The National Security Agency designated the following universities as Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for academic years 2003 through 2006. They join the list of thirty-six universities across the country to be awarded this distinction.
- Auburn University (AL)
- Capitol College (MD)
- East Stroudsburg University (PA)
- Johns Hopkins University (MD)
- New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJ)
- Pennsylvania State University (PA)
- Portland State University (OR)
- Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ)
- Texas A&M University (TX)
- University of Dallas (TX)
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst (MA)
- University of Pennsylvania (PA)
- University of Virginia (VA)
- Walsh College (MI)
Designation as a Center is good for three academic years, after which a university must successfully reapply in order to retain the designation. Each of the universities that were designated as Centers during the year 2000 reapplied, and were successfully evaluated against strengthened criteria.
- Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
- Florida State University (FL)
- Information Resources Management College, National Defense University (DC)
- Naval Postgraduate School (CA)
- Stanford University (CA)
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (IL)
- University of Tulsa (OK)
Several additional universities applied for the program, and many demonstrated great potential as future Centers. They are applauded for their efforts and are encouraged to continue to develop their information assurance programs and to reapply.
The Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program is intended 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 in various disciplines. Formal presentations will be made to the universities by the Information Assurance Director, National Security Agency on 3 June 2003, during the annual conference of the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education. The conference will be held in the Washington Marriott Hotel, 1221 22nd Street, NW, Washington, DC. Information on the Colloquium and the annual conference may be found at http://cisse.info.
Universities designated as Centers are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through both the federal (http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/due/programs/sfs) and Department of Defense (http://www.C3i.osd.mil/iasp/index.html) Information Assurance Scholarship Programs.
The President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, 14 February 2003, refers to cyberspace as the nervous system of our Nation's critical infrastructures, and indicates that the healthy functioning of cyberspace is essential to our economy and our national security. Securing cyberspace presents a difficult strategic challenge, and information assurance education is a critical component in successfully meeting that challenge.