MASTER OF SCIENCE IN SECURITY INFORMATICS PROGRAM The flagship educational experience offered by Johns Hopkins University in the area of information security and assurance is represented by the Master of Science in Security Informatics degree. Over thirty courses are available in support of this unique and innovative graduate program. Over 25 full-time, part-time, or adjunct faculty are available to deliver these courses at multiple sites spanning the Homewood campus in northern Baltimore, the medical and health facilities in eastern Baltimore, the part-time graduate program operations at APL and the Montgomery County campus, and the SAIS and KSAS facilities in Washington, D.C. COURSE REQUIREMENTS All courses supporting the MSSI are categorized as one of four types:
(i) Technology; (ii) Policy; (iii) Health; (iv) Management. All MSSI course programs must satisfy the following distribution requirements: A minimum of 4 courses (12 semester credits) in the Technology category, of which at least 3 courses (9 semester credits) must be designated as core Technology courses/credits; one of these must be in cryptography. 550.438 Statistical Methods in Computer Intrusion Protection
550.471 Cryptography and Coding
600.424 Network Security
600.442 Cryptography and Network Security
600.443 Security and Privacy
600.471 Theory of Computation
600.624 Advanced Topics in Network Security
600.641 Special Topics in Theoretical Cryptography
600.642 Advanced Cryptographic Protocols
600.643 Advanced Topics in Computer Security
600.648 Secure Software Engineering
650.412 Java Security
650.441 Designing Security Systems
650.443 Researching Security Systems
650.457 Computer Forensics 110.480 Elliptic Curves and Cryptography
600. (736, 737, 738) Information Security Projects
605.731 Network Security
605.732 Cryptology
650.433 Embedded Security Systems (On-line course)
650.449 Internet Protocols
• A minimum of 4 core courses (12 credits) in Non-Technology categories, of which at least 6 credits must come from Policy courses and at least 3 credits of which must come from a Health course or a Management course. 650.414 Rights in the Digital Age
650.430 Moral and Legal Foundations of Privacy
650.432 Law and Policy of Information Assurance 280.340 Intro to Health Policy and Management
309.641 HIPAA Implications for Public Health
309.702 Health Informatics Decision Support
309.703 Health Informations Design and Evaluation600.700 Health Informatics Applications
600.701 Health Informatics Data, Information and Knowledge
600.705 Health Sciences Informatics Security, Confidentiality, and Privacy
650.418 Informatics in Public Health650.452 Healthcare Security Management
650.651 Health Information, Privacy and Law 605.432 Principles of Enterprise Security and Privacy
774.715 Financial Issues in Managing a Secure Operation
774.717 Implementing Information Security Programs All MSSI course programs must consist of at least 6 core category courses. In general, most of the courses taken by MSSI students will be expected to be selected from the core categories. However, additional non-core courses in the Technology and Policy categories are also available to support the MSSI program. In consultation with the MSSI advisor, such courses can be selected when deemed appropriate relative to a student's background, interests, and goals. 470.663 Administering Homeland Security
480.627 Digital Security, Privacy, and Civil Liberties
480.628 Digital Rights Management: American and European Perspectives
680.711 Data Privacy and International Public Policy
680.733 New Public Policy for the Information Revolution
680.747 Economic and Policy Implications of Global Electronic Commerce
680.750 Information Revolution and World Politics
680.751 International Governance of New Technologies
280.350 Intro to Epidemiology
306.655 Ethical Issues in Public Heath
605.424 WWW Security
605.432 Public Key Infrastructure and Managing E-Security
776.754 E-Commerce Security An MSSI student may require the background represented by a number of Foundational courses in the Technology category to serve as preparation for the Technology category core course requirement. For the 10 course MSSI requirement, at most one such Foundational category course (3 credits) can be counted. Some of the Foundational courses are available not only during the regular academic year semesters, but also during summer sessions as well.
600.418 Operating Systems
600.421 Object Oriented Systems
600.433 Computer Systems Fundamentals
600.437 Distributed Systems
600.466 Information Retrieval and Web Agents
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS All MSSI programs must include a project involving a research and development oriented investigation focused on an approved topic addressing the field of information security and assurance from the perspective of relevant applications. In general, the project will include both technology and non-technology components, and will be conducted within a team-structured environment comprised of students and advisors. A successful Project will be expected to result in the development of a so-called "deliverable" and an associated report suitable for online distribution. The completed project must be jointly presented and defended by the project team student members. Projects will generally be sponsored by government/industry partners and affiliates of the Information Security Institute, and can also be related to faculty research programs supported by grants and contracts. CONCURRENT BACHELORS/MASTERS PROGRAM For undergraduates in the Whiting School of Engineering and the Krieger School of Engineering, as well as for undergraduates from local universities with which Johns Hopkins has established agreements of cooperation, students can pursue a concurrent bachelors/masters program in conjunction with the MSSI. In such a concurrent bachelors/masters program, an undergraduate can apply for admission into the MSSI program as early as the completion of the sophomore year. If accepted, each semester the student will generally take courses that satisfy the bachelor degree requirements or the MSSI requirements. Three courses can be double counted for the MSSI and the bachelors program. By means of involvement in the project component of the MSSI during summers as well as the regular academic year, it is possible for a student to complete both of the degree requirements in a total of 5 years, and at times even less depending on a student's advanced placement credits and the extent to which summer session courses are taken relative to the undergraduate degree requirements. Students interested in the concurrent bachelor/masters program should consult with their undergraduate advisor regarding approval and scheduling before requesting admission into the MSSI program. JHUISI MSSI and CS MSECS — DUAL MASTERS PROGRAM The Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute (JHUISI) and the Department of Computer Science (CS) in the Whiting School of Engineering have approved the establishment of a two-year Dual Masters Program (DMP) combining the Master of Science in Security Informatics (MSSI) offered by JHUISI and the Master of Science in Engineering in Computer Science (MSECS) offered by CS. Admission into the DMP is approved on a case by case basis. DMP students are able to complete all the requirements for each of the two masters degrees (receiving two diplomas upon graduation) within a two year period by double counting as many as two courses towards the requirements of both degrees. Study and research within the field of information security and assurance (IS&A) represents an extraordinary opportunity for students in the WSE. The availability of the JHUISI MSSI and CS MSCSE within the WSE is distinguishing and represents an enormous opportunity. The DMP is attractive to students who are interested in building upon the fundamental relationships between the JHUSI MSSI program and the CS MSCSE program. The commingling of courses and projects within the DMP Masters Program provides a platform for a unique graduate educational experience with both breadth and depth, particularly relevant as preparation for research and development initiatives of interest in both government and industry. In the DMP program: A student can be concurrently enrolled in both the MSSI and MSECS degree programs while satisfying each of the sets of degree requirements. A maximum of two courses (approved by the advisor(s)) can each be double counted so as to be usable in satisfying both sets of course requirements, thereby facilitating the feasibility of completing the DMP in two academic years plus the in-between summer. MSSI and MSECS Program requirements The requirements for the MSSI and the MSECS programs are inherently complementary, and therefore have some foundational similarities that serve as a framework for the proposed DMP. A brief overview of these two masters programs is provided in the following. Students interested in the DMP should discuss the details of the requirements more fully with an appropriate academic advisor in JHUISI and the CS Department. MSSI The MSSI degree program has a 10 course (30 semester credit hours) requirement plus a project which must be supervised and approved by a JHUISI affiliated faculty member. Courses supporting the MSSI are divided into two disjoint categories: Software and hardware systems, applications, theory, and math foundations Policy, privacy, management, law & regulations, and health applications Included in a satisfactory 10 course MSSI program (approved by an assigned advisor) must be at least 4 courses (12 credits) in the technology area and at least 4 courses (12 credits) in the non-technology area. The MSSI project topic(s) can be technology or non-technology oriented, or combinations thereof. Project participation can involve an individual student or a team of students. Formal approval of a project proposal by the supervising JHUISI affiliated faculty member(s), including goals and milestones, must be submitted (pdf format) to the MSSI graduate program coordinator before the project can be officially approved. Completion of a project must include submittal of a final report and/or demonstration or presentation of a deliverable, approved by the advisor(s)) which will be made publicly available. MSECS The MSECS program has an eight course requirement plus completion of one of the following: - Two additional courses;
- Masters project supervised by a CS approved faculty member (resulting in a publicly available report).
- Masters essay (thesis) advised by a CS approved faculty member.
The Department of Computer Science classifies each upper-level course into one of three categories: - Analysis
- Applications
- Systems
MSECS students must complete at least two graduate courses (400-level and above, minimum total of 6 credit hours) from each of these three areas. Multiple area classified courses can only be counted towards one area requirement. The MSECS coursework program must be approved by the CS assigned MSECS advisor and the department/center. Dual Masters Program Advising Regarding academic advising, it is anticipated that a student in the proposed DMP will have a MSSI advisor affiliated with JHUISI and a MSECS advisor approved by the CS Department. In some cases this might be possible for that to be the same person as there are numerous CS faculty with JHUISI affiliations. In the more common cases where two advisors are involved, the advisors are expected interact sufficiently with the student so as to coordinate the coursework, project, and essay (thesis) components programs such that completion within 2 academic years is feasible. Double Counting of Courses Two courses (approved by the advisor(s)) can be double counted so as to be usable in satisfying of course requirements of the MSSI and MSECS. Obviously, any double counted course would have to be acceptable in both masters programs. Accordingly, courses that have been developed to support the JHUISI MSSI program in the policy, privacy, law, management, or health areas would not in general be expected to fall into this double counting category. Application to the Dual Masters Program An application to the proposed DMP Program can be comprised of separate applications to the MSSI program in JHUISI and MSECS program in CS. It is anticipated that some of the students who decide to pursue the DMP will actually have initially entered either the MSSI program or the MSECS program, and then elected to seek both degrees in the DMP at a later point. In such cases, the designation of the double counted courses would be done in conjunction with both advisors and the CS graduate coordinator and the JHUISI graduate coordinator. Dual Masters Program with the Department of Applied Math and Statistics in the WSE A similar DMP has been initiated regarding the JHUISI MSSI and the masters program in the Department of Applied Math and Statistics in the WSE. The details of this DMP are similar in principal to those for the MSSI/MSECS, but there are some significant differences. Each program should be contacted if a student is interested. Dual Masters Program with the School of Public Health in the BSPH A similar DMP has been initiated regarding the JHUISI MSSI and the Master of Health Sciences (MHS) program in the Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH). The details of this MSSI/MHS DMP are similar in principal to those for the MSSI/MSECS, but there are some significant differences. Each program should be contacted if a student is interested.
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