COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Information Technology Assurance and Security

The Department of Computer Science has undertaken an initiative in Information Technology Assurance and Security, which includes software reliability, information assurance, and computer and communications security. Recent developments in this initiative include the following:

National Security Agency Information Assurance Education and Training Scholarship Program

Florida State University has applied for the NSA Information Assurance Education and Training Scholarship Program that will provide support for students to study in the field of information assurance and computer security. Students who wished to pursue this opportunity for Fall 2002 were required to submit their applications by May 6th 2002. We expect this will be a yearly process. Students who did not apply in the last round should keep their eyes open for the next round.

Master of Science degree with Information Security Major, Fall 2001.

The creation of SAIT, the Security and Assurance in Information Technology Laboratory, including new laboratory facilities for research and education in Information Security: the Internet Teaching Lab, the Security Lab, the Virus Laboratory, and the Cryptography Lab, Spring and Summer 2001.

FSU Information Security Professional Certificate Program, Spring 2001.

The hiring of Dr. Michael Burmester, Spring 2001.

Recognized as a Center of Educational Excellence in Information Assurance by the National Security Agency, Spring 2000. (See the press release.)

Curriculum certified as compliant with NSTISSC standard for Information Security Professionals (NSTISSI No. 4011) for academic years 2000 through 2003, Spring 2000.

Funding of a new laboratory for computer and network security, Spring 2000.

A special Colloquium Series on Computer Security, Spring 2000.

The development of a new course in Network Security and Formal Methods, Spring 2000.

The development of a new course in Computer Security, Spring 2000.

The development of a new course in Cryptography, Fall 1999.

The hiring of Dr. Yvo Desmedt, Fall 1999.

The hiring of Dr. Alec Yasinsac, Fall 1999.

The offering of a special course in Information Technology Security Tools and Practices in collaboration with JAWS Technologies, Inc., Summer 1999.

The department is actively recruiting additional faculty and graduate students in this area, as well as the associated areas of Computer and Networks System Administration (CNSA) and Software Engineering.

The department has a history of security-related research projects in the CNSA program, including the following theses and projects:

Tim Bock: Visual Authentication, Fall 1996.

Steven Eschrich: Real-Time User Identification Employing Standard Unix Accounting, Fall 1995.

Tina Li: Behavioral Clustering and Statistical Intrusion Detection, Spring 1997.

Rebecca Cao: RSWatcher: A Port Scanning Detector , Summer 1999.

Another security-related research project in the department is the AMISS Project, an approach to (physical) intrusion detection based on neural network and expert system technology sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Further information on some of the faculty and student research activities related to IT Security and Assurance are available at http://websrv.cs.fsu.edu/research/projects/.

To see what the Federal Government is doing in this area, see http://www.ciao.ncr.gov. and http://www.ciao.ncr.gov/National_Plan/national%20plan%20final.pdf.