Master of Science in Cybersecurity: Curriculum

Explore the following foundational concepts and processes for information security in cyberspace: incident response, reporting, containment, and restoration of the information infrastructure.

Students will develop proficiency in several prominent scripting/programming languages in the context of offensive/defensive cybersecurity operations and the automation of security-focused tasks.

Cloud infrastructure should be designed and implemented with security in mind. This course examines methodologies and best practices used to design and implement secure cloud infrastructure. Students will develop the skills necessary to address the security of various cloud offerings in the larger context of network/IT infrastructure as a whole.

Major critical infrastructure protection issues, technologies, and approaches as they relate to telecommunications, energy, banking and finance, transportation, supply chains, ICS/OT, and emergency services.

Students will learn proactive threat hunting and defense technologies and techniques to combat intrusions by malicious actors including advanced persistent threats (APTs). This course will prepare students for blue team functions in a security operations center (SOC).

Students will learn best practices for designing and implementing network infrastructure and supporting software for robust information security. Students will identify technologies and configurations that enhance the prevention and detection of attacks, while simultaneously allowing for effective response. This includes understanding appropriate security monitoring needs and how to support a Security Operations Center (SOC).

This course examines tools and techniques used in computer forensic investigations ranging in type from business email compromise to insider threats and ransomware.

Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

Data breaches are a grave concern for today’s organizations. There is a need for experts to identify when an unlawful intrusion has occurred and what data may have been exposed or exfiltrated. This course focuses on using network based information sources to help answer those questions.

Prerequisite: permission of instructor

This practicum course is a graduate level course in the specialized area of malware analysis that is designed to give students supervised practical application of previously or concurrent studied theory in malware mitigation and analysis. This course uses knowledge and methods presented in earlier courses as theory or examples in real-live practical examples. Students will learn the nuances of finding and mitigating malware which will be particularly well suited to mitigating targeted attacks. The student will use specialized malware analysis tools and environments along with a deep understanding of the technical methods of malicious codes (malcode). We will also highlight specific methods to gain speed in an analysis and how enterprise-wide mitigation methods may be employed.

Prerequisite: CYB 689

Perform studies of attack and defense methods in the cyber environment and learn about the intricacies of vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, and system exploitation.

Prerequisites: CYB 605, CYB 610, CYB 633 and CYB 673, or permission of instructor

Anonymity, anti-forensics, OSINT, and operational security techniques and tools.

Prerequisite: CYB 605, CYB 610, CYB 633, and CYB 673, or permission of instructor.

This practicum course is a graduate level course in the specialized area of malware analysis that is designed to give students supervised practical application of previously or concurrent studied theory in malware mitigation and analysis. This course uses knowledge and methods presented in earlier courses as theory or examples in real-live practical examples. Students will learn the nuances of finding and mitigating malware which will be particularly well suited to mitigating targeted attacks. The student will use specialized malware analysis tools and environments along with a deep understanding of the technical methods of malicious codes (malcode). We will also highlight specific methods to gain speed in an analysis and how enterprise-wide mitigation methods may be employed.

Prerequisite: CYB 689

Study the foundations of financial crime and compliance management. Focus on thematic areas: Management, economic crime, technology, analytics, and research skills.

The challenges of management in an increasingly technological environment. The history and evolutionary development of counter fraud technology. The integration of fraud management in the development of new corporate products or instruments. Anticipating new forms of frauds based on the application of new and projected technologies.

This course is designed to familiarize students with innovative analytic approaches used to perform complex fraud analysis. Topics include: link analysis, data mining, advanced statistical tools, case management systems, and expert system approaches such as neural network early-warning software.

Students will use the principles and skills learned in the program during a large-scale real-world cyber incident scenario encompassing offensive, defensive, and post-mortem analysis skills. Students will develop, execute, and report on an incident plan of their design.