Computer Science - BA
This program combines a set of required core courses with a wide variety of elective courses in the various areas of computer science.
Overview
If you want to help protect businesses and organizations from cyber-attacks, consider UHart’s minor in cybersecurity. The importance of cybersecurity is growing as society becomes more reliant on technology and companies are charged with ensuring the security of their hardware, software, data, and networks. Cybersecurity professionals are charged with monitoring an organization’s IT infrastructure and evaluating potential security threats, and designing the systems needed to protect an organization’s data and cyber networks.
About the Minor
You learn the fundamentals of computer, data, and network security and the techniques and algorithms for detecting unusual activities that typically signal a cyber break-in or breach, including techniques for detecting evasive or stealthy attacks. You study the fundamentals of security elements, secure design principles, and information assurance and cryptographic techniques, along with the prevention, detection, and mitigation of cyber threats. What kinds of jobs can you get with a cybersecurity education? Cybersecurity offers many career opportunities with job titles such as cybersecurity analyst, information security officer, cybersecurity engineer, and cybersecurity architect, to name a few.
Minor Requirements
The cybersecurity minor includes a core curriculum of five courses (16 credits).Required Courses
- Fundamentals of Computing I
- Introduction to Cybersecurity
- Computer Networks, or Network Design and Cybersecurity
- Information Assurance & Cryptography
- Intrusion Detection and Security
For more information, and to see a complete list of degree requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Select an elective for an additional 3 credits from the following courses:
- Principles of Database Systems
- Computer Operating Systems
- Concepts of Programming Languages
- System Programming
- Data Structures
- Cybersecurity Risk Management & Insurance (INS Course)
- Network Routing and Switching Essentials (ECE Course)
- Cyber Security for Cyber-physical Systems
- Introduction to Embedded Linux Systems for the Internet of Things (IoT)
For more information, and to see a complete list of degree requirements, visit the Course Catalog.
Cybersecurity minors will gain the skills and knowledge to be able to:
- Identify different types of threats, attacks, and corresponding defense mechanisms that exist in the digital world.
- Apply security principles and practices to maintain operations in the presence of risks and threats.
- Explore different cryptographic algorithms and protocols with their strengths and weaknesses, and modes of operations.
- Explore different aspects of secure software design and development.
- Gain an understanding of laws, standards, ethical issues, career opportunities, and societal aspects of cybersecurity.
Career Outlook
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that jobs for information security analysts will grow 31 percent between 2019 and 2029, a much higher rate than the national average for all other professions (4 percent). According to the BLS, the median annual wage was $103,590 in May 2020, with demand for information security analysts expected to be very high as companies are needing to create innovative solutions to prevent hackers from stealing critical information or causing problems for computer networks.
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