It’s stressful for consumers to learn about technology pickpockets who steal sensitive online information, wreaking havoc for government agencies, insurance companies, and department store chains. We can’t conjure an invisible shield to protect us, but on our own campus is a regional model for promoting excellence in information security education, assisting businesses, government agencies, education institutions and industry in their information security needs.
It is The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Information Security Center (InfoSec Center). The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have designated it a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cybersecurity through academic year 2021. It is one of only two national centers in the State of Tennessee with this designation at the undergraduate level.
InfoSec Center is part of the Department of Computer Science, and works in collaboration with the Departments of Management and Criminal Justice. Undergraduates and graduate students learn to meet the challenges of rapidly emerging technologies and corresponding threats and attacks on critical information infrastructure.
“The designation makes our students very marketable and competitive in both job market and graduate school application because our curriculum is mapped to the national standard which guarantees a high level of skills and knowledge,” said Dr. Li Yang, Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator and Director of UTC InfoSec Center.
The InfoSec Center received its first five year designation in 2008, joining only 65 institutions in the country with the same designation, according to Dr. Joseph Kizza, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The application for a Center required a plan for courses on a set of skills in Information Security and Assurance (ISA).
With that task completed, the InfoSec Center was awarded funding for two student scholarships, and another in the subsequent year. Now that other schools offer this program, funding for scholarships has been discontinued.
“Based on our courses, we started offering a concentration in ISA under the BS Computer Science and an ISA concentration under the MS Computer Science. These two concentrations now have the second highest majors in our BS and MS programs,” Kizza explained. “We are very proud of our programs and we have placed students in different federal government agencies including the NSA, DISA, TVA and the FBI over the last five years.”
Kizza is very thankful for the work of Dr. Li Yang and Kathy Winters, faculty who have contributed their expertise to grow the InfoSec Center to the point that it received the seven-year designation.
Dr. Li Yang explains that undergraduate students come to study at the InfoSec Center from Tennessee and surrounding states and graduate students come from all over the United States and international countries.
“Our students are hired by local companies and federal governments, and some students continue with their Ph.D. study after graduation. We work closely with local companies and they are willing to hire any graduates from UTC with ISA concentration in Computer Science,” Yang said.
The InfoSec Center has offered summer faculty workshops on Cryptography in Chattanooga and at Tuskegee University. Information assurance case studies and hands-on experiences were examined in additional workshops offered on campus and at North Carolina A & T University.
InfoSec Center faculty have published a number of books and book chapters on Information Assurance and Cybersecurity in the last five years, including the fifth edition of Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age by Kizza.
Learn about courses and papers related to the InfoSec Center.
