Information Assurance (MS) | Capitol College

Capitol College's engineering programs rank high with U.S. News and World Report.

The master of science in information assurance (MSIA) is a 36-credit graduate program designed to meet the growing demand for highly skilled professionals in the specialty field of information assurance. Students gain a comprehensive education completing the 24-credit core curriculum while specializing their studies with 12 credits of electives from the areas of network security engineering, information assurance management or wireless security.

MSIA graduates are prepared for careers as information systems security officers, information security analysts, administrators and consultants, risk managers and auditors, chief technical officers, chief information officers and many more.

The program also provides students with the professional competencies specified by the world's two most prominent authorities in information assurance -- the joint National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS), and the (ISC)2 organization's requirements for the Certified Information Systems Security

Professional (CISSP) credential. All ten common bodies of knowledge associated with the CISSP are integrated within the curriculum, as are the six federal training standards. Graduates of the MSIA program, in addition to their diploma, receive a certificate attesting that they’ve studied and been determined to meet the National Training Standards curriculum. Furthermore, graduates are encouraged to sit for the official CISSP exam soon after completing the program, or enroll in Capitol’s online preparatory course as a refresher.

The NSA and DHS have designated Capitol College as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education in all six CNSS domains, and at the advanced level where applicable. The eight required core courses are mapped to all six of the CNSS domains specified by the NSA and DHS. Capitol received its first designation in 2003 and gained recertification in 2006 against strengthened criteria and more rigorous standards.