2013 National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Designees Announced

The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security jointly announce the addition of 17 institutions as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and Research. This increases the number of academic institutions receiving this designation to a total of 181 schools spanning 43 states,  the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

The Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAE/IAE) was developed to reduce vulnerabilities in the national information infrastructure by promoting higher education in information assurance and producing a growing number of professionals with information assurance expertise to meet the nation's rising need. The program was started by NSA in 1998 with DHS joining as a partner in 2004 in response to the President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace of 2003. The Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (CAE-R) program was added in 2008 to encourage universities and students to pursue higher-level doctoral research in cybersecurity. In 2010,  the Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance 2-Year Education (CAE2Y) program was established to afford two year institutions technical schools and government training centers that are also teaching information assurance curriculum,  the opportunity to receive such designation.

The program is currently transitioning to new requirements to keep abreast of changes in the IA/Cybersecurity field. These changes under the new NSA/DHS CAE Information Assurance/Cyber Defense (IA/CD) program are being implemented in a manner that will allow participating schools to keep their existing CAE-IA designation through December 2014 as they migrate to the new Knowledge Unit/core curriculum requirements model.

Additionally,  the new program affords each CAE institution the opportunity to distinguish their strengths in IA/CD focus areas benefitting not only the institution,  but also students,  employers, and hiring managers throughout the nation.

All designations received in 2013 are valid for two academic years,  after which the institution must designate under the new NSA/DHS CAE Information Assurance/Cyber Defense program to retain CAE status.

Four year designated institutions in Information Assurance Education and Research are eligible to apply to scholarships and grants through the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and the National Science Foundation's Scholarship for Service Program.

More information about the National Security Agency is available online at NSA.gov.

Fact Sheet

2013-2015 Designations

The following five institutions were designated as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAE/IAE) for the years 2013 through 2015:

The following three institutions were designated as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (CAE-R) for the years 2013 through 2015:

The following nine institutions were designated as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance 2-Year Education (CAE2Y) for the years 2013 through 2015: