Scholarships for both undergraduate and graduate students are being given by this institution to students seeking degrees in a broad-based Information Assurance (IA) program with a special focus on computer forensics. The institution's IA program offers a blend of education, research, experiential learning, and professional development. The computer forensics program focus benefits from a close association with a nearby Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory. Each scholarship recipient completing this IA degree program serves for two years as an IA professional in a Federal government agency.
Intellectual Merit: In association with the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) of Western New York, we developed a broad-based Information Assurance (IA) IA program with specific focus on computer forensics at both undergraduate and graduate levels. We trained 11 students in several cohorts of students from computer science and engineering and management information systems disciplines. All these students also received an advanced certificate in IA along with their MS degrees in their disciplines. Upon graduation, these students joined federal agencies such as National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, Federal Trade Commission and Security Exchange Commission.Our program offers a blend of education, research, experiential learning and professional development. We have exposed our students to workshops and conferences and are gratified that the scholars have contributed to ongoing federal research projects. The following three conference papers were the outcome of the reseach of some of the scholars. A. Katerinsky, H.R. Rao and S. Upadhyaya, "Harsh Realities 101- Augmenting Information Assurance with Legal Curricula," 14th Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education, Baltimore, MD, June 2010. S. Salerno, A. Sanzgiri and S. Upadhyaya, "Exploration of Attacks on Current Generation Smartphones," 8th International Conference on Mobile Web Information Systems (MobiWIS), Niagara Falls, ON, Canada, September 2011. J. Joyce, A. Sanzgiri and S. Upadhyaya, "The Early (tweet-ing) Bird Spreads the Worm: An Assessment of Twitter for Malware Propagation," 9th International Conference on Mobile Web Information Systems (MobiWIS), Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, August 2012. Broader Impact: As part of thisproject, we have networked with several firms (M&T Bank, IBM Global Business Services) and government agencies (RCFL, FBI and DHS) in the local area that have committed to internships for the IA students as well as Erie Community College and Genesee Community College and Hilbert College, which is a 4-year college in the region. We have conducted several cyber security awareness workshops jointly with Erie Community College, local industries and the FBI Cyber Task Force. In addition, we conducted workshops for high school and middle schools in the region and have mentored several minority students during the summer months.
