There’s a war going on that most of us can’t see, a behind-the-
scenes battle in cyberspace between thieves who seek to steal
vital information and those trained to stop them.
The weapons: sophistication, knowledge and training.
The bounty: untold quantities of computer-stored
information that contains our most sensitive interests in both
the private and public realms.
This year, Grand Canyon University introduced new
online and ground degrees to arm graduates with an arsenal
of high-tech weapons so they can immediately join the front
line against cybercriminals.
“At GCU, we are teaching our students the tools and the
technologies that hackers use to penetrate our security,”
said Dr. Roméo Farinacci, program director of Information
Technology & Cyber Security for GCU’s College of Science,
Engineering, and Technology.
“We are the hackers with white hats, the hackers with
halos.”
The degree is one of a rapidly multiplying list of new
online and ground STEM degrees GCU is rolling out as it
continues on its mission to produce well-trained, highly
competitive graduates in the areas of science, technology,
engineering and math.
“We want to make Arizona a hot spot for cybersecurity,”
Farinacci said. “We want Arizona to be the place where data
centers and corporations that handle data relocate.”
24 new CSET programs
Dr. Mark Wooden, CSET dean, said GCU is developing 24
new degree programs in his college, including 12 in IT/
computer science, seven in engineering and five in science.
At the same time, the University is working on methods
for allowing online students who work full-time to apply their
experience in lieu of some required courses, Wooden said
during a session on STEM Happenings at GCU.
The Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with
an Emphasis on Cybersecurity is GCU’s first step in offering
a degree that provides unique, hands-on training and will
help transform Arizona into a hot spot for cybersecurity
professionals, Farinacci said.
“Thirty years ago, we had security guards to protect
us. Today, we need more than security guards because
hackers are breaking in and stealing our identification, our
information and our intellectual property, and they do it
without walking a foot outside their homes,” he said.
Information system analysts are among the most sought
after job candidates in the workforce today. Consider these
2015 statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
• Arizona had the fifth-highest concentration of
cybersecurity jobs.
• The average information security analyst annual
salary in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metropolitan region
was $81,830.
• The average salary nationally was $88,890 compared with
$79,390 for all computer occupations and $35,540 for all jobs.
GCU TODAY • 2 3
• And the prospects continue to brighten. Between
2014 and 2024, cybersecurity employment is expected to
rise 18 percent nationally compared with 12 percent in all
computer occupations and 7 percent in all occupations.
“The need for well-prepared information technology
and cybersecurity experts is growing exponentially," GCU
President Brian Mueller said. "It is GCU’s vision to provide
a premier educational experience and exceptional career
preparation in the fields of science, technology, engineering
and math."
Additionally, Farinacci and Dr. Heather Monthie, CSET
assistant dean, are working on a head-spinning number of
fronts to enrich and complement the University’s emphasis
on cybersecurity.
For example, this year GCU partnered with the Arizona
Cyber Threat Response Alliance (ACTRA), a nonprofit
group that collaborates with the FBI, the Arizona Counter
Terrorism Information Center and the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, to name a few.
The partnership gives GCU’s cybersecurity students
the advantage of practicing methodologies and strategies
on ACTRA’s live cyberwarfare range, Farinacci said. And
Farinacci is instructing in the ACTRA Cybersecurity
Academy, a boot camp for handling real-world security
events and threats.
Cyber Lopes on the horizon
Other initiatives include developing a web-based cyber
defense center, Cyber Lopes, that likely will go online this
summer, and creating an e-learn cybersecurity boot camp.
“This is GCU’s attempt to put our foot in the door,”
Farinacci said. “Now we can walk through the door and talk
the talk.”
Cybersecurity students will branch out to study cyber
operations planning and execution, cybercrime and cyber
law and also utilize the live cyberwarfare range, among other
options, Farinacci said.
One new student is freshman Morgan Melton, who
switched to the cybersecurity degree and said he knows
other ground students who plan to enroll.
“I have a passion for learning about networks,” said
Melton, a CSET student worker. “I want to work for a large
bank or a corporation and test their security to make the
world a better place.”
That the program is new is an advantage because it is
flexible and allows students to dig deep.
“My skills will go outside the normal program that other
students at other schools will have,” he said.
"We want to make Arizona
a hot spot for cybersecurity."
