UNM Earns CAE-R Designation as National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance

The National Secu­rity Agency and the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity have re-designated the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico as a National Cen­ter of Aca­d­e­mic Excel­lence in Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Secu­rity Edu­ca­tion (CAEIAE). The Infor­ma­tion Assur­ance pro­gram, within UNM’s Ander­son School of Man­age­ment, ini­tially earned a five-year CAE des­ig­na­tion in 2007. The new des­ig­na­tion, CAE-R, which is more rig­or­ous to attain, cov­ers aca­d­e­mic years 2012 through 2017.

“Receiv­ing the CAE re-designation as well as meet­ing the higher stan­dards of the CAE-R des­ig­na­tion reaf­firms UNM’s lead­er­ship in the state and the region in infor­ma­tion assur­ance and cyber­se­cu­rity,” said ASM Pro­fes­sor Alessan­dro Seazzu. “As New Mexico’s flag­ship uni­ver­sity our fac­ulty, staff and stu­dents con­tinue to dis­tin­guish them­selves in their lead­er­ship efforts while cement­ing our grad­u­ate program’s role in the devel­op­ment of a national cyber­se­cu­rity workforce.”

Cer­tifi­cates will be pre­sented dur­ing the 16th Annual Con­fer­ence of the Col­lo­quium for Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Secu­rity Edu­ca­tion (CISSE) in June.

Led by Seazzu and other ASM Pro­fes­sors includ­ing Stephen Burd, Rich Brody, Xin Luo, Com­puter Sci­ence Pro­fes­sor Jed Cran­dall and Asso­ciate Provost Greg Heile­man, UNM’s IA pro­gram con­tin­ues to make impres­sive strides after just five years or certification.

The let­ter of re-designation said in part: “Your abil­ity to meet the increas­ing demands of the pro­gram cri­te­ria will serve the nation well in con­tribut­ing to the pro­tec­tion of the National Infor­ma­tion Infrastructure.”

Review­ers applauded UNM’s con­tin­ued efforts to build its IA Pro­gram. One reviewer said, “The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico con­tin­ues to move for­ward in IA edu­ca­tion, excel­lent work.”

Seazzu feels UNM’s pro­gram is prop­erly sit­u­ated to address the increas­ing demands of the infor­ma­tion assur­ance field locally, region­ally as well as nationally.

“As we look ahead, UNM remains uniquely posi­tioned in the region to aug­ment its ser­vices in sup­port of the IA research and oper­a­tional needs of the nation while actively serv­ing our local com­mu­nity through its out­reach activ­i­ties for K-12 and IA assess­ments for non-profits and other orga­ni­za­tions in the state,” Seazzu said. “These evolv­ing capa­bil­i­ties are a reward­ing out­come to the depth and level of col­lab­o­ra­tion UNM sup­ports with national secu­rity and law enforce­ment agencies.”

The CAEIAE pro­gram is designed and intended to reduce vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties in the national infor­ma­tion infra­struc­ture by pro­mot­ing higher edu­ca­tion in infor­ma­tion assur­ance and pro­duc­ing a grow­ing num­ber of pro­fes­sion­als with infor­ma­tion assur­ance exper­tise in var­i­ous disciplines.

The National Secu­rity Agency and the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity jointly spon­sor the National Cen­ters of Aca­d­e­mic Excel­lence Pro­gram, which was formed in April 2004 in response to Pri­or­ity III of the President’s National Strat­egy to Secure Cyber­space of 2003, directs the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment to fos­ter train­ing and edu­ca­tion pro­grams to sup­port the Nation’s cyber­se­cu­rity needs, and to increase the effi­ciency of exist­ing Fed­eral cyber­se­cu­rity programs.

As a CAEIAE, UNM stu­dents can apply for schol­ar­ships and grants through the Depart­ment of Defense Infor­ma­tion Assur­ance Schol­ar­ship Pro­gram and the Fed­eral Cyber Ser­vice Schol­ar­ship for Ser­vice Pro­gram. Addi­tion­ally, uni­ver­si­ties des­ig­nated as Cen­ters of Aca­d­e­mic Excel­lence in Infor­ma­tion Assur­ance Edu­ca­tion are eli­gi­ble to apply for schol­ar­ships and grants through both the Fed­eral and Depart­ment of Defense Infor­ma­tion Assur­ance Schol­ar­ship Programs.

For more infor­ma­tion visit: CAEIAE pro­gram CAEIAE pro­gram or visit the MBA pro­gram with a con­cen­tra­tion in Infor­ma­tion Assurance.

Media Con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu