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College Catalog 2024 - 2025
Cybersecurity Option, A.S.
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The goal of the Cybersecurity program is to offer a student-centered, contemporary and future focused, comprehensive security program. The objective of this program is to provide students with the necessary technical knowledge, skills, and abilities alongside cultivating a student’s ability to think analytically and critically, to collaborate, to problem solve, to communicate verbally and in writing, and to behave ethically. The Cybersecurity degree has been designed to provide courses and content that are informed by national standards such as the NICE Framework from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the knowledge units required for National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) program jointly sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with aligning it to local area career market needs. Further, curriculum in this program readies students for several industry certifications including CISCO’s CCNA, RedHat’s Certified Engineer, CompTIA’s Security+ and EC Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker. The Cybersecurity degree program prepares students either for transfer to a related bachelor’s degree program in cybersecurity or for employment in various entry-level information security analyst positions.
* Milestone Courses should be taken in the order shown. This will help you stay on track and graduate on time.
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Total Credits: 16
Semester 1 Advising Note
- New degree-seeking students enrolled in 9 credits or more must take a Learning Community Seminar or a Learning Community Cluster within their first year.
- Quantitative Problem Solving General Education requirement satisfied by Program.
Total Credits: 16
Semester 2 Advising Note
- Meet with an advisor to begin career planning activities
Total Credits: 3
Summer Semester Advising Note
- Community and Cultural Contexts General Education requirement satisfied by Program.
Total Credits: 16
Semester 3 Advising Note
- Complete a pre-graduation check with an advisor in LifeMap
Total Credits: 15
Semester 4 Advising Note
Upon Completion of This Concentration Graduates Will Be Able To:
- Demonstrate an ability to think analytically and critically, troubleshoot, collaborate, multitask, prioritize, problem solve, communicate verbally and in writing, and behave ethically.
- Identify, understand, and apply industry standards
- Describe and deploy network, firewalls, Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and honeypots
- Understand and apply technologies and principles involved in creating a secure computer network and enterprise environment
- Differentiate between threats, risks, and vulnerabilities and be prepared to handle and respond to incidents using countermeasures
- Apply threat intelligence, network assessments and defenses, security appliances and technologies, incident preparation, response, and investigation, and risk management and data privacy
- Analyze network traffic, differentiate between legitimate and malicious activity, and recognize anomalies in data
- Identify and manage threats and vulnerabilities including social engineering and physical security
- Understand and apply industry standards
- Manage documentation of processes and procedures
- Understand and manage modern operating systems using the command line interface
- Use a programming language to read, write, and execute programs
- Explain what a penetration tester can and cannot do legally, perform attacks, employ the tools and techniques of a penetration tester, and generate a penetration test report
- Understand concepts and applications of cryptography including PKI and other cryptographic protocols, authentication, and cybersecurity resiliency
Career Outlook
The option is designed to align with the National Institute of Technology and Standards’ National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework to ensure consistent, current, and flexible training in the growing technology field of Information Security. Further, the Cybersecurity degree student learning outcomes and program outcomes have been informed by a panel of cybersecurity professionals who developed a profile for a Security Operations Analyst Level 1 including skills, knowledge, behaviors, tools, and future trends necessary for the local Boston area job market. According to the BLS, “jobs for information security analysts will grow by 33% from 2020 to 2030,” which is an estimated four times faster rate than the average employment growth rate of all occupations nationwide.
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