For Academia
For Industry
For GovernmentThe National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program is open to nationally or regionally accredited 4-year colleges and graduate-level universities. The mission of a nationally accredited institution must be in the Information Assurance (IA) arena. Applications must be submitted electronically via the on-line application process. Applications are assessed against ten criteria, listed below, which are intended to measure the depth and maturity of programs of instruction in IA at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Applicants must clearly demonstrate how they meet each of the ten criteria. Minimum requirements for each of the ten criteria must be met in order to obtain designation. Successful applicants are designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for a period of 5 academic years, after which they must successfully reapply in order to retain the designation. The criteria is reviewed annually and strengthened as appropriate to keep pace with the evolving nature of IA. (Designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in IA Education does not carry a commitment of funding from the National Security Agency or from the Department of Homeland Security.)
Prerequisite: Prior to submitting an application for the National Centers of Academic Excellence in IA Education Program, IA courseware must be certified under the IA Courseware Evaluation Program as meeting the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) Training Standards and the certification must be current. Specifically, certification for CNSS Training Standard 4011 is required, and certification of at least one additional CNSS Training Standard (4012, 4013, 4014, 4015, 4016 or subsequent standards) is required.
| Criteria # | Criteria Name | Min Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Partnerships in IA Education | 5 min |
| 2 | IA Treated as a Multidisciplinary Science | 15 min |
| 3 | University Encourages the Practice of IA | 15 min |
| 4 | Academic Program Encourages Research in IA | 15 min |
| 5 | IA Curriculum Reaches Beyond Geographic Borders | 10 min |
| 6 | Faculty Active in IA Practice and Research and Contribute to IA Literature | 20 min |
| 7 | State-of-the-Art IA Resources | 20 min |
| 8 | Focus area or area of study in IA | 20 min |
| 9 | Declared Center for IA Education or Research | 35 min |
| 10 | Full-time IA Faculty | 20 min |
| Total | 175 min |
MINIMUM POINTS REQUIRED TO QUALIFY AS A CAEIAE = 175
MINIMUM POINTS MUST BE MET FOR EACH OF THE TEN CRITERIA.
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Provide evidence of partnerships in IA education with minority colleges and universities, or 2-year community colleges, or technical schools. Partnerships may include: Shared curriculum (IA teaching material provided); Shared faculty (faculty on curriculum committee or teaching); and Reciprocity of credits. (Example of evidence: memorandum of agreement between both parties) (The U. S. Department of Labor refers to minority colleges and universities as including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.)
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Shared curriculum (Example: IA teaching materials provided to minority colleges and universities, or 2-year community colleges, or technical schools.) | 5 |
| Shared faculty (Shared faculty with minority institutions may be counted in both criteria 1 and criteria 10.) (Example: Faculty on curriculum development committee and/or teaching IA at minority colleges and universities, or 2-year community colleges, or technical schools.) | 5 |
| Reciprocity of credits (Example: Accepting academic credit in IA courses from minority colleges and universities, or 2-year community colleges, or technical schools.) | 5 |
Overall Point Value: 5 Minimum Required
The academic program demonstrates IA is not treated as a separate discipline, but as a multidisciplinary science with the body of IA knowledge incorporated into various disciplines.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Evidence IA is taught as modules in existing courses and that non-technical/non-IA students are being introduced to IA, i.e. courses for managers/leaders. (Example: Business school provides instruction on security countermeasures for IT systems to help assure continuity of operations.) | Up to 3 points per course/15 total |
| IA concentration programs require non-technical courses of study, i.e., ethics, policy, legal, human performance, math, business. (Example: Computer Science/IA majors take business law/ethics courses.) | Up to 3 points per course/15 total |
Overall Point Value: 15 Minimum Required
The academic program demonstrates how the university encourages the practice of IA, not merely that IA is taught. (An example of a government-based IA security plan may be found at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-18-Rev1/sp800-18-Rev1-final.pdf).
A paper on effectively teaching how to write a security plan may be found at http://csrc.nist.gov/organizations/fissea/conference/2005/presentations/Clark/Clark-paper.pdf.)
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Copy of university or departmental IA security plan and evidence that an IA Awareness Plan has been implemented. (Example: Students and faculty are required to take computer based training or on-line tutorials; a security banner statement is present on university or department computers; security related help screens are available; university-wide seminars are held on the importance of IA, etc.). | 10 |
| University designated Information Systems Security Officer. Provide name, position and job description for person or persons responsible for information security. | 5 |
Overall Point Value: 15 Minimum Required
The academic program encourages research in IA. Provide examples. This criterion focuses on STUDENT-based research and is important because research fuels the relevancy and currency of IA curricula.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Program with IA focus has thesis, dissertation, or project requirements. Focus areas include declared majors, declared minors, established certificates of study within a major and produce research. Provide titles of thesis, dissertation, or projects in IA. | 2 points per paper, dissertation, thesis, or project/ 10 Max |
| Individual IA courses require research paper(s) or projects(s). Provide titles of thesis, dissertation, or projects in IA. | 5 points per course/15 Max |
| Non-IA courses encourage papers in IA topics or projects. Provide titles of thesis, dissertation, or projects in IA. (Example: Criminal Justice encourages Forensics as a paper topic or Business Management encourages return on investment studies in IA security.) | 2 points per course/10 Max |
Overall Point Value: 15 Minimum Required
The IA curriculum reaches beyond the normal geographic borders of the university. (Web site for sharing IA resources and/or Internet classes outside normal borders.)
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| IA curriculum web site. Students enrolled in IA courses have access to IA curricula and study materials via the web. (Example: Hyperlinks are provided to works such as Bell-La Padula and to sites such as the National Information Assurance Training and Education Consortium (NIATEC), IEEE/IET site, and the Common Vulnerability Analysis site.) | 5 points per hyperlink/10 Max |
| Use of distance education technology and techniques to deliver IA courses. (Example: Distance education includes live/delayed broadcasts, videotapes/DVDs, lectures, and web-based IA courses.) | 2 points per example/10 Max |
| Sponsorship of state, regional or national IA curriculum workshops, colloquia, etc. (Example: Sponsorship of workshops for K through 12, community colleges, technical schools, state homeland security, industry) | 2 points per event/10 Max |
Overall Point Value: 10 Minimum Required
It is clearly demonstrated that the faculty is active in current IA practice and research, and contributes to IA literature. Substantiate depth and length of faculty expertise through submission of biographies.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Published papers (electronic or traditional) on IA topics within refereed journals or peer reviewed conference proceedings within the last 3 years. Provide abstracts, dates, and identify where published. (Example: Proceedings of the Colloquium on Information Systems Security Education (CISSE) or publications of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), etc.) | 2 points per paper/10 Max |
| University is awarded grants/funding for IA education and/or research development or lab equipment. Provide synopsis of IA related grants, funding, equipment donations or other funding to include date and approximate monetary value. | 2 points per award item/10 Max |
| Faculty and/or student presentations on IA topics at university, state, regional or national conferences within the last 3 years. Provide abstracts, dates, identify conferences, and distinguish faculty vs. student presentations. | 5 points per presentation/10 Max |
| Published books, or chapters of books, on Information Assurance. Books must focus on IA and have been published within the last 5 years. | 10 points per book/2 points per chapter in a book/10 Max |
| Provide biographies to substantiate depth and length of faculty expertise. |
Overall Point Value: 20 Minimum Required
The university library and reference systems/materials and/or the IA Center maintain state-of-the-art on-line or paper-based IA resources.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Evidence of access to current INFOSEC educational text books, monographs, reports, and journals, including those in supporting areas such as Audit and Control. (Example: Teacher in Networks class provides hot links for students to on-line IA journal.) | 20 max - 5 points for each documented example of teacher providing hyper-links to IA material on-line or any paper based IA or IA related journals.) - 2 points for student access to subscription based IA and IA related journals. Samples of IA or IA related journals: Network World; Cryptologia; Digital Investigation; International Journal of Information and Computer Security; Journal of Computer Security; The Virus Bulletin; ACM: Transactions on Information and Systems Security; IEEE: Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing; Journal of Cryptography; Information Systems Control) |
| Evidence of archive or access to historical IA documents (5 years or older). (Example: A selection of historical documents (e.g. Bell-La Padula) is accessible on department server and the instructor encourages access,) | 15 Max - 5 points per document or 15 points for central access point for all historical web documents.) |
| Evidence that faculty and students are using sites such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering/Institution of Engineering and Technology (IEEE/IET) Electronic Library or the National Information Assurance Training and Education Consortium (NIATEC) web site as a resource. (Example: Within a course, or in IA Center Web Site, a hyperlink is provided to students to access NIATEC or similar resources) | 10 Max - 5 points per example |
Overall Point Value: 20 Minimum Required
Academic program, within a nationally or regionally accredited 4-year college or graduate-level university, has an area of study or focus area in IA. Identify the courses required for each area; provide syllabus, enrollment data for current academic year (not projected) and actual graduation data (not projected) for the past two academic years. Courses must be verifiable through on-line course catalog.
Focus Area: (Requires a minimum of 2 courses focused on IA, one or both must map to CNSS Training Standard 4011)
1. Focus on IA at the BS level.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Enrolled (current academic year) | 10 points if program is declared and up and running. |
| Graduated (past 2 academic years) | 10 points if program existed for past two academic years. |
2. Concentration on IA at the MS level.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Enrolled (current academic year) | 10 points if program is declared and up and running. |
| Graduated (past 2 academic years) | 10 points if program existed for past two academic years |
3. Concentration on IA at the Ph.D. level.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Enrolled (current academic year) | 10 points if program is declared and up and running |
| Graduated (past 2 academic years) | 10 points if program existed for past two academic years |
Overall Point Value: 20 Minimum Required
Note for Criteria 8 1.b., 2.b., 3.b.: If a university presents evidence that a program has existed for 2 or more years, but the university is just now formalizing the program and plans to issue credit to past students retroactively, points may be allocated.
The university has a declared center for IA education or a center for IA research from which IA curriculum is emerging. The center may be school or university-based. (Example: The Computer Science Department has an officially designated "Center for IA Studies" with a clear link to and sponsorship by the College of Engineering Sciences, with a charter signed at least at the College of Engineering level) Provide documentation of the designation of the Center (e.g. the charter), signed by the Dean or higher, and the mission statement.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| School Level | 35 |
| University Level | 50 |
| Enter the hyperlink to the Center: ____________________________ |
Overall Point Value: 35 Minimum Required
University IA faculty consists of more than one individual devoted full time to IA. (For the purposes of this document full-time faculty may be defined as a professor dedicated to teaching 3 IA courses per semester, or 2 IA courses with research, or 1 IA course with research with advisees at Master and Doctoral Level) Includes shared and cross-departmental appointments for part-time and adjunct faculty. This may include institutional agreements for cooperative use/exchange of adjunct faculty from/between universities. This criterion requires a letter signed by the Dean or higher identifying faculty and teaching workload.
| Category | Max Points |
|---|---|
| Identify by name full-time employee or employees, as defined above, either faculty or member of the administration working in IA with overall responsibility for the IA Instructional Program. Provide evidence, i.e., letter of testimony or job description. | 10 points |
| Identify by name additional full-time faculty member, as defined above, working full time (or equivalent) teaching at least one IA course per semester within the department that sponsors IA programs. | 5 points each faculty member/10 Max |
| Identify by name shared faculty (e.g. intra or inter departmental or other 4-year graduate university.) | 5 points each faculty member/10 Max |
| Identify by name each adjunct/part-time faculty (Example: Professor teaching 1 or 2 IA courses per semester or teaching IA in existing courses) | 5 points each faculty member/10 Max |
Overall Point Value: 20 Minimum Required