Cybersecurity & Operations, MS

The Master of Science in Cybersecurity & Operations degree requires a minimum of 30 credit hours, and offers thesis and non-thesis options. All students must earn a minimum of 15 credit hours from eligible 6000-level courses.

Student Learning Outcomes

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for MS Cybersecurity & Operations
1	Students will demonstrate conceptual understanding of the cyber domain with respect to technology, threats, actors and risk.
2	Students will demonstrate understanding of the essential legal and ethical code of conduct requirements for cyber professionals.
3	Students will demonstrate essential-to-intermediate hands-on cyber skills in cyber defense and operations.
4	Students will demonstrate practical skills working in small teams to accomplish cyber defense and operations tasks.
5	Students will demonstrate effective written presentation skills to produce effective informative reports of cyber engagements to management and IT personnel.
6	[Research Track] Students will demonstrate effective cyber research skills by successfully formulating and completing at least one piece of cyber research..

Prerequisites

To enter the program, a student must have completed a four-year baccalaureate degree recognized by the University of New Orleans. A student must have successfully completed the following three UNO courses or their equivalent at another institution.

CSCI 4311 - Computer Networks & Telecomm - Credits: 3
CSCI 4401 - Principles Operating Systems I - Credits: 3
CSCI 4621 - Intro Cyber Security - Credits: 3
Students who do not meet the prerequisites can begin their program by taking the corresponding 5000-level section of these courses, subject to their respective requisites:
CSCI 5311 - Computer Networks & Telecomm - Credits: 3
CSCI 5401 - Principles Operating Systems I - Credits: 3
CSCI 5621 - Intro Cyber Security - Credits: 3

Supporting Courses

Up to 12 credits maximum.

Students who have taken for credit the corresponding undergraduate courses at UNO or the equivalent at institution cannot take the corresponding 5000-level section for credit towards the degree.

CSCI 5130 - Intro Cryptography - Credits: 3
(Students must either have undergraduate credit for CSCI 4130 or equivalent, or must complete either CSCI 5130 Intro to Cryptography, or CSCI 6626 Advanced Cryptography.
CSCI 5402 - Principles Operating Systms II - Credits: 3
CSCI 5460 - Network Op & Defense - Credits: 3
CSCI 5622 - Reverse Engineering - Credits: 3
CSCI 5623 - Digital Forensics - Credits: 3

Core Cybersecurity Courses

12 credits minimum required.

CSCI 6621 - Network Security - Credits: 3
CSCI 6625 - Network Penetration - Credits: 3
CSCI 6663 - Software security - Credits: 3

Breadth Courses (6000-level) SYSTEMS

Students can take up to five 6000-level courses (15 credit hours) towards satisfying the degree requirements from the two categories of Breadth Courses, SYSTEMS and ALGORITHMS.

If two or three Breadth courses are taken, then at least one of each of the two categories must be present.

If four or five Breadth courses are taken, then at least two of each of the two categories must be present.

CSCI 6350 - Dev of Distributed Software - Credits: 3
CSCI 6450 - Principles Distributed Systems - Credits: 3
CSCI 6452 - Cloud Computing - Credits: 3

Breadth Courses (6000-level) ALGORITHMS

Students can take up to five 6000-level courses (15 credit hours) towards satisfying the degree requirements from the two categories of Breadth Courses, SYSTEMS and ALGORITHMS.

If two or three Breadth courses are taken, then at least one of each of the two categories must be present.

If four or five Breadth courses are taken, then at least two of each of the two categories must be present.

CSCI 6250 - Big Data Analytics and Systems - Credits: 3
CSCI 6633 - Computer Vision - Credits: 3
CSCI 6634 - Data Visualization - Credits: 3
CSCI 6635 - Pattern Recognition - Credits: 3
CSCI 6650 - Intelligent Agents - Credits: 3

Thesis Option (Research track)

6 credits of CSCI 7000 Thesis Research (at most 3 credits per semester) working with a faculty advisor on a research problem in cybersecurity in lieu of two elective courses. Thesis-option students still must complete at least five 6000-level eleigible courses.

Non-thesis Option (Professional track)

Non-thesis students must complete at least seven cybersecurity courses from the CORE and SUPPORTING categories, as listed below. CSCI 7000 Thesis Research cannot be used to satisfy the credit requirements of the non-thesis option.