National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security designate Illinois Institute of Technology as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education

Illinois Institute of Technology has been designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. Illinois Tech’s Department of Information Technology and Management (ITM) and the IIT Center for Cyber Security and Forensics Education (C²SAFE) assembled and submitted the successful application.

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

The purpose of the National CAE designation program is to promote higher education in IA and CD and prepare a growing number of IA/CD professionals to meet the need to reduce vulnerabilities in the Nation’s networks. The initial National CAE in Information Assurance Education (CAE/IAE) program was started by NSA in 1998, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) joining as a partner in 2004 in response to the President’s National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. The CAE in IA Research (CAE-R) program was added in 2008 to encourage universities and students to pursue higher-level doctoral research in Cybersecurity. In 2010, the CAE in Two-Year IA Education (CAE2Y) program was established to afford two-year institutions, technical schools, and government training centers that are also teaching IA curricula, the opportunity to receive such designation.

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.

For additional information, please contact Ray Trygstad at trygstad@iit.edu