Informatics adds security master’s program

In the current economy, everyone is looking for a job that combines job security and a high growth rate with the job that pays well.

The School of Informatics’ new master’s program might provide the skills needed to land a job in the field of cybersecurity.

Starting in the fall, the new security informatics master’s program will teach its students the tools to provide security to all of the information used in today’s increasingly digital society.

Professors Steve Meyers and L. Jean Camp created the program.

Cybersecurity-related jobs can be found all throughout the private and public sectors in fields such as commerce, government, business, law enforcement, homeland security, forensics and national defense. Any field where sensitive information is exchanged can benefit from added security, the professors said.

The program allows students to focus on a concentration in a specific field of cybersecurity and tailors studies to the individual career path they choose.

“Security has become more nuanced and contextual,” said Camp, who is also the director of the security informatics program. “Of course, security fundamentals such as cryptography remain at the core of security. Yet across the country, the need for understanding security as an element of an organizational and competitive context has increasingly been recognized.”

Security informatics is a major part of information technology because more people and organizations are using more information as an integral part of their daily business. The more valuable the information becomes means more people might try to exploit it for financial gain.

The new master’s program comes at a time when President Obama’s new policies call for a new office of cyber czar to “strengthen our cyber defenses in the 21st century.”
In terms of resources for students, Bloomington offers organizations to help during study and after graduation – some being the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, the University Information Technology Services, the Research and Education Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the University Information Security Office, among many other offices and centers that specialize in cybersecurity.

Students with bachelor’s degrees can enter the program provided they complete certain informatics prerequisites. Cybersecurity is a field that favors diversity among its professionals.

“Any organization that depends on its network access and intellectual capital could hire a master’s of science in security informatics graduate,” Camp said.