A Technical History of the SEI

CERT website. 11 Free downloadable materials enabled faculty to start teaching SIA quickly. The
materials are so extensive that faculty could use them as “turn-key” courses, or educational institutions
could adapt them to suit their needs. Also, the materials are not only appropriate for twoyear
colleges but also for four-year institutions; portions are applicable at the graduate level. A
read-only (“general”) version of course materials is available to students and other system administrators.
The Consequence: System Administrators Who Support the Business
Mission
System administrators make the connection between technology and business mission, using technology
to help the business operate effectively and efficiently. They understand how a specific
piece of technology fits into the overall business, its contribution to that business, and its importance.
Their understanding of business and risk issues enables them to sustain and improve the
enterprise’s functionality and to add new functionality without a negative impact on the business
mission. They are able to communicate with business decision-makers to explain, “This is what
we’re doing; this is why we’re doing it; and this is why it makes business sense.” They are able to
answer questions such as “What’s the impact on business? What are the metrics of performance?
What does this cost? What’s the benefit? Are we avoiding costs; are we reducing costs?” They
help the enterprise networks to be better able to survive in an increasingly internet-oriented world.
The SEI Contribution
The SIA curriculum has filled a gap in system administrator education. It is a practical and realistic
curriculum that layers skills training on a firm educational foundation and presents new ideas
and new approaches to many of the traditional tasks of system administrators. The quality of the
material and credibility of the SEI, its well-known CERT program, and Carnegie Mellon enable
faculty to use the course material with confidence. The SEI influence is widespread. As of 2012,
access to the faculty version of the curriculum was granted to 382 qualified faculty members representing
235 colleges and universities located in 43 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and one
Canadian province. The general, read-only version was downloaded 3,287 times by groups in 130
countries: 862 by organizations, 744 by educational institutions, 674 by government agencies, and
151 by others. The general version was also downloaded 856 times for personal use.
Others contributed to the influence of the SIA curriculum. The Regional Center for Systems Security
and Information Assurance (CSSIA) 12 has mapped the SIA courses to two of the national
standards for security-related training 13 and found that the courses meet approximately 95 percent
of the standards’ objectives.
11 Curriculum and lab overviews, and downloadable materials can be found at http://www.cert.org/curricula/sia-curriculum.cfm.
12 CSSIA is funded by the National Science Foundation.
13 NSTISSI 4011 National Training Standard for Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professionals
, Committee on National Security Systems,
(https://www.cnss.gov/CNSS/openDoc.cfm?U5Wzl9pAb0QOxSawdnQmTA==)1994 and
CNSS 4013 National Information Assurance Training Standard for System Administrators, Committee
on National Security Systems (http://www.scis.nova.edu/documents/cnssi_4013.pdf)
CMU/SEI-2016-SR-027 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE | CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 78
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