6th European Conference - Academic Conferences

Evolving an Information Security Curriculum: New
Content, Innovative Pedagogy and Flexible Delivery
Formats
Tanya Zlateva, Virginia Greiman, Lou Chitkushev and Kip Becker
Boston University, USA
zlateva@bu.edu
ggreiman@bu.edu
ltc@bu.edu
kbecker@bu.edu
Abstract: In the last ten years information security has been recognized as a most relevant new trend by
academia, government and industry. The need for educating information security professionals has increased
dramatically and is not being met despite recent growth of cyber security programs. The challenge is to design
and evolve multi-disciplinary curricula that provide theoretical as well as hands-on experience and are also
available to a broad student audience is of strategic importance for the future of reliable and secure systems. We
present our experience in designing and evolving information security programs that have grown to over 650
students per year since their inception eight years ago and have graduated more than 250 students. We discuss
three major directions in the evolution of the program: the increased focus of the core and growth of
concentration electives, the design of cyber law curriculum and coordination with the business continuity
programs, and the introduction of new educational technologies such as virtualization and video-collaboration
and flexible online and blended delivery formats. The rapid growth of the program, the changes in the discipline
and the great diversity of professional interests of our students required broadening of the curriculum with
courses and modules on emerging technologies such as digital forensics, biometrics, security policies and
procedures, privacy and security in health care, cyber law, as well as the coordination of the curriculum with
existing programs in business continuity. Special efforts were expended to the introduction of more participatory
pedagogy, more specifically by developing a series of virtual laboratories that brought real world situations into
the class room and through video-collaboration tools that encourage team building. The accessibility of the
programs was increased through the introduction of flexible delivery formats. After establishing the programs in
the traditional classroom, we added an blended and online version that rapidly found a national audience.
Keywords: information security education, digital forensics, cyber law, virtualization, business continuity, online
and blended learning
1. Introduction
The strong and steadily increasing reliance on a globally distributed computational infrastructure in
virtually all areas of human endeavor—business , industry, government, defense, health care, and
even the individual’s social interactions—has made security and reliability of vital importance and has
sharply increased the need for information security professionals. This need is not being met despite
the recent growth of cyber security programs. The reasons lie in the complexity of the task that
requires building an interdisciplinary curriculum that integrates knowledge domains as diverse
cryptography, ethics, engineering, management and law. An additional challenge is the unusually
large gap between theory, (e.g. cryptographic algorithms), and practical skills, (e.g. setting up a fire
wall), that calls for an imaginative and effective way to bring real world experience into the classroom.
This paper presents and discusses our experience in establishing and growing the information
security concentrations in the Master’s programs in Computer Science, Computer Information
Systems, and Telecommunication at Boston University that are offered through BU’s Metropolitan
College. The programs are certified by the Committee on National Security Systems. Since the
introduction of the security curriculum in 2002 enrollments in our security courses grew to over 650
per year and more than 250 students have completed their Master’s degree with a concentration in
security. We trace the evolution of the programs in three major directions: the broadening and
diversification of the curriculum, developing a cyber law course and coordinating the curriculum with
programs in business continuity , and introducing new educational technologies, (more specifically
virtualization and video-collaboration), and flexible online and blended delivery formats.
2. Design principles, structure, and initial curriculum
We started introducing information security themes in the curriculum in the late 1990-ies and formally
introduced an information security concentration in the Master’s programs of Computer Science,
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