Education

The cyber security and privacy curriculum at Colorado School of Mines is aligned to the Bachelors Technical CAE-CD Knowledge Units (22 KUs in total), i.e., 3 Foundational KUs, 5 Technical KUs, plus 14 Optional KUs, specified in the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CD) Education (CAE-CDE) program requirements. While many other relevant courses are offered at Colorado School of Mines, the following 9 courses are used in our KU alignment:

  • CSCI 261 Programming Concepts (or CSCI 200 Foundational Programming Concepts & Design)
    CSCI 262 Data Structures (or CSCI 220 Data Structures and Algorithms)
  • CSCI 274 Introduction to the Linux Operating System
  • CSCI 403 Database Management
  • CSCI 406 Algorithms
  • CSCI 442 Operating Systems
  • CSCI 471 Computer Networks I
  • CSCI 474 Introduction to Cryptography (or CSCI 574 Theory of Cryptography)
  • CSCI 475 Information Security and Privacy (or CSCI 585 Information Security and Privacy)

The Computer Science Department oversees the Mines Cyber Defense Education Certificate Program, which requires a student to take all these 9 essential courses. Students who successfully complete these courses will receive an official Cyber Defense Education Certificate authorized by the NSA (National Security Agency) and DHS (Department of Homeland Security). Please email the current point of contact (POC) for CCSP for more details or questions.

A Recommended Sequence for Completing These 9 Courses:

A Recommended Sequence for Completing These 9 Courses

Program-level Learning Outcomes for Certificate Recipients:

    1. Articulate information security and privacy risks.
    2. Describe essential design principles and best practices in information security and privacy.
    3. Correlate cybersecurity with different sub-areas in computer science.
    4. Choose appropriate cryptographic techniques to protect computer and network systems.
    5. Combine different tools and techniques to protect computer and network systems.

Industry Advisory Board for our Cybersecurity Program:

  • Beaulah Aloysius, Verizon
  • Paul Andrus, Oracle
  • Zhongshu Gu, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
  • Ryan Hunt, Google
  • Annabelle Lee, Nevermore Security
  • Shane McFly, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
  • Matthew Sanders, LogRhythm