Center for Cybersecurity & Intelligence Studies
Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD)
The Center for Cyber Security & Intelligence Studies (CCSIS) contributes to the knowledge, skills and abilities of current and emerging cybersecurity professionals to guide their logic, critical thinking and ethics through affiliated graduate programs, an experiential lab and community outreach activities. The CCSIS is housed in University of Detroit Mercy's College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences.
Value to the Nation and Community
The Center for Cyber Security & Intelligence Studies celebrates almost two decades of evolving excellence through the embodiment of our teaching in graduates who have gone on to work for Federal security agencies, Fortune 500 companies and not-for-profit organizations. In addition, our leading-edge cybersecurity lab provides dual value by providing our students with the tools to help law enforcement recover and validate through digital forensics.
Validated Programs of Study
University of Detroit Mercy’s B.S. in Cybersecurity and our M.S. in Cybersecurity Management have been validated by the National Security Agency.
University of Detroit Mercy is designated by the National Security Agency as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD).
External News
Krebs On Security
- A sprawling academic cheating network turbocharged by Google Ads that has generated nearly $25 million in revenue has curious connections to a Kremlin-connected oligarch whose […]
- China-based phishing groups blamed for non-stop scam SMS messages about a supposed wayward package or unpaid toll fee are promoting a new offering, just in […]
- A prolific cybercriminal group that calls itself "Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters" made headlines regularly this year by stealing data from and publicly mass extorting dozens of […]
- On the surface, the Superbox media streaming devices for sale at retailers like BestBuy and Walmart may seem like a steal: They offer unlimited access […]
- In March 2024, Mozilla said it was winding down its collaboration with Onerep — an identity protection service offered with the Firefox web browser that […]
- An intermittent outage at Cloudflare on Tuesday briefly knocked many of the Internet's top destinations offline. Some affected Cloudflare customers were able to pivot away […]
Secure World
- The Hoxhunt 2025 Cyber Threat Intelligence Report delivers a sobering message for security professionals: the most dangerous threats are no […]
- The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Operational Technology (OT) environments promises unprecedented efficiency, but it also introduces critical, often […]
- The cybersecurity world has long feared that automation would eventually sideline human analysts. However, a new report from McKinsey, "Agents, […]
- A large financial services firm recently rolled out an "AI analyst" in its security operations center. The agent could search logs, […]
- As the year winds down, many enterprises look for ways to meet their social impact, ESG, and sustainability goals, while […]
- As holiday shopping surges across Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas, attackers are once again ramping up operations—this time […]
Dark Reading
- Software teams at Google and other Rust adopters see safer code when using the memory-safe language, and also fewer rollbacks […]
- Remember when Apple put that U2 album in everyone's music libraries? India wanted to do that to all of its […]
- Manufacturers are the top target for cyberattacks in 2025 because of their still-plentiful cybersecurity gaps and a lack of expertise.
- A maximum-severity vulnerability affecting the React JavaScript library has been exploited in the wild, further stressing the need to patch […]
- As quantum quietly moves beyond lab experiment and into production workflows, here's what enterprise security leaders should be focused on, […]
Resources
- Detroit Mercy Cybersecurity Club – Open to all majors, the Detroit Mercy Cybersecurity Club, sponsored by the Detroit Chapter of ISACA, is an opportunity for students to delve deeper into computers and cybersecurity.
- NICCS – Cybersecurity CISA Resources and Tools, Cybersecurity Training Resources, Education Resources.
- TryHackMe – An interactive cybersecurity training platform offering guided labs and challenges to learn hacking and security concepts in a hands-on environment.
- Hack The Box – A penetration testing platform with virtual labs that challenge users to hack into simulated systems, enhancing offensive security skills and knowledge.
- NCAE Cyber Games – A competition platform for students participating in cyber games, supported by the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity, aimed at developing practical cybersecurity skills through competitive events.
- CyberSeek—To help close the cybersecurity skills gap, CyberSeek provides detailed, actionable data on supply and demand in the cybersecurity job market.
- CyberMission.tech – A Department of Defense (DoD) cyber initiative with high-tech, hands-on opportunities for military personnel, Veterans, and the public.
- CISA Cybersecurity Resources: Telework guidance and best practices, assessments, prevention, and response resources, cybersecurity awareness and best practices resources, misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation resources, mitigating cyber risks to the nation’s critical infrastructure.
Security Resources
Goals & Unique Features of the Center
Following the goals for the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, the Center provides education, advanced security research and service to:
- To advance the cybersecurity capabilities of the workforce within the Detroit Mercy service region as well as nationally.
- To increase the number of highly educated, digitally literate citizens within underrepresented people and veterans and to produce professional specialists in areas of critical need.
- To generate educational, outreach and research activities that will ensure the protection of the critical infrastructure of the United States as a whole.
Internal News
Thu, April 17, 2025
During the April 2025 ISACA Detroit Chapter Meeting, Team Neopolitan, comprised of Preston Duller, John-Paul Marvin, and Mark Formosa, were presented with the fi...
Mon, March 17, 2025
From Friday, March 14th, 2025, to Sunday, March 16th, 2025, five local universities competed in the 11th annual ISACA Detroit Cybersecurity Scholarship Competition, comp...
Sat, March 1, 2025
From 11 am-7 pm on March 1st, 2025, twelve UDM students worked to score points in the NCAE Cyber Games competition. These students were ...
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Affiliated Faculty
Cybersecurity & Information Systems and Criminal Justice Programs
- Gregory Laidlaw, DMIT, department chair and lecturer of Cybersecurity & Information Systems
- Dan Shoemaker, Ph,D., director of the Master of Science in the Information Assurance Program
- Erick Barnes, department chair, instructor of Criminal Justice and Director of the Master of Science in Intelligence Analysis Program
- Anne Kohnke, Ph.D., director of the Center for Cyber Security & Intelligence Studies and associate professor of Cybersecurity & Information Systems
- Charles Wilson, J.D., associate professor of Criminal Justice
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Cybersecurity Center Advisory Board
- William Bowen '03, '05, U.S. Army, TACOM
- Edward Bobola III, senior master sergeant, 110 OG (USA)
- Mike Brennan, founder of Michigan News Network
- Shaun Cavanaugh, chief information security officer at the National Park Service
- Marrci Conner, faculty at Henry Ford College
- Kurt Gollinger, chief operating officer at Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
- Jason Grembi '02, author of Secure Software Development, certified information systems security professional and senior cybersecurity architect, Vehicle Services department at General Motors
- Michael Huguley '07, Infrastructure Manager / Infrastructure Architect
- Keith Jaroszewski, '09, '10, senior penetration Tester at Synchrony
- J.T. Jones '05, deputy cybersecurity program manager at the US Army in Europe G6
- Daniel Kennedy, principal consultant at Forensic Criminology Associates
- Kristin Judge, founder of Cyber Crime Support Network
- Dan Lohrmann, chief strategist and chief security officer at Security Mentor, Inc.
- Christopher Martella '15, attorney at Kemp Klein Law Firm
- Richard Marshall, chairman of the board at Cinturion
- Janell McLemore '09, access manager at the U.S. Department of Defense
- Sajay Rai, President, certified public accountant, certified information systems security professional and certified information security manager at Securely Yours
- James L. Rainey, Ph.D., III, '95, '97, information technology specialist at the U.S. Government
- Stephanie Scheurmann, cyber threat intelligence specialist at Ford Motor Company
- Bob Sherman, associate professor and chair of Computer Information Systems at Sinclair Community College
- Ken Sigler '98, faculty at Oakland Community College
- Christopher Sorensen, senior cybersecurity researcher at GE Digital
- Ryan Spangler, senior account executive cybersecurity practice at TEKSystems
- Mary Sparks, '05, WebFOCUS senior SDA, Ford Motor Company
- Caston Thomas, President at InterWorks, LLC
- Dave Trader, chief strategy officer at GalaxE Solutions
- Tabice Ward, director/computer and information science and engineering (CISE) at DTE Energy
- Jeff Weber, Department of Defense
- Brad Wilkerson, principal engineer at Walt Disney Imagineering
- Angela Williams, enterprise information security officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan