technology, crime, and security, with a particular focus on legitimate and illegitimate Internet commerce, and cyber criminal methodologies and techniques. We will study major issues in cyber security including criminal and state-sponsored hacking; data, intellectual property, and identity theft; financial and personal data security; cyber-terrorism; tools and methods used to exploit computer networks, and strategies to protect against them; and new and emerging technologies. This course will be taught specifically for non-computer science majors, although students with computer science backgrounds are welcome for the experiences that they can bring to the class discussions.
Requirements:
CSCE Graduate Restrictions
CRIM.6680 Scientific & Technological Dimensions of National Security (3cr)
In this required course for the MS in Security Studies program, students will take this course to learn all about the efforts in the public and private sector to design new sensors, scanner, and the general role of science and technology in homeland and national security.
Requirements:
CSCE Graduate Restrictions
CRIM.7100 Advanced Research in Terrorism (3cr)
This course focuses on describing and understanding how research and evidence-based analysis helps us to understand, explain and predict changes in terrorist behavior. The course makes use of case studies to illustrate quantitative and qualitative research methods, and to approach research questions on terrorism from multiple levels of analysis. The course will also examine successful examples of interdisciplinary research and will help students navigate the pathway from theoretically informed research on terrorism to policy and practitioner-relevant counter-terrorism.
Requirements:
PhD Students only, or Instructor Permission.
MSIT.5110 Network and Systems Administration (3cr)
This course introduces the concepts and techniques of systems and network administration. The course covers topics in a wide range from host management, network management, host and network security to automating system administration. In this course learners will be installing and configuring various popular network based services in a Linux environment.
MSIT.5140 Systems Security and Auditing (3cr)
This course examines the strategies for deploying and auditing secure systems. IT auditors primarily study computer systems and networks form the point of view of examining the effectiveness of their technical and procedural controls to minimize risks. Risk analysis and the implementation of corresponding best practice control objectives will be studied. The material will include methodologies that help auditors to: Discover what's really going on at a point in time; Find out about potential problems, before it's too late to fix them; Evaluate business situations objectively; Make informed, if difficult decisions; Implement corrective actions, changes and improvements where needed.
MSIT.5190 Virtual Systems (3cr)
This course will investigate the current state of virtualization in computing systems. Virtualization at both the hardware and software levels will be examined, with emphasis on the hypervisor configurations of systems such as Vmware, Zen and Hyper-V. The features and limitations of virtual environments will be considered, along with several case studies used to demonstrate the configuration and management of such systems. Para-virtualized software components will be analyzed and their pros and cons discussed. Processor and peripheral support for virtualization will also be examined, with a focus on emerging hardware features and the future of virtualization.
MSIT.5410 Information Security, Privacy and Regulatory Compliance (3cr)
This course focuses on enterprise-level information security, privacy and regulatory compliance through study of the rapidly emerging Information Governance (IG) discipline which is applied to electronic documents, records management and output of information organization-wide. The key principles of IG will be examined including the security, privacy and compliance of corporate e-documents/records as well as email, social media, instant messaging, cloud computing, and mobile computing. The student will learn how IG leverages existing information technologies to enforce policies, procedures and controls to manage information risk in compliance with legal and litigation demands, external regulatory requirements, and internal governance objectives.
MSIT.5430 Intrusion Detection Systems (3cr)
Intrusion Detection Systems is a survey of the hardware and software techniques that are applied to the detection, identification, classification and remediation of compromised information systems. From this introduction to intrusion detection systems, students will develop a solid foundation for understanding IDS and how they function. This course will give students a background in the technology of detection network attacks. It will introduce all the concepts and procedures used for IDS (intrusion Detection Systems) and IPS (intrusion Prevention Systems). Students will have hands-on experience with implementing and configuring software and hardware based IDS in a network infrastructure. This course is designed with a network administrator in mind.
MSIT.5450 Designing and Building a Cybersecurity Program (3cr)
This course focuses on best practices for designing and building a comprehensive Cybersecurity Program based on the NIST Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity ("The Framework"). The Framework was issued on February 12, 2014, as directed by President Obama in Executive Order 13636. This framework provides guidance for reducing cybersecurity risk for organizations, and this course will examine its basic tenets of: "Cybersecurity Fundamentals", techniques applied to "Building a Controls Factory", "Cybersecurity Programs" "Establishing Cybersecurity Centers of Expertise" and "The Cybersecurity Program Implementation Roadmap".
MSIT.5460 Introduction to Malware Analysis (3cr)
This course introduces the use of reverse engineering techniques to find and analyze the behavior of malware in binary form. The topics include basic static analysis, basic dynamic analysis, advanced static analysis, advanced dynamic analysis, shell code analysis, malware behavior and anti-reverse engineering. To take this course, students shall have experience in the C programming language. Knowledge of assembly language is preferred although not necessary since the course will have a crash mini-course in X86 disassembly covering assembly language. The students will do the assignments and labs on either their own computers or in a virtual lab environment. Students must already have completed a bachelor's degree in a related discipline and must meet all undergraduate prerequisite requirements specified for graduate IT programs to enroll in this course and in a graduate career.
MSIT.5470 Protecting against Ransomware Attacks (3cr)
This course focuses on the best approach for organizations to develop a ransomware protection strategy, plan / program and operational practices to defend against damaging ransomware attacks. The class includes an overview of recent ransomware attacks, the top trends of today's ransomware variants, a model for describing common tactics and techniques used by ransomware gangs (based on the MIRE ATT&CK framework, tools and playbooks used by the top ransomware families. The class discusses common ransomware controls models (NIST Risk Management Framework and Cybersecurity Framework), ransomware best practices (NIST SP1800 Ransomware Practice Guides and CISA MS-ISAC Ransomware Guide), as well as training and workshops based on Red Team, Blue Team and Purple Team Exercises.
Requirements:
Students must already have completed a bachelor's degree in a related discipline to enroll in this course and in a graduate career.
MSIT.5600 Network Infrastructures (3cr)
This course provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts in the design and implementation of computer communication networks, their protocols, and applications. Topics to be covered include: an overview of network architectures, applications, network programming interfaces (e.g. sockets) , transport, congestion, routing, and data link protocols, addressing, local area networks, network management, and emerging network technologies. Cannot be used toward MS or D.Sc. in Computer Science.
MSIT.5610 Computer Network Security (3cr)
This course is aimed to provide students with a solid understanding of key concepts of computer network security and practical solutions to network security threats. Topics to be covered include common network security attacks, basic security models, data encryption algorithms, public-key cryptography and key management, data authentication, network security protocols in practice, wireless network security, network perimeter security and firewall technology, the art of anti-malicious software, and the art of intrusion detection. Pre-Req: BS in IT or Equivalent. Cannot be used toward MS or D.Sc. in Computer Science.
MSIT.5620 Digital Forensics (3cr)
Identifying, preserving and extracting electronic evidence. Students learn how to examine and recover data from operating systems, core forensic procedures for any operating or file system, understanding technical issues in acquiring computer evidence and how to conduct forensically sound examinations to preserve evidence for admission and use in legal proceedings.
MSIT.5630 Secure Mobile Networks (3cr)
This course covers principles and practices of wireless networks, including cellular networks, wireless LANs, ad hoc mesh networks, and sensor networks. The potential attacks against these wireless networks and the security mechanisms to defend these networks will be discussed. Topics to be covered include cellular network architecture, wide-area mobile services, wireless LANs and MACs, introduction to emerging wireless networks, survey of malicious behaviors in wireless networks, securing wireless WANs and LANs, securing wireless routing, securing mobile applications, wireless intrusion detection and prevention, challenges in securing next-generation wireless networks, and privacy issues in wireless networks.
MSIT.5650 Cloud Computing (3cr)
This course starts with an overview of modern distributed models, exposing the design principles, systems architecture, and innovative applications of parallel, distributed, and cloud computing systems. The course will focus on the creation and maintenance of high-performance, scalable, reliable systems, providing comprehensive coverage of distributed and cloud computing, including: Facilitating management, debugging, migration, and disaster recovery through virtualization. Clustered systems for research or ecommerce applications. Designing systems as web services. Principles of cloud computing using examples from open-source and commercial applications.
MSIT.5660 Advanced Cloud Computing (3cr)
This course is a continuation of the 94.565 Cloud Computing course and will cover in further detail such topics as Cloud Based Storage, Virtualization, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), High Availability, Scaling, and Mobile Devices. The course will also study the role of Open Source cloud software such as Hadoop, OpenStack and others. Similar to the first course where hands-on projects included the use of Cloud Services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Apps and App Engine, and Windows Azure, this course will continue with those services and add others such as Rackspace and VMware. Current articles and publications in this fast moving field of Cloud Computing will also be followed.
Requirements:
MSIT.5650 Cloud Computing, or Permission of the Instructor.