The program requires completion of 32 semester hours of coursework. This includes:
- IA 5010 Foundations of Information Assurance (4 semester–hour core course)
- At least two 4 semester–hour courses from each of the technical and contextual tracks (a total of 16 semester hours)
- Electives (8 semester hours)
- Interdisciplinary Capstone Team Project (4 semester hours)
Full-time students can complete this course work in four semesters by taking two courses per semester. Degree candidates can choose to take more courses per semester, but the courses selected for credit toward the degree must remain within the program guidelines. A GPA of 3.0 is required for matriculation.
Required Courses
- IA5010 Foundations of Information Assurance 4 semester hours
- IA7900 Capstone Project 4 semester hours
Technical Track
(complete at least 2 courses)
- IA5120 Applied Cryptography 4 semester hours
- IA5130 Computer System Security 4 semester hours
- IA5150 Network Security Practices 4 semester hours
- IA6120 Software Security Practices 4 semester hours
Contextual Track
(complete at least 2 courses)
- IA5200 Security Risk Management and Assessment 4 semester hours
- IA5210 Information System Forensics 4 semester hours
- IA5240 Ethics, Privacy, and Digital Rights 4 semester hours
- IA5250 Decision Making in Critical Infrastructure 4 semester hours
Electives
All information assurance courses may be taken as electives. With approval from the Master of Science in Information Assurance program director, computer science, criminal justice, engineering, and business administration courses can also be accepted as electives. Examples of elective courses are:
- IA5976 Directed Study
- IA5978 Independent Study
- IA5984 Research
- IA8982 Readings
- CJ7224 Law and Psychology
- CJ7252 White Collar Crime
- CJ7242 Terrorism and International Crime
- CS5200 Database Management Systems
- CS5500 Managing Software Development
- CS5600 Computer Systems
- CS6540 Foundations of Formal Methods and Software Analysis
- CS5700 Fundamentals of Computer Networking
- CS5770 Software Vulnerabilities and Security
- CS6710 Wireless Networks
- CS6740 Network Security
- MGMT6215 Strategic Security Management
