SKIP TO COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Guidelines for completing the Cyber Operations MS Program
The Master of Science in Cyber Operations (MSCyOps) program operates on a cohort model, mandating that all students progress through the identical set of coursework at a unified pace. The program lacks elective courses, making every course a core requirement essential for obtaining the degree. The program encompasses 36 credits of coursework, detailed as follows:
- 29 credits in cyber operations and related courses;
- Four credits in risk assessment, law, policy, and ethics; and
- Three credits capstone experience, one credit each semester (Fall, Spring, Fall) of the cohort sequence.
Fulfilling the capstone requirement entails undertaking a practical research project, producing a written report for a graduate committee's review, and subsequently presenting and defending the project in an oral examination during the program's final year. Alternatively, the capstone requirement can be satisfied by obtaining advanced industry certifications, like CISSP, CASP+, or OSCP, in lieu of conducting the practical research project.
Students interested in the Cyber Operations MS program should work with the graduate director to understand the program details and course sequencing.
Students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 and a grade of B or above in all graduate coursework.
Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills
Given the program's technical complexity and accelerated pace, students are expected to possess essential knowledge and skills. Proficiency in Python Programming, C Programming, Assembly Language, PowerShell, basic Data Structures and Algorithms, Systems Administration, Computer Networking, and Linux Fundamentals is crucial. For success in the program, it is strongly advised that students attain these competencies either through undergraduate courses or by taking short courses prior to commencing the graduate degree.
Program Requirements (36 credits)
The 36 credits cohort-based graduate program is divided into four semesters as follows:
Understanding the Operating Systems (OS) theory and the OS security concepts is required to perform critical roles in the cybersecurity and cyber operations fields. This course exposes the students to topics of the OS theory with an emphasis on security applications. The course begins with an introduction of low-level programming, including Assembly and C. It continues with the basic Unix-like operating system Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) along with the fundamentals of OS concepts.
Full course description for Secure System Programming and OS Theory
Cyber Operations, a more specific area of cybersecurity, is a highly technical field with a hardcore focus on both cyber offense and defense strategies. This course will provide an introduction to cyber operations fundamentals. Topics include Security fundamental principles, network architecture and security technologies, network traffic and protocol analysis, and offensive and defensive cyber operations and user experience.
Full course description for Cyber Operations Fundamentals
The cyber operation capstone project is aimed at building a connection between cyber concepts and the application of these concepts into a real-world context. Students identify and develop their capstone projects throughout the graduate program and produce a serious, in-depth, scholarly and professional level written component that is reflective of their knowledge and skills that they have gained during the program. This capstone project uses a phased approach where students solidify their project ideas by the end of the first semester and complete the project with an oral defense by the end of the MS program. The final project will demonstrate students' summative expression of what they have learned in the graduate program and hence the project should be a culmination of theory, principles, best industry practices, methodologies, tools, and technologies associated with cyber operations.
Full course description for Cyber Operations Capstone Project
This course covers advanced topics of digital forensics procedures, legal issues, and scientific principles. The course addresses the current and new issues in digital forensics by offering various topics such as windows, smart phones, memory, network forensics, Macintosh forensics, and updated and expanded coverage on legal issues. Moreover, the students will learn how to report their findings to present them to the court using the state-of-the-art tools in digital forensics.
Full course description for Digital Forensics I
This course covers how to conduct successful digital forensic examinations in Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, the methodologies used, key technical concepts, and the tools needed to perform examinations. The required technical details of how each operating system works and how to find artifacts is also covered. Topics like File systems, data recovery, memory forensics, executable layouts are discussed in details. Moreover, Hands-On Network Forensics that starts with the core concepts within network forensics, including coding, networking, forensics tools, and methodologies for forensic investigations are covered.
Full course description for Digital Forensics II
The ubiquitous nature of Internet of Everything (IoE) and the prevalence of computing technologies in critical infrastructure sectors have brought an unprecedented digital transformation to individuals, businesses, and industries. On the other hand, the IoE has also enabled the increased spread of malicious software (malware). Malware attacks are increasing exponentially over time with total number of known malware surpassed one billion. As a result, the ability to detect, analyze, understand, control, and eradicate malware derive threat intelligence, helps provide timely response to security incidents, fortify defenses, and is essential to nation¿s economic vitality and security.
This course introduces malware analysis and reverse engineering techniques which will allow students to recognize, analyze and remediate infections. Using modern tools and procedures the student will understand how to dissect and reverse engineered a malware to understand its behavior, propagation,…
Full course description for Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering
The cyber operation capstone project is aimed at building a connection between cyber concepts and the application of these concepts into a real-world context. Students identify and develop their capstone projects throughout the graduate program and produce a serious, in-depth, scholarly and professional level written component that is reflective of their knowledge and skills that they have gained during the program. This capstone project uses a phased approach where students solidify their project ideas by the end of the first semester and complete the project with an oral defense by the end of the MS program. The final project will demonstrate students' summative expression of what they have learned in the graduate program and hence the project should be a culmination of theory, principles, best industry practices, methodologies, tools, and technologies associated with cyber operations.
Full course description for Cyber Operations Capstone Project
Vulnerability analysis and its connection to exploit development are core skills for one involved in cyber operations. This course covers vulnerability discovery and exploitation. The focus is to understand the pattern of vulnerabilities and attacks to allow students to experience protection, risk mitigation, and identify vulnerabilities in new contexts. Topics will include buffer overflows, privilege escalation attacks, input validation issues, vulnerability discovery (fuzzing and crash dump analysis), exploit development, and mitigations (e.g., DEP, ASLR, ¿).
Full course description for Vulnerability Discovery and Exploitation
This course covers cryptography from both theoretical and practical perspective. The course provides details about advanced cryptography and its applications in the cybersecurity world. Students will learn various cryptographic algorithms and protocols and their relationships from both attack and defense perspectives. Various cryptographic tools to secure contemporary networks will be discussed as well. Students should be able to use advanced cryptographic algorithms based on elliptic curve cryptography.
Full course description for Applied Cryptography
The course will provide students with knowledge and practical skills in the field of cyber threat hunting and intelligence that can be leveraged to defend against sophisticated network intrusions and loss of proprietary information. The course will discuss various phases of the intelligence lifecycle including developing intelligence requirements, collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information; and using cyber threat intelligence to improve security at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels.
Full course description for Cyber Threat Hunting and Intelligence
Virtualization technology has rapidly expanded to become a core feature of various components of enterprise environments. It allows efficient use of physical IT infrastructure by sharing its capabilities among many users or environments. Virtualization is also an integral element to cloud computing and key technology in cybersecurity. Cloud computing provides organizations the ability to create and use IT services efficiently and rapidly without spending capital resources upfront. This course will discuss the capabilities and limitations of modern approaches to virtualization and the variety, complexity, and capabilities of modern cloud platforms and cloud security.
The course will include hands-on lab exercises using leading Cloud infrastructure providers (ex. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure). The course will review the applied concepts and techniques with end-to-end Cloud security architecture with real-world case studies using Web/Mobile based applications, and Internet…
Full course description for Virtualization and Cloud Security
Wireless Communication and Mobile technologies have become an essential part of our daily lives. Modern cellular technologies have enabled smartphones to access fast Internet and app based services besides traditional voice communication and sending text messages. Additionally, today¿s network typically include a wide range of wireless devices, from computers and phones, to IP Cameras, smart TVs and connected appliances. As more and more communications are conducted via cellular and mobile technologies, these technologies have become critical (and continue to become more critical) to cyber operations. This course provides and in depth introduction to various wireless technologies (with a focus on cellular technology) and how data is processed and securely transmitted using these technologies and ubiquitous devices. An overview of smart phone technologies, their embedded operating systems, and mobile protocols will also be provided.
Full course description for Securing Wireless and Mobile Technologies
Cyber Operations, a more specific area of cybersecurity, is a highly technical field with a hardcore focus on both cyber offense and defense strategies. This course will cover special cyber operations topics that are not covered elsewhere in the MS Cyber Operations program. This course will provide the opportunity to keep the program current by introducing new and in-demand topics in cyber operations including but not limited to SCADA, IoT/IIoT, embedded systems, hardware reverse engineering, secure software development, programmable logic and microcontroller design, RF Analysis, Software defined Networking, etc.
Full course description for Special Topics in Cyber Operations
The cyber operation capstone project is aimed at building a connection between cyber concepts and the application of these concepts into a real-world context. Students identify and develop their capstone projects throughout the graduate program and produce a serious, in-depth, scholarly and professional level written component that is reflective of their knowledge and skills that they have gained during the program. This capstone project uses a phased approach where students solidify their project ideas by the end of the first semester and complete the project with an oral defense by the end of the MS program. The final project will demonstrate students' summative expression of what they have learned in the graduate program and hence the project should be a culmination of theory, principles, best industry practices, methodologies, tools, and technologies associated with cyber operations.
Full course description for Cyber Operations Capstone Project
Any IT development project contains significant risks. However, keeping the status quo is also risky in rapidly changing technological and competitive environments. This course is designed to familiarize the student with risk analysis concepts derived from many sources including financial, actuarial and statistical studies, insurance and risk analysis, software quality assurance methodologies, management and audit trails and many others. Student will learn to assess the risk in an information systems portfolio and develop strategies for managing the many risk types discussed: Prerequisites: MIS 600.
Full course description for Risk Analysis in Information Technology
With Information Technology playing an ever greater role in organizations, and the widespread availability of technology with the ability to collect and create information on everyone, many new ethical issues have been created. This course will frame many current ethic issues in IT and help the student develop methods of analyzing and dealing with these issues in real world situations. Topics may include issues such as privacy, copyright and intellectual property, employee monitoring approaches, multinational information flows, corporate intelligence and others. Hacking, computer security, viruses and other acts of destruction will be reviewed from an ethical perspective.
Full course description for Cyber Ethics
