UNO students in Omaha during a recent world-wide cyber competition. photo by Justin Roberts

A Closer Look at IS&T's NUCIA

by Becky Bohan Brown

The next generation of Information Assurance (IA) professionals are being trained right here at UNO! In 2001, the University of Nebraska created the Nebraska University Center for Information Assurance (NUCIA) to establish an international presence in the information assurance community. Growth in computer support specialist jobs, such as IA and Cyber Security experts, is expected to increase by 18 percent by 2016.

Located in UNO's College of Information Science & Technology (IS&T), teachers and students work together to improve the posture of information assurance awareness locally, regionally and nationally. IS&T develops the skills of information assurance professionals through degree, non-degree and public information programs. A master’s degree in Information Assurance is the latest degree offering.

NUCIA's goals are to bridge the gap between:

• Academic excellence in the teaching of IA and cyber security
• Excellence in the research areas of interest to faculty and students
• Conducting applied research with industry partners and the local community

Trained IA professionals at UNO strive to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and their delivery systems in order to mitigate risk in the global IT infrastructure. UNO IA students also get real world offerings and experience dealing with threats ranging from hacking a home-based personal computer to shutting down power grids or communication systems.

Team NULLify, an IS&T student club, garners such real-life experiences by participating in scenarios and contests that focus on security and hacking. Team NULLify, recently came in eighth place at a cyber competition held in New York. However, Team NULLify never left Omaha. UNO and other participants competed via the Internet from all over the world. (Visit the club's blog (http://unonullify.com/) to find out about the latest Team NULLify happenings.)

Thanks to the efforts of NUCIA, UNO has been named a 'Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education' by the National Security Agency (NSA). For more information on NUCIA, visit http://nucia.ist.unomaha.edu/.

A full agenda can be found athttp://www.staysafeonline.org/download/document/289/business_security_summit_agenda.pdf

Since 2003, National Cyber Security Awareness Month has highlighted the importance of protecting the nation's cyber infrastructure and encourages individuals to play a role in protecting themselves and our shared digital assets.

Follow UNO's Information Security Office (ISO), a division of Information Services (IS), UNOInfoSec on Twitter (https://twitter.com/UNOInfoSec) for live updates and more information surrounding this event and the entire month of activities.