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 and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD).
External News
- Biden Signs Better Cybercrime Metrics Act (Secure World)
- Conti Ransomware Attack Spurs State of Emergency in Costa Rica (Threat Post)
- 5 Benefits of Detection-as-Code (Hacker News)
- Apple, Google, and Microsoft Support FIDO Passwordless Sign-Ins (Secure World)
- Real Estate Wire Fraud on the Rise, Secret Service Investigators Say (Secure World)
- Cyber Insurance Prices Continue to Rise (Secure World)
- FBI Seeking Info on BlackCat Ransomware (Secure World)
- U.S. Proposes $1 Million Fine on Colonial Pipeline for Safety Violations After Cyberattack (Hacker News)
Internal News
- University of Detroit Mercy's team of 17 students competed between more than 500 high schools and colleges across the U.S. in the National Cyber League's (NCL) fall 2021 Capture the Flag Team Game competition. Led by Cybersecurity Club President Thomas Mueller '22, this team game competition was designed for players to compete and track their progress in real-time against other students and players, and was powered by Cyber Skyline's cloud-based skills evaluation platform.
- Thomas Richard Mueller '21 recently ranked 214 out of 7,130 students in a recent Capture the Flag Individual Game tournament, hosted by the National Cyber League (NCL). For the fall 2021 individual scouting report, Mueller scored in the top 100th percentile in the categories of log analysis and cryptography, and in the top 97th percentile for password cracking. To learn more, visit https://nationalcyberleague.org/competition.
- Detroit Mercy’s Cybersecurity Club featured guest speaker Brian Kaetz who spoke on the topic of Incident Response. The in-person event took place on Monday, April 18 in the Briggs Building, room 217.
- The Detroit Mercy Cybersecurity Club meeting held a virtual meeting on Monday, April 12 with host guest speaker Micki Boland who gave a presentation on Tor and dark web situational awareness. Boland has over 20 years in ICT, cybersecurity, emerging technology and innovation.
- Detroit Mercy’s Cybersecurity Club welcomed Juman Doleh to their upcoming meeting. Doleh is the director of cybersecurity at Little Caesars and an executive board member and past president of ISACA. She spoke about audit and compliance. This talk took place Monday, March 28 in the Briggs Building, room 217.
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.
- CYBER.ORG – Cybersecurity curricula and resources for K-12 teachers, educators, students and parents including classroom materials, career profiles, event information and more.
- Workforce Management Guidebook – Cybersecurity is Everyone’s Job – A publication that talks about cybersecurity from every business function and aspect of an organization’s operation. It is written for a general audience who may not be knowledgeable about cybersecurity.
- CyberMission.tech – A Department of Defense (DoD) cyber initiative with high-tech, hands-on opportunities for military personnel, Veterans and the public.
- CyberSeek – To help close the cybersecurity skills gap, CyberSeek provides detailed, actionable data around supply and demand in the cybersecurity job market.
- STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ – The STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ (STC) Campaign is a national public awareness campaign aimed at increasing the understanding of cyber threats and empowering the American public to be safer and more secure online.
- CISA Cybersecurity Resources – Telework guidance and best practices, assessments, prevention, and response resources, cybersecurity awareness and best practices resources, misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information resources, mitigating cyber risks to the nation’s critical infrastructure.
- DHS Science and Technology – Cybersecurity resources, DHS Science and Technology Directorate, cybersecurity publications and more.
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.
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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