Students have an opportunity to earn a master’s degree in cybersecurity in five years, thanks to an accelerated program in the Department of Computer Science, Math and Physics.

Those working on a bachelor’s degree in computer science or applied computer technology may take up to 12 graduate credit hours in cybersecurity courses during their senior year that would count toward the master’s degree. The master’s program was formerly known as Information Technology Assurance Administration.

“Our goal is to equip students to become IT professionals that safeguard IT infrastructures from attacks on hardware, software, networks, and data repositories,” said Dr. Yipkei Kwok, assistant professor of computer science. “Doing so requires our students to gain a thorough understanding of these attacks and the ability to deploy countermeasures against them.”

He noted that the company Cybersecurity Ventures predicts there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity job openings by 2021.