This document describes the recent revision made to the MS Program in Information Security and Assurance (MS-ISA), which is effective in Fall 2007. This revision closely aligns the MS-ISA degree with the MS in Computer Science (MSCS) and decouples it from the MS in Information Systems (MSIS) degree. In addition, some courses have been renumbered.

ISA Courses

The two column table describes the new MS-ISA courses (starting Fall 2007) and their relationship to the old MS-ISA courses (up to Spring 2007).

New Course Numbers	New, Modified, or Unchanged
ISA 562 Information Security Theory and Practice	Modified version of old ISA 662
ISA 564 Security Laboratory	New course
ISA 640 Programming Language Security	New course
ISA 656 Network Security	Modified version of old ISA 666
ISA 673 Operating Systems Security	New (has been taught as ISA 797)
ISA 674 Intrusion Detection	Modified version of old ISA 774
ISA 681 Secure Software Design	New (has been taught as SWE 781)
ISA 697 Topics in Information Security	Unchanged
ISA 763 Security Protocol Analysis	New course
ISA 764 Security Experimentation	New course
ISA 796 Directed Readings in Information Security	Unchanged
ISA 797 Advanced Topics in Information Security	Unchanged
ISA 798 Research Project	Unchanged
ISA 799 Thesis	Unchanged

Degree Requirements

Completion of the degree program requires a minimum of 30 approved graduate credits (10 courses). To provide a common background in the fundamentals of information systems, the following two courses are required of all students:

CS 571 Operating Systems
CS 555 Computer Communications and Networking

To provide the fundamentals of information systems security and assurance, the following two courses are required of all students:

ISA 562 Information Security Theory and Practice
ISA 656 Network Security

Elective Security Courses

To provide breadth and depth of knowledge in information security and assurance, the degree program requires 4 electives to be taken from ISA 564, and courses at the ISA 600-level and 700-level, excluding ISA 697, ISA 796, ISA 797 and ISA 798.

Free Electives

The remaining two courses may be chosen from any combination of (i) courses at the ISA 600 and 700 level, including ISA 697, ISA 796, ISA 797 and ISA 798, (ii) courses at the CS 500, 600 and 700 level, and (iii) a list of pre-approved qualified electives available from the department office. A thesis option is available whereby a student may elect to complete a thesis for up to 6 elective credits.

Students already in the MS-ISA degree

The rules for already enrolled students are the same, except they can take the re-numbered (and/or) modified course instead of the old one, as described in the table above.

For Further Information

Additional information on the program is available from the ISE Student Advisor

Financial aid information is available at the GMU Office of Financial Aid

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Effective Fall 2007

Master programs

MS-ISA

Certificate programs

ISA