The Center for Information Assurance was formed on January 14, 2009. The mission of the center shall be to promote education and research in information assurance, computer security, and related fields at The University of Texas at El Paso. (official letter)
On January 14, 2009, we learned that our Information Assurance courseware has been certified as mapping 100% to the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) National Standards 4011 and 4013E. The goal of the Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation (IACE) Program is to expand the use of national standards in information assurance education and training throughout the nation.
An official certificate will be presented to us at the 13th Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education (CISSE) this summer. The set of courses included in the Information Assurance courseware are CS 3432 (Computer Architecture I), CS 4310 (Software Engineering I), CS 4316 (Computer Networks), CS 5339 (Web Based Computing), and CS 5352 (Computer Security). This means that when our certificate program has been approved at UTEP, we will be able to offer the certificate of completion to those taking all courses in the set.
Having our Information Assurance courseware certified as mapping to two sets of CNSS standards including 4011 makes UTEP eligible to apply for the designation of Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE). Throughout the United States, 123 institutions meet the required standards. We have applied to obtain this designation. Throughout the United States, 91 institutions currently have this designation. This program operates under the National Security Agency's (NSA) information assurance outreach program, and in particular under the National IA Education and Training Program (NIETP).