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Home » About Norwich » SGS Today »
Computer Security Handbook, 5th edition (Wiley, February 2009).
MSIA program leaves fingerprints all over Computer Security Handbook
by David Corriveau, correspondent
© Jan. 30, 2009 Norwich University Office of Communications
The publication of the fifth edition of the Computer Security Handbook demonstrates Norwich University's continuing leadership in the booming field of information assurance.
Count the set of fingerprints on this latest edition, due out in February 2009: out of 80 contributors, 37 people with Norwich connections edited or contributed material for the 1,984-page, two-volume package.
In fact, the curriculum for the Master of Science in Information Assurance (MSIA) program at Norwich University's School of Graduate Studies (SGS) largely evolved from the fourth edition of this industry-standard handbook, published in 2002.
The fourth edition, which covers subjects such as industry basics, technical defenses and management issues, was designed with teaching in mind. Content was arranged to facilitate learning of the material.
"Everything I've heard from really the entire industry [about MSIA alumni] has been positive," said Michel Kabay, MSIA director and chief technical officer of SGS, and technical editor of the book.
"Our program has proven itself now, in the six years it has been running, as one of the finest in the country and the world in preparing our students to be managers — effective managers, supportive managers — of good information assurance teams."
In many cases, Kabay and past and present MSIA faculty and students teamed up to write chapters for the new edition. For example, Adjunct Professor Stephen Cobb collaborated on the chapter about encryption with Corinne LeFrançois, an information assurance analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA) and a 2004 Norwich graduate who will receive her MSIA degree in June.
"Corinne had written a paper on quantum cryptology as part of her course work, which her professor brought to Mich [Kabay's] attention," said Cobb.
"Mich had the idea, why not take some of the work I had done for the fourth edition — which ended up not making it in because of space. She dealt with some recent developments since that time, and the stuff dovetailed quite nicely. I read the chapter and I said, 'Oh, yes. She knows what she's talking about.'"
So does 2008 MSIA graduate Mani Akella, director of technology for the New Jersey-based Consultant gurus. In his 20 years in the industry, he has focused on international data law and policy that takes into account cultural and societal influences in different parts of the world.
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“You get some great discussions of real-world situations,” Cobb said. “That's what grounds the program at Norwich.” |
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Kabay asked Akella, midway through Seminar 5 of the MSIA program, to co-write a chapter, "Using Social Psychology to Implement Security Policies," with faculty members D.T. Lang, Bridgitt Robertson and himself.
"The training that I received at Norwich reinforced my belief that people, not technology, are the most undefined variable in the security equation for any operation," Akella said in a recent e-mail. "This, in turn, helped shape both my own outlook as well as my approach to my work with security architectures at various projects I have had the opportunity to work at."
Akella said that he enrolled in MSIA after finding that most other master's-degree programs he looked at with business-security topics "were certificate courses, which did not seem to offer as much immersed learning as a full graduate course. Norwich impressed me with both the content and the focus."
Cobb, an independent consultant on information security, figures that he learns at least as much from students as they do from him.
"You get some great discussions of real-world situations," Cobb said. "That's what grounds the program at Norwich."
Co-editor Eric Whyne, a Norwich undergraduate alumnus who served as advisor to the Iraqi Army, has seen firsthand the real-world implications of information covered in the handbook.
"Everywhere I have gone, and with every job I have held, I have been able to apply and refine the principles covered in this handbook and in previous versions," Whyne noted in the book's acknowledgments.
"From the most high-tech, cutting-edge, multiplexed satellite communications system used in military operations in Iraq, to the relatively mundane desktop computer networks of offices in the United States, to the ancient, weathered computers the Iraqi Army totes around with them and ties into the power grid at any opportunity, computer security is critical to the accomplishment of the most basic tasks these systems are used for."
Closer to home, MSIA alumnus and faculty member Eric Salveggio finds his training and handbook experience equally helpful in his job as an IT auditor with BBVA Compass Bank in Birmingham, Ala.
"My bosses were very impressed to have someone on the team with these credentials," Salveggio wrote in an e-mail to colleagues about the forthcoming handbook.
Small wonder, then, that Kabay continues to involve MSIA faculty, alumni and students in the handbook, which professors in Norwich's School of Business and Management and in schools around the country use to teach undergraduate courses.
"I think they get a lot out of the experience of working with each other and with us, the editors, in a professional endeavor of this kind," Kabay said. "It's good for their CV, good for their job prospects and good for the industry as a whole."
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