Special Topics: Information Assurance is an introduction course for Information Systems students that focuses on information security concepts. This course will be a broad introduction to many aspects of information security that affect computer systems, your everyday life on the internet, your activities - and those of others, and the practices of all organizations using and building information systems. You will learn an introduction to the practice of securing information systems, how organizations manage risk to their information assets, what threats there are to the security of an information systems, strategies for organizational resilience, applicable US cyber laws, and how organizations respond to real incidents. You will hear about some of the major cyber incidents that have shaped the way security is performed by organizations on the internet today, and you will participate through class discussions and homework analyzing important recent cyber issues, real incidents, and internet-scale events.

Syllabus

https://www.cmu.edu/information-systems/images/syllabi/67309-information-assurance-f18.pdf

Class format

Lecture and project-based

Home department

Dietrich College, Information Systems

Target audience

Students in Dietrich’s Information Systems program.

Background required

Prerequisite Knowledge: 15-110 or 15-112 and 67-250

Learning objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, each student should be able show to tangible evidence of growth and maturity in the following areas:

• Be able to state core information security concepts
• Apply information security concepts to case studies, discussions, and preliminary information system designs
• Perform analysis of the implications of certain decisions upon information and/or system security
• Understand relevant legal, ethical, and privacy issues and how they might impact policy and actions of organizations or individuals
• Make decisions about the security of information and information systems, and support your decisions with relevant arguments
• Apply security analysis to a real-world event and present your findings and arguments

Faculty and instructors who have taught this course in the past

Sam Perl