MSIA Course Specializations

The two specializations that you can choose from are Banking and Financial Security and CyberSecurity. Specializations consist of a four-course (12 credit hours) sequence.

Banking and Financial Security Specialization

INFA 741 Introduction to Banking
(3 credit hours)

A study of the history of the banking industry, recognizing the importance of regulations and laws pertaining to the protection of the financial sector and recognizing how the multiple regulatory agencies work in concert in addressing and maintaining availability, integrity and confidentiality of financial information.

INFA 743 Information Security Management Systems 
(3 credit hours)

Federal and state laws require organizations to safeguard non-public information. This course provides an overview of the information security management systems that organizational leaders use to safeguard non-public information. Topics include: 1) Information security law and regulation in the financial sector, 2) enterprise security management standards, 3) information security policy, procedures, standards and guidelines, 4) emergency preparedness, including business continuity, disaster recovery, and pandemic planning, 5) incident response planning, and 6) security awareness programs. The course begins by defining information security management program options, explores methods for operationalizing these options, and examine the future direction of each topic area.

Prerequisite: INFA 713 and INFA 715.

INFA 745 Compliance and Audit
(3 credit hours)

This course examines fundamental concepts in IT security audit and control processes for the financial industry, including the control framework, attendant control objectives and reporting systems for an organization. Students learn to create a control structure, audit an IT infrastructure against it, and establish systematic remediation procedures. As part of the learning process, students have an opportunity to be certified as a CISA (Certified Information System Auditor).

Prerequisite: INFA 713 and INFA 715.

Select one elective from the electives list.

CyberSecurity Specialization

INFA 725 Advanced Network Hacking
(3 credit hours)

This course is designed to expose students to advanced exploitation techniques. Topics include the use of automated exploitation tools as well as the process of exploitation discovery and development. Vulnerability analysis, debugging, fuzzing, shellcode, and mitigation techniques will be explored. Both Windows and Linux platforms will be covered. 

Prerequisite: INFA 534 or CSC 436.

INFA 729 Advanced Web Hacking
(3 credit hours)
This course emphasizes offensive attacks that all web-based applications are confronted with. Special attention will be paid to attacks vectors in the operating system, web server, database, and programming language implemented by the web application. Advanced techniques related to filter evasion, session management, database interaction, path traversal, and file inclusion will be emphasized.

Prerequisite: INFA 534 or CSC 434.

INFA 739 Software Quality Assurance 
(3 credit hours)

This course is intended to acquaint the students with principles, techniques, and best practices of software quality assurance, concentrating on software testing and verification. It will cover functional testing, structural testing, regression testing, test automation, specification-based testing, code review, formal modeling, model-based testing, and model checking.

INFA 751 Wireless Security
(3 credit hours)
A technical perspective on maintaining the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of wireless networks. Covers a wide range of technical issues, including wireless communication fundamentals, wireless network configuration, security standards, wireless vulnerabilities, attacks and countermeasures.