NSA Adds 22 New Centers of Excellence

Are you interested in going back to school for Information Assurance or Cybersecurity? Your number of choices just expanded by 22! The National Security Agency established Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in 1998 to identify colleges and universities that have a high standard for their information assurance (IA) programs. Now in 2011 the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security sponsor the program together, which now also includes CAE-Research (CAE-R) programs as well. The program’s mission is simple: “to reduce vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical information infrastructure by promoting higher education in information assurance and producing a greater number of professionals with hands-on information assurance expertise.”

The program started off with seven CAE schools in 1999, and now there are over 118 universities, and 13 two-year schools. 50 universities are CAE-R designated, while 36 are both CAE/IAE, as well as CAE-R.

This year the NSA added 22 more schools. They are listed below:

ALABAMA
University of Southern Alabama

CALIFORNIA
University of Southern California

DELAWARE
Wilmington University

FLORIDA
Florida Institute of Technology

GEORGIA
Columbus State University

ILLINOIS
Lewis University
Louisiana Tech University

MARYLAND
Bowie State University
College of Southern Maryland
The Community College of Baltimore County

MICHIGAN
Ferris State University

MINNESOTA
Inver Hills Community College

NEW YORK
Erie Community College
Mercy College

OHIO
Richland College