It’s been a long time coming.
After being a leader in the field for some time, a master’s degree in cybersecurity and operations at Mississippi State University has been approved by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees (IHL). The degree program is scheduled to be in place by fall 2018 and will be offered through the MSU Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the Bagley College of Engineering.
“We’ve been teaching cybersecurity for about 17 or 18 years, and we’ve always considered cybersecurity a problem and not a discipline,” said computer science professor David Dampier.
Dampier said treating cybersecurity as a problem allows for cybersecurity issues to be solved more easily, be it through hardware, software or policy means. However, when Dampier began getting calls asking about MSU’s cybersecurity program, he decided to begin plans for a degree program.
Dampier was forced to put his proposal for the program in for approval sooner than he anticipated after he received a grant from the U.S. Navy for a program to train naval officers in the cybersecurity field, with five naval officers now enrolled. The officers are currently switching from computer science to cybersecurity, now that the program has been officially approved. New students will be accepted into the program in August.
“If we didn’t take the step of creating the degree program, we were missing out on a lot of great students,” Dampier said.
Dampier added that several students had expressed an interest in the program, and that there is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals that he anticipates to last into the future. According to IHL, the approximate starting salary for cybersecurity professionals in Mississippi is $65,000.
Two emphasis areas will be offered, cyber defense and cyber operations.
“With the cyber defense option, graduates can go to work in any private corporation or government organization interested in securing their systems against outside aggression,” Dampier said. “With the cyber operations concentration, most opportunities are going to be in government, but some cyber operations types can go to work for penetration testing firms, and those businesses are growing as the need for their services grows.”
The degree is a traditional master’s program with 31 credit hours and thesis or non-thesis options.
“I get inquiries regularly from employers for students with these skill sets,” Computer Science and Engineering Department Head Donna Reese said.
Surveys in 2014 and 2016 ranked MSU in the top five universities in the country for providing cybersecurity personnel.