What is Information Assurance?

Information Assurance (IA) is an emerging, rapidly expanding science that addresses problems in the fundamental understanding of the design, development, implementation and life cycle support of secure information systems. The need for secure information systems has become a paramount concern as the computer-enabled, internet-connected, digital-based global society of the 21st century emerges. The lack of adequately secure information systems has been cited as one of the likely impediments of the emergence of the digital society.

Why the need for Information Assurance?

Almost on a daily basis, we are informed of yet another information system assurance failure resulting in the exposure of millions of personal private records, millions of dollars diverted to world wide remediation of hacker attacks, and the occasional business failure due to denial of service events. The societal cost of all this remediation is estimated in the many billions of dollars annually. These estimates tend to not include the costs of the individual efforts expended on recovering from identity theft, personal credit card fraud, loss of data, time spent on recovery measures for individual personal computers and generally the societal cost of the time and energy dealing with hacked, infected, zombiefied, overwhelmed with spyware and adware, and otherwise disabled personal computing resources.

As information technology is further integrated into the lives of every individual (the RFID tidal wave being but one instance), the societal dependence on the technology grows even greater. It is becoming apparent that additional progress, absent a much more pervasive understanding of information assurance, will result in significantly greater risk to the individuals and the very fabric the societies build in the 21st century.

What course work does an IA degree require?

All undergraduates graduating with a degree in Information Assurance are required to have:

All undergraduate information assurance students are strongly encouraged to take courses that focus their undergraduate studies on particular portions of the world we live in. This will allow students to better understand the peoples and history of that portion of the world, including their societal desires and motivations.

Who can I contact for more information about the IA degree?

UNO's College of IS&T have specially trained academic advisors that can answer questions about potential coursework, campus life and any other potential questions you might have.