SCC Certified for National Standard for Information Systems Security Professionals

The St. Charles Community College Computer Science Program has been certified by the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) standards and the National Security Agency (NSA) for CNSS National Standard 4011 - Information Systems Security Professionals.

SCC is the first college in Missouri to receive the certification, and one of only four two-year colleges to receive this certification. A complete listing of colleges and universities certified by the CNSS, along with Frequently Asked Questions about the certification process, can be found at NSA.gov. SCC is certified for 2004-2007 at which time it can reapply for certification.

The National Information Security Education and Training Program was established to standardize information assurance (computer security) training within academia, private industry, and government programs to improve the state of training in our nation’s education programs. To find out more, visit the NSA website.

The Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation (IACE) Program was created with the goal of certifying courses at universities, private industry, and government to be compliant with the Committee on National Security Systems standards. For further information on the CNSS, click here: The Committee on National Security Systems.

St. Charles Community College participated in the IACE project by identifying specific courses of instruction and mapping the content of these courses to the CNSS No. 4011 National Standard for Information Security Systems Professionals.

Click here for further information on Standard 4011

Our submission was reviewed by information assurance national level subject matter experts from the CNSS community and was certified. The Review Committee said of our submission: “The submission was extremely well documented, providing ample evidence that they have a robust curriculum covering all aspects of this standard. They have earned certification in CNSS National Training Standard 4011.”

The set of courses were mapped to 256 topics in the categories of Communications, Automated Information Systems, Security, National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security (NSTISS), System Operating Environment, NSTISS Planning and Management, and NSTISS Policies and Procedures. The information was submitted to the National Security Agency using an interactive Web site.

SCC is now listed on the NSA Web site.

How to Earn a Certificate

To earn the certificate students must complete the following classes at SCC and file a petition (see link below):

CPT 105 – Computer Ethics
CPT 115 – Introduction to Data Processing
CPT 121 – Introduction to Data Communications
CPC 170 – Networking Basics
CPT 200 – Systems Analysis and Design
CPT 246 – Computer Security

Following the successful completion of the required courses, please submit the completed form to the Dean of Business & Social Sciences. You must complete each course with a grade of C or better to receive the certificate. If you have any questions, contact Sharon Heckel (sheckel@stchas.edu) or Mike Fuszner (mfuszner@stchas.edu).

Petition Form