Nov 04, 2025

2019-2020 Academic Catalogue

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2019-2020 Academic Catalogue [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Cybersecurity Minor

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This minor can be declared through the Department of Computer and Information Sciences .

Director: COL Mohamed Eltoweissy (X7939, eltoweissymy@vmi.edu)

Eligibility

Cadets in ALL VMI academic departments

Admission Requirements

The Minor in Cybersecurity requires a 3.0 GPA for admission.

Good Standing Requirement

Cadets must maintain a 3.0 GPA in the minor program throughout their course of study.

Student Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate understanding of cyber security, ethics and resilience concepts as transdisciplinary, with an understanding of major technical, management, legal, regulatory, and compliance frameworks
Describe major components of primary cyber security and cyber resilience systems/components for the prevention, detection, response and resilience to cyber attacks
Describe ethical components of decision-making in cyber and cyber security practices and applications
Analyze cyber-enabled systems as pertaining to vulnerabilities, threats, risks and resilience
Analyze behaviors in cyberspace, and identify potential ethical conflicts and means for their resolution
Develop an artifact assimilating knowledge of technical, management and behavioral aspects in securing cyber-enabled systems
Demonstrate good written and oral technical communication skills

Course Requirements

21 Credits total plus practicum

• 9 core credits [No prerequisite courses (beyond the VMI core) are required for any of the core courses]

Cyber Systems, Security, and Resilience

Programming

CIS 111 - Programming I Credit Hours: 3
or
CIS 310 - Computational Thinking and Programming Credit Hours: 3
or

Behavior and Ethics

ERH 207 - Ethics Credit Hours: 3
or
PS 201 - Introduction to Psychology Credit Hours: 3

• 12 elective credits chosen from among two of the following tracks (the reason for restricting the electives to two tracks is to provide adequate depth):

Technical Track

CIS 112 - Programming II Credit Hours: 3 or
EE 445 - Computer Networks Credit Hours: 3
EE 328 - Computer Architecture Credit Hours: 3

Management and Policy Track

BU 330 - Management Information Systems Credit Hours: 3
BU 335 - Web 2.0 for Business Credit Hours: 3
EC 414 - Applied Game Theory Credit Hours: 3
IS 320 - National Security Policy Credit Hours: 3

Humanistic and Social Studies Track

ERH 221 - Digital Rhetorics Credit Hours: 3
ERH 302 - Civic Discourse Credit Hours: 3
ERH 314 - Technical Communication Credit Hours: 3
ERH 332 - Logic and Critical Thinking Credit Hours: 3
PS 302 - Social Psychology Credit Hours: 3
PS 313 - Forensic Psychology Credit Hours: 3

Critical Infrastructure Track

*Under Development

• No more than three elective courses in any one track

• At least 15 credits outside the major

Practicum

Must be pre-approved by the minor coordinator
Must address issues related to security, ethics and resilience
Requires a final report and presentation
May include, but not limited to, any of the following:

Capstone project

Internship

Summer research project

Community and/or professional service (minimum 40 hours)

Suggested Sample Projects for CySec

Exploting and developing solutions for critical infrastructure security
Nature-inspired cyber security solutions
Modeling and analysis of secure enterprise information systems
Evaluation of cryptographic algorithms
Designing a platform for cyber competitions
Privacy-preserving healthcare management systems
Exploration of relevant policies such as HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.
Design and analysis of attacker-defender games
Cloud computing platforms for cyber resilience
Exploring the tension between security and privacy

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