NSA/DHS Certifies SIS Security Curriculum

 
     
 

CNNS logoThe University of Pittsburgh has again earned designation from the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE). This re-designation affirms the contributions made by the School of Information Sciences’ security curriculum to the field of Information Assurance Education. A ceremony recognizing the CAEIAEs was held on June 5 as part of the annual conference of the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education. Ronald L. Larsen (Dean) and James Joshi (lead faculty for the SAIS track) were present at the designation ceremony in Boston.

The Security Assured Information Systems (SAIS) tracks of study, offered in the graduate programs in both Information Science and Telecommunications, are key to the designation as a Center. The SAIS tracks focus on the design and development of secure networked information systems; the deployment, management and maintenance of networks, systems and IT infrastructures; and the evaluation and certification of the security of systems and software. The curriculum is certified by the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) as meeting all five of the national standards for Information Assurance (IA) education. Currently, there are only 12 institutions that have all five certifications.

The (CAEIAE) program seeks to promote university-level instruction and research in securing networks and information systems, or information assurance (IA). To earn the prestigious CAEIAE designation, an institution undergoes a stringent review of its contributions to IA education and research covering such critical items as funded research projects, IA focused curriculum, and the quantity and quality of published research work. The designation as a Center validates the efforts of Pitt and SIS to provide a superior education in Information Assurance, which is critical to preparing the workforce to defend critical technological infrastructure here in the US. 

 

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