This project proposes to develop a pipeline of Information Assurance (IA) professionals by providing scholarships to talented students over a span of four years, with a yearly cohort of 6 to 8 students. The university is well positioned to attract high quality students who are interested in IA. The Computer Science and Computer Engineering curricula prepare students with strong technical competence in the field of Information Assurance. The MS in IA program, jointly offered by the College of Computer and Information Science (CCIS) and the College of Criminal Justice, provides students a holistic view of IA with a curriculum integrating technical, legal and policy issues. Through the IA-related course offerings, research activities, cooperative education opportunities, outreach activities and research activities, the university has established itself as the right place to further develop this expertise. The program has been certified as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and Research (CAE/IAE-R) by NSA/DHS.
In addition to extensive course development, CCIS and the College of Engineering have joined together to establish an interdisciplinary research institute in Information Assurance. These efforts aim to attract interested students with diverse backgrounds, as well as researchers to participate in advancing the state-of-the-art in Information Assurance. The Cooperative Education Program, the application-oriented projects embedded in the IA curriculum, and faculty connections with IA-focused industries and research laboratories provide the students with an unique advantage in securing permanent and internship employment, particularly with the federal government.
This program proposes to devote special attention to work with HBCU and HSI colleges/universities, to attract and recruit under-represented students to the field of IA. This project leverages previous experience in working with minority-serving institutions through an NSF REU summer program.
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PREPARATION OF INFORMATION ASSURANCE PRACTITIONERS - OUTCOME Security breaches continue to plague our society. The most recent compromise of Home Depot’s payment systems has caused 56 million credit and debit cards being exposed, resulting in an estimated damage cost of one billion dollars. FireEye, Inc., an IT security company has shown that 97% of all organizations had been breached, 75% of the organizations had attackers getting control of the breached systems. Recognizing that "America’s economic prosperity, national security, and our individual liberties depend on our commitment to securing cyberspace and maintaining an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet", President Obama signed the Executive Order 13636, "Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity" in February 2013. Researchers have been active in searching for new solutions in securing our network infrastructure and proposing new methodologies for malware/vulnerability detection; at the same time, hackers are coming up with new threats and new attacks. In order to be ahead of the hackers, the government, the business sectors and educators have to join forces to produce a cadre of qualified professionals to protect the country’s critical infrastructure. The goal of this project is to recruit qualified BS and MS students at Northeastern University to be educated in the field of Information Assurance through the Scholarship for Service (SFS) program, and to join the federal workforce to protect the country’s cyber infrastructure. While students from the technical fields, Computer Science (CS), and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) appear to be the natural candidates for the SFS program, Northeastern University has succeeded in recruiting students from other background such as Criminal Justice, Political Science and Business Management. Over a period of 4 years with a total of 3 cohorts, this project has supported 22 students in total. Among them, 5 are CS majors with 3 receiving BS and 2 BS/MS degrees, 8 are ECE majors with 6 receiving BS and 1 each in BS/MS and MS degrees. The rest of the students, 9 come from the MS in Information Assurance (IA). With the exception of one undergraduate student who joined the private sector upon graduation, all 21 students have entered the federal, state and national research laboratories. Among them are NSA, DHS, CIA, Federal Reserve Bank, MITRE Corporation, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and the Executive Office of the President. As part of the IA education, students are encouraged to participate in extra curricular activities such as Capture the Flag and Collegiate Cyber Defense competitions. These activities have drawn students’ interest and provided them with hands-on experience. We also provide support to students to attend security related conferences and workshops where they present their research results, meet and learn from other professionals. These conference presentations also serve as a tool for us to attract and recruit strong students. In addition, we provide student leadership training by supporting their effort in organizing and running a Cyber Security Networking Day in 2014, where industrial leaders, faculty and NSA researchers were invited to give presentations about their work. Intellectual Impact The Scholarship Program has attracted strong students to enter the IA workforce, and has stimulated interest among other students. We have observed a surge of interest among undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing a Computer Science major specializing in cyber security. Our on-going faculty research activities on Virtual Machines, Malware and Cloud Security contribute to a better understanding of the vulnerabilities of commonly adopted technologies. We propose methodologies to improve users’ security and privacy while using the publicly available application software. Most of the research work is conducted among faculty members and students, through which students are taught to identify, to model and to solve problems associated with cyber infrastructure. We have also introduced a new course on Data Mining in Cyber Space. In addition to enhancing our IA education among technical disciplines, we have also collaborated with Political Science to introduce a MS degree program in Security and Resilience Studies. Broader Impact The SFS program has provided opportunities to 22 students to study Information Assurance under this grant. We have aggressively recruited underrepresented groups, and among these 22 students, we have 4 female students, 2 African American, 1 Pacific Islander and 1 with disability. The success of these students has served as role models to other students.
