CICS Educational Initiatives

The Center for Information and Computer Security works to coordinate educational offerings to ensure that UNT students have available to them quality courses in information and computer security, from a variety of discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary viewpoints. Students have available to them strong, specialized courses in computer security or cybercrime within Computer Science and Engineering, Information Technology and Decision Sciences, and Criminal Justice degree programs. CICS works to coordinate these offerings and promote electives for students outside their degree program in order to give students a broad exposure to information and computer security.

In this page, we address the following topics:

• Federal Certification for Computer Security Courses
• Information Technology and Decision Sciences
• Computer Science Courses
• Criminal Justice Courses

The computer science and security courses offered by the University of North Texas have been certified as a 100% mapping to the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) National Standards 4011 and 4013. This certification is made by through the Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation (IACE) Program, part of the National INFOSEC (Information Security) Education and Training Program administered by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). See the section on Computer Science Courses below for more information.

In the future, we hope to offer additional certifications, and offer alternative paths to certifications through programs other than Computer Science.

Students who would like more information on the information and computer security course offerings in Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences should contact Oyku Alanbay for undergraduate or masters advising, or Dr. John Windsor for the Ph.D. program.

The following general courses offered by the Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences include modules on computer and data security and computer crime:

• BCIS 2610 -- Introduction to Computers in Business
• BCIS 3610 -- Basic Information Systems
• BCIS 4720 -- E-Commerce Systems
• BCIS 5120 -- Information Systems Development
• BCIS 5620 -- Networking and Telecommunications
• BCIS 5680 -- Web-Based Systems Development

The following BCIS courses offer in-depth, specialized computer security content:

• BCIS 4630 -- Fundamentals of Information Technology Security
• BCIS 5630 -- Enterprise Architecture for Information Technology Security

Students who would like more information on the computer security course offerings in Department of Computer Science and Engineering should contact CICS.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering offers courses leading to two federal certifications, described below.

CNSS 4011:

National Training Standard for Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professionals

CNSS 4013:

National Training Standard for System Administrators in Information Systems Security (INFOSEC)

In order to obtain the 4011 and 4013 certificates, students must complete a sequence in courses that cover basic software development and system life cycle issues, computer organization, computer networks, and specific security issues. For students majoring in Computer Science, many of these courses are already required or are popular electives taken by many of our students. The specific courses required are shown below.

Standard, required Computer Science courses:

• CSCE 1030 (COSC* 1336 or 1436) -- Computer Science I
• CSCE 1040 (COSC* 1337 or 1437) -- Computer Science II
• CSCE 2610 (COSC* 2325 or 2425) -- Computer Organization

* - COSC numbers are for the "Texas Common Course Numbering System" (TCCNS) and are designed to simplify transfer of credit from community and junior colleges to UNT. For students receiving transfer credit under the TCCNS, we will accept these courses toward satisfying the requirement for the CNSS certificates.

Required electives for obtaining the CNSS certificates:

• CSCE 3530 -- Introduction to Computer Networks
• CSCE 4550 -- Introduction to Computer Security
• CSCE 4560 -- Secure Electronic Commerce

Graduate students who have a background in Computer Science which includes the basic Computer Science courses listed above (the required courses plus the Computer Networks course) can obtain the certificates by completing two graduate-level security courses:

• CSCE 5550 -- Introduction to Computer Security
• CSCE 5560 -- Secure Electronic Commerce

The following courses offered by the Department of Criminal Justice offer specialized content regarding computer crime:

• CJUS 3340 -- Computer Crime
• CJUS 5100 -- Information Warfare, Security, and Risk Analysis
• CJUS 5120 -- Cybercrime and Digital Forensics
• CJUS 5130 -- Information Policy, Law & Justice