The FSU Computer Science Department has been notified that it has been re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cypersecurity Education for the academic years 2014 through 2021. The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security established the CAE IA/CD program in part “to reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense”, according to the program website.

To achieve this designation, the department demonstrated that it had a robust and active Information Assurance/Cyber Defense academic program, that the department encouraged student-based cybersecurity research, that the approach to IA/CD was interdisciplinary, that IA principles were put into practice as well as taught, in addition to several other criteria.

Professors Mike Burmester and Xiuwen Liu lead the department’s program, and Professor Mike Burmester heads the Center for Security & Assurance in IT (C-SAIT).