Are you interested in a career in INFORMATION ASSURANCE? Obtaining an INFOSEC certificate from the University of Texas at Austin is a great place to start.

As early as 1998, the Presidential Commission for Critical Infrastructure Protection highlighted the acute need for well-trained INFOSEC professionals and national standards. That need continues to escalate today as data breaches reach alarming proportions.

The Department of Computer Science offers one INFOSEC certificate program: INFOSEC Professional. Nationally certified and trained INFOSEC professionals can make a difference to our national security by overseeing the security properties of critical systems during all phases of those systems' lifecycles.

Goals of the INFOSEC Professional Certification Program

• Educate students in disciplines of telecommunications security and automated information systems (AIS) security,
• Provide exposure to key responsibilities regarding security oversight or management of national security systems during phases of life cycle,
• Enable students to foster sensitivity to threats and vulnerabilities of national security information systems, to recognize the need to protect data, information and means of processing them, and to build working knowledge of INFOSEC principles and practices, and
• Develop the skills and abilities required to design, execute, and evaluate an organization or agency's INFOSEC security procedures and practices, in order to ensure that employees are able to apply security concepts while performing their jobs.

INFOSEC Professional Certification Requirements

Successful certification is achieved after the completion of 18 - 20 semester hours, as described below. Upon completion of the certification requirements, students apply to the CS Undergraduate Advising Office for certificate of completion. This certificate may be used as part of a resume or as proof of computational knowledge.

Students may earn the INFOSEC Professional certificate, accompanied by a letter explaining the program, upon completion of the following with grades of C- or better:

• A core CS systems sequence, which may be either of:
  • CS 352 Computer Architecture and CS 372 Introduction to Operating Systems, or
  • CS 429 Computer Systems I and CS 439 Computer Systems II
• CS 356 Computer Networks
• CS 361 Introduction to Computer Security
• CS 378 Network Security and Privacy
• CS 378 Information Assurance and Security

UTCS INFOSEC Professional courseware is certified by the Committee on National Security Systems, currently managed by the National Information Assurance Education & Training Program Office within the Information Directorate at the NSA.