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History

History

2001 - NUCIA Founded

NUCIA began with a series of telephone calls between the Dean of the College of Information Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a professor of Information Assurance (IA) from Georgia Tech, Blaine Burnham. In this discussion, Dr. Burnham, a 10-year veteran of the NSA, described a program that would introduce principles of IA to interested UNO students. Burnham's vision was to create a program that would teach the foundational principles of information assurance to qualified students as well as the community.

2004 - Maturing

A majority of the current NUCIA faculty were recruited and assembled as the first drafts of the proposed Degree in IA were drawn up and revised.

During this time, the first Information assurance courses opened to student enrollment. With classes officially launched, the first NSF Federal Cyber Service SFS sholars were accepted and began their concentrations in IA.

2006 - Students Go Forth

The first group of NSF Federal Cyber Service SFS scholars graduate and attain employment in various government agencies and national laboratories. These employers included the National Security Agency, Department of Transportation, Department of the Treasury, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Defense Intelligence Agency, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Strategic Command.

The second group of NSF Federal Cyber Service SFS scholars began their IA education with NUCIA.

2007 - Bachelor Degree Arrives

The Bachelor of Science in Information Assurance degree was finally offered by the University of Nebraska at Omaha for the first time.

2012 - Master Degree Program Launched

After establishing a successful decade, the Information Assurance program launched a Master of Science degree.

2013 - Bachelor and Master Degrees Renamed to Cybersecurity

The degrees are officially renamed to Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity and Master of Science in Cybersecurity.

2016-17 - NSA CAE Cyber Defense and Cyber Operations Designations

In 2004 UNO was recognized as a National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Information Assurance, a credential which has subsequently been renewed several times. Since, then the designation has changed slightly to be CAE-CDE (Cyber Defense Education). In late 2016, the CYBR program was also designated as a Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO).