Around 181 programs, which run the gamut in focus from white-hat hacking to basic coding, are designated members of the National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) program.
“Updates to these programs are currently underway as a new NSA/DHS Information Assurance/Cyber Defense designation is being developed to replace the existing programs,” explained the CAE. “The creation of this new designation will help distinguish the strengths of each of the CAE institutions, benefitting not only the CAE, but also students, employers and hiring managers throughout the nation.”
The programs will lose their affiliation with the CAE program until they revamp their existing federal training standards with the implementation of a series of knowledge units—which have yet to be specified. What is known is that schools will be realigning their curriculae with te rapidly developing threat landscape, workplace skills set needs and certain benchmarks. The lesson plans will include a core curriculum and optional specialty units such as data-security analysis and forensics, healthcare security and so on.
"Our intention is to continually update the program so that students are always presented with material that is cutting-edge," Denisha Jackson, who heads the Centers of Academic Excellence program for the NSA, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. "The knowledge-units concept will be much easier to update as government, industry and academia identify needed changes."
Schools will need to reapply for the federal designation after the retooling is complete. The NSA said that it will process all renewal applications before opening it up to new candidates, and that the process will be completed by December 2014.
The designation brings along funding (millions in federal grants and scholarships), student interest and prestige, as the Chronicle points out.
Whatcom Community College, in northwestern Washington State, was awarded the designation in 2011. "It increased my enrollment quite a bit," Corrinne Sande, head of the Cybersecurity Center at eth college, told the Chronicle. "Many students have told me the only reason they came to my college is because of the designation." It has been, she said, "the best thing we ever did."
The news comes as much is being made of the lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals in the workplace. Findings from (ISC)²’s 2013 Global Information Security Workforce Study indicated that a major shortage of skilled cyber security professionals is negatively impacting organizations and their customers, leading to more frequent and costly data breaches.