The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security recognized the UH Information Security program as a pioneer in its field earlier this summer.
UH was named a national center of academic excellence in information assurance education and received NSA recognition in June. This was announced in Seattle at the 13th Colloquiem, a global meeting of institutions, colleges and universities.
‘UH received certification for its coursework roughly three years ago, and last June, we were recognized as a center of academic excellence, which says that not only our coursework is up to standards, but the entire program is up to standards,’ Arthur Conklin, assistant professor at the College of Technology said.
With experience from the federal government, the banking industry and manufacturing industry, Conklin was hired specifically to raise the program to NSA standards.
Recognition was a collaborative effort.
‘There were 14 faculty members from four different departments and three different colleges who contributed to our application,’ Department of Information and Logistics Technology Chairman Michael Gibson said.
Conklin said the achievement of the coursework standards were undertaken completely by the College of Technology, while the center of academic excellence distinction was given to UH as a whole.
Information security is critical to safeguard health records, financial services and traffic signals.
More commonly, information security manages these issues with the development of firewalls and virus detection software, Gibson said.
In order to receive this recognition, the UH Information Security program had to excel in the NSA standards. ‘In the area information assurance education, there are nine different criteria-things like having a separate security center in the university, having a university infrastructure that emphasis security policies, just to name a few,’ Gibson said.
Gibson believes the job market for information security is bright.
‘Our government is emphasizes securing cyberspace. They are spending a huge amount of money promoting educational and training and research,’ Gibson said. ‘If students move into government work, it could mean that they move a couple of rungs up in the opportunity for higher job postions.
Approximately 175 undergraduates are pursuing coursework either in security or computer information systems, Gibson said.
For these students, the recognition from a federal agency is a huge boost to their future professional prospects.
‘It would absolutely help students in their careers. The recognition means that they’ve graduated with a computing degree with a security emphasis in a university that itself is designated as providing quality education in information and security,’ Gibson said.
Students won’t have to go out of their way to meet additional criteria because this program is the criteria, Conklin said.
With NSA recognition, UH is eligible for more federal funding.
‘Now that we have achieved this NSA standard, the next step is to bring an emphasis to research in terms of funding, labs and opportunity for enrichment to our students,’ Conklin said.’ ‘Almost all federal funding was previously restricted to schools with the NSA recognition. We are now in the top tier of schools eligible to receive these federal financial incentives.’
