Illinois Institute of Technology Announces Master’s Degree in Cyber Forensics and Security
New Program Combines Technical, Legal, Policy and Compliance
In 2011, the average organizational cost of a data security breach in the U.S. was $5.5 million according to a report from Symantec and the Ponemon Institute. Cyber forensics continues to be used to recover evidence from security breaches. Cyber security and forensics issues have become increasingly complicated with technical, legal, policy, and compliance issues, and with such astronomical costs, there is a critical need in both the government and private sectors for professionals equipped to prevent, counteract and investigate cyber terrorism, cybercrimes and information security breaches.

To address these issues, Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Applied Technology is offering a Master of Cyber Forensics and Security degree and graduate certificate programs in cyber security management and cyber security technologies, starting in fall of 2012. The program integrates legal courses from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law curriculum and technical and managerial courses from IIT School of Applied Technology’s information technology and management curriculum. The program provides cyber security and forensics practitioners a thorough grounding in technology, legal issues, policy and compliance, providing an outstanding curriculum for those interested in cyber forensics and security and is a substantive follow-up degree for undergraduates majoring in information technology and management, computer science, computer information systems, or computer engineering.

The mission of the cyber forensics and security programs is to prepare students to assume technical and managerial leadership in information technology and cyber security. With a hands-on, reality-based approach to education, the cyber forensics and security program allows students to apply what they learn in class to solve real-life problems. Additional courses may be taken from the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law curriculum to give cyber security and forensics practitioners a thorough grounding in legal issues and compliance.

“The program provides an innovative experience where cyber forensics and security students work on cutting-edge, industry-sponsored projects that deal with technical, legal, policy and compliance,” said IIT School of Applied Technology Dean Robert Carlson. “This teaching philosophy prepares students to become innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders of the future.”

Recognized by industry professionals as a premier curriculum, IIT’s Cyber Forensics and Security (ForSec) programs are project-based and students are immersed in solving real problems, using current technologies and industry practices, while being guided by experienced faculty.

“In the IIT ForSec Lab, students use real computer viruses to learn and experience how they work, and also devise methods for protection of computers and mobile devices,” explains Professor Bill Lidinsky, director of security and forensics. “In cyber forensics, students learn how to accurately and legally access and analyze computers and cell phones, searching for evidence such as hidden and deleted files, email sent and received and web pages visited.” Students also do cutting edge research and present findings to their peers and leading professionals in their fields. This approach provides students with relevant experience — publishing and presenting at conferences, in some cases for government organizations such as the FBI.

For additional information regarding the Cyber Forensics and Security programs please visit www.itm.iit.edu/cybersecurity.

To help launch the program, Illinois Institute of Technology is hosted ForenSecure: the IIT Cyber Forensics and Security Conference on April 19 and 20. The conference had speakers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Chief Cyber Security Advisor from the Illinois Terrorism Task Force. For additional information about the conference please visit www.cpd.iit.edu/forensecure.

About IIT
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,700 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.

The Board of Trustees of Illinois Institute of Technology, during their Spring term meeting, approved the School of Applied Technology’s proposal to offer the Master of Cyber Forensics and Security degree. The program includes courses drawn from the ITM program and additional courses from the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law curriculum to give cyber security and forensics practitioners a thorough grounding in legal issues and compliance. Core courses for this 30-credit-hour degree will include:
ITMS 538 Cyber Forensics
ITMS 543 Vulnerability Analysis and Control
ITMS 548 Cyber Security Technologies
ITMS 578 Cyber Security Management
LAW 273 Evidence

Electives will include twelve hours selected from:
ITMS 518 Coding Security
ITMS 528 Database Security
ITMS 539 Steganography
ITMS 549 Cyber Security Technologies: Projects and Advanced Methods
ITMS 555 Mobile Device Forensics
ITMS 558 Operating System Security
ITMS 579 Topics in Cyber Security (May be taken more than once)
ITMS 588 Incident Response, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
ITMM 585 Legal and Ethical Issues in Information Technology
ITMM 586 Information Technology Auditing
ITMO 456 Introduction to Open Source Operating Systems
ITMT 594 Special Projects in Information Technology
AND at least three hours chosen from:
LAW 240 National Security Law
LAW 478 Computer and Network Privacy and Security: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Considerations
LAW 495 Electronic Discovery

Prerequisites for this degree include ITM 301 or ITM 302, ITMD 411, ITMD 421, and ITMO 440 or ITMO 540. Watch here for more details!

On Wednesday January 18th many of your favorite websites–Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, Reddit, Boing Boing and more–will be blacked out for a day to protest two pending pieces of legislation now before the Congress of the United States: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet, stifle online innovation and creativity, and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States. They appear to violate provisions of the U.S. Constitution by operating with a presumption of guilt and denial of due process, and could seriously harm the integrity of the Internet Domain Name System, particularly ongoing efforts to implement DNSSEC. For more information about this legislation please see the Electronic Frontier Foundation‘s site and please contact your Senators and Representative to make your opinion heard.

ITMS 555 Mobile Device Forensics will be offered in Fall 2012. BUT if you want to take it, you must take ITM 538 Computer and Network Forensics first. it will be taught in the spring 2012 semester so you need to do it in the coming term.
Here is a is a PDF file containing:
♦ An updated course description of ITM 538
♦ A description of ITMS 555 as we see it at this time
http://www.itm.iit.edu/data/ITM_Forensic_Courses.pdf

The Data Center Operations and Management specialization has a three course prerequisite chain which begins with ITM 554, Operating System Virtualization, which will be offered in Spring 2012. It is a lab course at the Rice Campus on Wednesday evenings, but there is a bus from the Main Campus. The follow-on courses include ITMT 535 Data Center Architecture in Fall 2012 and ITMM 576 Data Center Management in Spring 2013. These courses have already been identified by some major players in the data center industry as the best offered and will meet an urgent need for data center professionals. If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, start with ITM 554!

If you are working toward completing the security specialization, ITM 588 Incident Response, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity will run this spring on Tuesday evenings at IIT’s Downtown Campus; there are buses there to and from the Main Campus, and it is less than a block from Union Station for those in the suburbs. This is also a course that EVERYONE in the Data Center Operations and Management specialization can take as a key elective in that program. It’s at the Downtown Campus because it’s also offered as part of the Master of Public Administration program in their Disaster Management specialization.

(Note the new course prefixes; there will be a bunch of these next fall) Hope you had a great great holiday–and g0t some rest to be energized for the next term!

Speaking Tuesday at in Palo Alto, California, the country’s Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel discussed innovation in the federal IT landscape. He says cybersecurity concerns should not be used as an excuse not to innovate. If you let the videos roll, you will also hear from U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; from Howard Schmidt, White House Cybersecurity Czar; and from Aneesh Chopra, CTO of the United States. View the video on ZDNet…

Professor Bill Lidinsky and ITM student Shauna Martin were interviewed as part of a recent ABC 7 news story on the privacy of smart phones and social networks.