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
- The cybercrime group Qilin has emerged as the world's most active ransomware affiliate program, claiming at least 365 victim organizations in the past three months […]
- Microsoft did another four-digit patch drop today, releasing updates to fix almost 1,100 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software. This month's […]
- Several staffers at the White House are using computers or mobile devices equipped with residential proxy services that render their internet address available for others […]
- Google said today it worked with industry partners to dismantle a botnet made up of more than 1.3 million Android TV set-top boxes that ship […]
- Expect to see quite a few websites serving "404" or "Page Not Found" errors today: Nearly 70 percent of websites need to update their core […]
- U.S. federal investigators pursuing the ShinyHunters hacking group that recently stole highly sensitive data from the FBI have identified executives at two different ransomware negotiation […]
Secure World
- An employee searching for an apartment on a work laptop lands on what looks like a Zillow listing review. Before […]
- Shipping giant A.P. Moller – Maersk has confirmed that an attacker accessed and extracted data from a legacy system it […]
- Cybersecurity leaders threat-model everything, including themselves. When a CISO or security architect starts to wonder whether the 2 a.m. pages, […]
- Thirty years ago this week, a hacker writing as Aleph One published "Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit" in […]
- For decades, software security has relied on two quiet assumptions. Finding and weaponizing a vulnerability took rare skill, and defenders […]
- We have spent decades strengthening our network perimeter, encrypting communication channels, implementing TLS, deploying API gateways, and enforcing identity-based access […]
Dark Reading
- The Android malware has expanded from focusing on crypto theft to full device control, and the attackers have added advanced […]
- Blockchain complexities, such as attacker-deployed sweepers, hobble security controls designed to limit the damage of an exchange compromise.
- Most organizations haven't sorted out their cryptographic estate enough to even know where they'd start with post-quantum cryptography (PQC).
- Cybercriminals using agentic pen-testing tools is a proverbial genie out of the bottle at this point, so enterprises need to […]
- The cybercriminals are retargeting law firms that refused to pay its first ransom, with a social engineering con aimed at […]
- When hand-typed commands failed to breach a US retailer, the attacker turned to AI-generated scripts, achieving lateral movement in minutes.
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
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UDM Students Win $9,000 in Prizes at the 12th Annual ISACA Detroit Cybersecurity Scholarship
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2025 ISACA Cybersecurity Case Competition Award Ceremony
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Three UDM Teams Place in 2025 ISACA Cybersecurity Scholarship Competition
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UDM Student Team Places Third in the 2025 NCAE Cyber Games Midwest Competition
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Cybersecurity Club Meets the National Cyber Director, White House
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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