Cyber Operations

Undergraduate Certificate

Quick Facts

Credits Required: 18

Cost Per Credit: $525.00

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College of Information Science

Program Details

With cyber threats on the rise, the need for skilled professionals in information security continues to grow. The Cyber Operations Undergraduate Certificate provides foundational knowledge in key technical areas of cybersecurity, making it a strong starting point for students interested in entering the field or enhancing their current skill set.

This 18-credit certificate introduces core concepts in programming, networking, and system security through hands-on, practice-based learning. Courses cover topics such as C and Assembly programming, wireless networking, and mobile system architecture, helping students build practical skills relevant to today’s digital security landscape.

Offered by the College of Information Science, this program is ideal for students looking to explore cybersecurity as a career path or supplement a related degree. Graduates will be equipped to pursue entry-level roles such as Cyber Defense Analyst or Security Operations Center Analyst, or to continue on to more advanced study in the field.

View detailed program information

*Residents of some U.S. Territories may not be eligible. Please see our Eligibility & State Authorization page for more information.

Courses

The core curriculum for this program includes:

This course provides students with an introduction to C programming. Students will use hands-on labs and exercises to practice and implement applications developed in the C programming language.

This course will provide students with an introduction to assembly language programming. Students will use hands-on labs and exercises to practice and implement applications developed in Assembly language.

This course provides students with an introduction to the secure software development process as well as how to conduct a software security analysis to detect the presence of weaknesses that may lead to exploitable vulnerabilities in operational systems. Students will learn how to write, analyze, and test secure software that maintains Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.

This course provides an introduction to wireless networking, mobile device hardware and software architectures as well as the application of security fundamentals for mobile computing systems. Students will be able to describe user associations and routing in a cellular/mobile network, interaction of elements within the cellular/mobile core, and end-to-end delivery of a packet and/or signal and what happens with the hand-off at each step along the communications path. They will be able to explain differences in core architecture between different generations of cellular and mobile network technologies.

This course explores concepts of modern operating systems; concurrent processes; process synchronization and communication; resource allocation; kernels; deadlock; memory management; file systems. Lectures cover various aspects of operating system design. Students start the semester with a base virtual operating system and are tasked with implementing features such as scheduling, interprocess communication, and device drivers. CYBV 489 meets the National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO) academic requirements for operating systems theory.

This course covers the theory and application of cloud computing, including Cloud Computing network design and connectivity, server management, best-practices, security, and provider service level agreements. Case studies of industry examples are used as applications to reinforce the discussed theories.