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 new identity theft service launched on the dark web this week is selling digital scans of more than 153 million drivers licenses from people […]
- Authorities in Australia have arrested two men believed to be members of TeamPCP, a prolific cybercrime and data extortion group blamed for perpetrating the longest […]
- It can be daunting to determine who's responsible for showing ads on the websites we visit, or who's harvesting data from the mobile apps we […]
- Microsoft today released updates to remedy at least 398 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software, including one weakness that is already […]
- A 26-year-old Canadian man once described as one of the most consequential cybercrime threat actors of 2024 has pleaded guilty to computer fraud and conspiracy […]
- Security experts have been sounding the alarm for years about the risks of using generic TV boxes that promise unlimited content streaming for a one-time […]
Secure World
- When a service goes down, the outage itself is only half the crisis. The other half is silence; or worse, […]
- For years, security teams trained employees to distrust suspicious emails: strange sender addresses, sloppy grammar, a link that doesn't quite […]
- Every medical device manufacturer today is sitting on a mountain of security data—SBOMs, vulnerability scans, quality system records, regulatory filings, […]
- On August 31, 2026, the U.S. Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) announced it had launched Starshield AI's […]
- New research from Cequence Security and Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has surfaced one of the more uncomfortable numbers in enterprise […]
- Every summer, IBM and the Ponemon Institute release the report that security teams quietly use to justify next year's budget. […]
Dark Reading
- Threat actors behind the "Phantom Deal" campaign are studying companies in extreme detail, aiming to dupe midlevel employees into initiating […]
- In this video conversation, Dark Reading editors discuss some of the news they didn't get a chance to cover, from […]
- The incident demonstrates how frontier AI agents can dramatically compress an attack timeline and coordinate a large-scale breach, according to […]
- Brazil's most sophisticated threat group is making light work of the country's financial systems, putting money directly into its own […]
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.
- 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
Sun, March 15, 2026
The ISACA Detroit Chapter hosts an annual Scholarship Competition where students work from Friday to Sunday morning on a cybersecurity case and ta...
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...
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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
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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