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Business News

The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security Established at UTSA's College of Business

—June 19, 2001

The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security has been established in UTSA's College of Business.

This multidisciplinary program will be composed of academic, business and government stakeholders who address the technical and policy issues of information assurance. The center will provide students with hands-on experience in solving computer security problems; serve as a esearch conduit for faculty and industry leaders; and host educational seminars.

Information assurance and computer security comprises a wide variety of issues including intrusion detection and prevention, fraud, privacy, theft, denial of service, secure business transactions and secure networks.

"The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security will benefit the entire city of San Antonio," said Glenn Dietrich, information systems department chairman. "With the concentration of information assurance and security talent that currently exists here in the military and private industry, the knowledge base for our program will be excellent."

UTSA will offer courses in information assurance at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Graduate students can elect a program of study in either the technical or non-technical area of computer security. Undergraduate students will be able to earn a minor in information security beginning Fall 2002.

"The need for these type of courses is great," said Dietrich. "Last spring, a day after registration began for a computer security course, the course was full. Next spring we'll offer four classes in computer security to meet this demand."

Future goals for the center include establishing a "hacker lab" for students to research and test new products to determine their vulnerabilities. Dietrich also wants the center to become certified as a center of excellence by the National Security Agency. To achieve certification, a university has to maintain a mature program for three years and prove that it can carry out its curriculum on its own. About 24 universities nationwide already have the certification, none in Texas.

According to estimates by the federal government, approximately 72,000 jobs in the computer security industry went unfilled this year. The Department of Information Systems offers a bachelor of business administration degree in information systems, a master of science in information technology and a MBA concentration in information systems.

Wendy Frost—

Please send your comments to: wendy.frost@utsa.edu

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