Because many courses taught by the Department of Information Technology and Management are mapped to certifications, and because many students recognize the value of the certifications we address, many actually want to complete the certification exams to receive the certification. If students purchase exam vouchers through the CompTIA Academic Store and can prove their student status, they will get a 40% discount: Certification Vouchers – CompTIA Marketplace Academic. Students who join CompTIA as a student member, which costs $29, can get a 50% discount: CompTIA Student Membership – CompTIA Marketplace Academic. Not a bad idea, huh?

I’ve shared some wisdom I try to impart to Information Technology and Management students here at Illinois Tech in an article on LinkedIn: Communicating Technology to a Non-Technical Audience.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/communicating-technology-non-technical-audience-ray-trygstad

The Spring 2021 WiCyS @ Illinois Tech Mentorship Program aims to connect cybersecurity newbies with more experienced cybersecurity students (all within Illinois Tech)!

Image: Black Man Working at his Desk Cartoon Vector.svg from Wikimedia Commons by Videoplasty.com, CC-BY-SA 4.0

What job will studies in information technology and/or cybersecurity equip you for? The Department of Information Technology and Management has posted a fairly comprehensive list of possible job titles for graduates of degrees from our department. It’s also available in PDF form. We hope to link brief pop-up job descriptions to each of these job titles, and if any students would like to help with that we would welcome their assistance. Some of those are already enabled. (Contact Professor Trygstad, trygstad@iit.edu if you want to help.) https://www.itm.iit.edu/data/itjobroles.html.

The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Conference and Expo in November 2020 will be virtual and online this year, and registration for students is free! The annual NICE Conference and Expo brings together thought leaders from industry, government, academia, and non-profit organizations to address the community’s cybersecurity education, training, and workforce needs. This year’s conference, hosted by Florida International University and New America will host over 30 presentations, 40 professional exhibitors, and a projected 800+ attendees.

The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is a partnership between government, academia, and the private sector focused on cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. The mission of NICE is to energize and promote a robust network and an ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. NICE fulfills this mission by coordinating with government, academic, and industry partners to build on existing successful programs, facilitate change and innovation, and bring leadership and vision to increase the number of skilled cybersecurity professionals helping to keep our nation secure.

For more information go to https://www.niceconference.org/.

The Cyber Career Pathways Tool from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will help you identify, build, and navigate a potential cyber career pathway by increasing your understanding of the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to begin, transition, or advance your cyber career. The tool presents a new and interactive way to explore work roles within the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework. It depicts the cyber workforce as five distinct, yet complementary, skill communities. It also highlights core attributes among each of the 52 work roles and offers actionable insights for employers, professionals, and individuals considering a career in cyber. https://niccs.us-cert.gov/workforce-development/cyber-career-pathways.

Student Membership in the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) is now free since their merger with CompTIA. Among the significant benefits provided to student members is 33% to 60% savings on CompTIA exam vouchers & training products, but there are many more including great networking opportunities. Chicago has one of the largest AITP Chapters in the country and is very active. This costs NOTHING and every ITM student should sign up for their free student membership at https://www.aitp.org/join-now/Register/Student/ and then sign onto the Chicago Chapter email list at https://aitpchicago.com/membership/join-aitp-mailing-list-only/.

IBM has made a large variety of educational resources available for free in the areas of big data, touching both data management and data analytics. This includes both pre-defined learning tracks and individual courses. Most courses take 3 to 8 hours to complete and can be entirely done using either open source tools or the resources on the IBM Bluemix cloud, available though our Software! portal at http://www.itm.iit.edu/software/webstore.html. These courses are a great supplement for students in the MIS or Data Management curriculum who want to build their knowledge and abilities in analytics and big data management using tools like Spark, Hadoop, Seahorse, Jupyter, R, Rstudio, System T, Watson, and Scala. To access the courses, go to https://bigdatauniversity.com/.

A major concern in our industry over the last few years has been the declining number of women in the computing fields. IT is not like other industries where there is a “glass ceiling”, a level above which women cannot rise: there are numerous examples of women CIOs in Chicago alone, including the former CIO of Boeing Corporation Kim Hammonds, now Global Chief Operating Officer of Deutsche Bank AG. And of course there’s Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Megan Smith, CTO of the United States. But we understand that it is difficult being female in a male-majority industry. Our department is strongly committed to doing everything we can to reduce this gender imbalance and to ensure that every student in our program is successful. Because this is a serious concern, I wanted to take an opportunity to share some resources to support women in IT. And guys: you should at least read the articles so you can begin to understand why this is an issue. Read more…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency have designated Illinois Institute of Technology as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education, effective until 2020. Our ability to meet the increasing demands of the program criteria will serve the nation well in contributing to the protection of the National Information Infrastructure. The Presidents’ National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, February 2003, and the International Strategy for Cyberspace, May 2011, addresses the critical shortage of professionals with these skills and highlights the importance of higher education as a solution to defending America’s cyberspace: “Like all nations, the United States has a compelling interest in defending its vital national assets, as well as our core principles and values, and we are committed to defending against those who would attempt to impede our ability to do so.” Education is the key to promoting these ideals.

This designation recognizes the accomplishments of IIT in the areas of cyber security and digital forensics education, spearheaded by the Department of Information Technology and Management (ITM) and the IIT Center for Cyber Security and Forensics Education (C²SAFE). The ITM Department’s key offering in this area is the Master of Cyber Forensics and Security degree, designed to help students, and experienced information technology professionals become cyber security and forensics practitioners, investigators, managers, and leaders. This degree is intended for students who are interested in cyber security, digital forensics, risk control, and information assurance, and draws on the extensive professional experience of our ITM faculty.

The Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Defense (CD) designation is a new designation based on updated academic criteria for Cybersecurity education and affords each CAE institution the opportunity to distinguish its strengths in specific focus areas. The updated criteria benefit not only the institution, but also students, employers and hiring managers throughout the Nation.

Official letters of notification of IIT’s designation were sent to the university, the Governor of Illinois, Members of Congress, and appropriate Congressional Committees. The official CAE Certificate will be awarded during a ceremony at the CAE Community Meeting being held in conjunction with the NICE (National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education) Conference in San Diego, California, November 3-4, 2015.