Master of Science in Cybersecurity

Minimum Admissions Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, or a similar field as judged by the Graduate Committee from a regionally accredited institution.*
• ‘B’ average (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) or better in all coursework attempted while registered as an upper-division student in the bachelor’s program.
• For applicants whose native language is not English, English proficiency exam scores of at least 550 (paper-based) or 80 (internet-based) on the TOEFL or 6.5 on the IELTS. English proficiency exam exemptions are based on the country in which the applicant completed their undergraduate degree, not on nationality or language of instruction. See the list of exempt countries here: http://gradschool.fiu.edu/toefl-exempt-countries/.

*Please note that the MS in Cybersecurity is a technical degree. While SCIS welcomes students from all backgrounds, prerequisite courses may be required for applicants who do not hold a degree in the fields listed above. Contact the Graduate Program Advisor for more information.

Required Documents

• Online graduate application/application fee.
• Official university/college transcripts from all institutions previously attended, mailed in a sealed institution envelope. Applicants who graduated from FIU do not need to request FIU transcripts.
• Official translations of university/college transcripts (if in a language other than English).
• If applicable, official TOEFL or IELTS scores reported by the testing agency. TOEFL scores can be sent to FIU using the code 5206. IELTS scores can be verified directly by the admissions officer, if the applicant provides FIU with a copy of the score report.
• Official proof of degree/diploma. The student may provide this upon arrival to FIU (within one term) if admitted.  Applicants who graduated from U.S. universities are typically only required to submit the final transcripts as proof of degree; some exceptions may apply.
• Translation of proof of degree/diploma (if in a language other than English).

Supporting Documents (Recommended)

• Statement of purpose
• Three letters of recommendation
• Resume

Immigration Documents

These forms are required for international students only. See http://gradschool.fiu.edu/admissions/#admissionforms for more info.

• Bank and Sponsor Letter
• Declaration and Certification of Finances
• F-1 Transfer Form (if currently residing in the U.S. on an F-1 visa)

Step One: Apply Online

All applications and associated fees, with the exception of those for the combined BS/MS program, are submitted online at http://gradschool.fiu.edu/apply/.

Through the website, applicants will have the opportunity to upload supporting documents, such as a statement of purpose, resume, residency documents for tuition purposes, immigration documents, and the like. They can also provide contact information for recommenders who are then prompted to submit the letters of recommendation through the online portal.

Once submitted, Graduate Admissions will promptly acknowledge receipt of the application via email and will provide a Panther ID as well as further instructions on how to access the MyFIU portal. On MyFIU, students can view the status of their application, including any missing documents. Missing documents are listed under the “To Do List” on the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Once the applicant has been issued a Panther ID, they should include the Panther ID in all communications to the unit representatives, Graduate Admissions, International Student and Scholar Services, and Student Health services.

Step Two: Submit Official Documents

Mailing address for regular U.S. mail:

FIU Graduate Admissions
P.O. Box 659004
Miami, FL 33265-9004

Mailing address for couriers (typically used for delivering documents from outside the United States):

Office of  International Admissions
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th Street, Miami FL 33199
SASC Building Room 440

FIU requires official documents, even for the initial review of the applications. Required official documents include transcripts, proof of degree, translations, and test scores (if applicable).

Transcripts must be received in a sealed university envelope issued by the academic institution, from all institutions previously attended. FIU conducts evaluations of foreign transcripts internally. Any transcripts that have been evaluated by a third party (e.g. WES, Josef Sinly, etc.) are considered unofficial by Graduate Admissions and will not fulfil the official transcript requirement. FIU will use evaluated documents for translation purposes only.

Official test scores must be reported to the School by the testing agency. The School’s code is 5206. IELTS scores may be verified directly by the admissions officer, if the applicant provides FIU with a copy of the score report.

Please note that applications are not referred to the unit for review until official transcripts, translations, and test scores (if applicable) have been received. Uploaded copies of any of these documents are considered unofficial and will not be used in evaluating the application.

Once admitted, international students will also be required to show an official proof of degree, typically a diploma, but can do so upon their arrival to FIU.

Deadlines

This program admits for the fall and spring terms.

All international applicants must abide the international applicant deadline. This includes international applicants residing in the United States and/or international applicants who do not require student visas.

Required Coursework: 15 credits

• CEN 5079 Secure Application Programming
• CIS 5208 Social, Economic, and Policy Aspects of Cybersecurity
• CIS 5370 Principles of Cybersecurity
• CNT 5415 Practical Applied Security
• COT 5428 Formal Foundations for Cybersecurity

Elective Coursework: 15 credits

Students should select five of the following courses:

Offered by the School of Computing and Information Sciences

• CAP 5610 Introduction to Machine Learning
• CAP 5640 Introduction to Natural Language Processing
• CAP 5768 Introduction to Data Science
• CAP 5771 Principles of Data Mining
• CAP 6778 Advanced Topics in Data Mining
• CIS 5373 Systems Security
• CIS 5374 Information Security and Privacy
• CIS 6930 Advanced Special Topics (advisor approved sections only)
• COT 5407 Introduction to Algorithms
• TCN 5080 Secure Telecommunications Transactions
• TCN 5455 Information Theory
• TCN 6430 Networks Management and Control Standards
• TCN 6880 Telecommunications Public Policy Development and Standards

Offered by Electrical and Computer Engineering

• EEL 5278 Smart Grid Cyber Security and Intelligent Electronic Devices
• EEE 5718 Advances Security of Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems
• EEL 5807 Advanced Ethical Hacking
• EEL 6787 Network Security
• EEL 6803 Advanced Digital Forensics
• EEL 6805 Advanced Malware Reverse Engineering
• EEL 6931 Special Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering (advisor approved sections only)
• TCN 5271 Ubiquitous and Embedded Sensor Network-Centric Telecommunications

Offered by the School of International and Public Affairs and the College of Business

A maximum of six credits from this list may be applied to the MS in Cybersecurity

Students who are interested in relevant courses not on the approved list should submit the request to the Graduate Program Advisor with the course details and a strong justification; these courses must have significant security content to be considered. The Graduate Program Director has final discretion over the inclusion of courses in the program of study.

Students in this program are allowed to take up to 6 credits from the University of South Florida’s online M.S. in Cybersecurity program with approval. Students interested in pursuing coursework at USF should contact the Graduate Program Advisor early to learn what is required.

Core Courses

CEN 5079 Secure Application Programming Development of applications that are free from common security vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflow, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting attacks. Emphasis is on distributed web applications.

CIS 5208 Social, Economic, and Policy Aspects of Cybersecurity The broader human context of cybersecurity, from the perspective of society, economics, and policy.

CIS 5370 Principles of Cybersecurity Cybersecurity algorithms, techniques. Mathematical foundations. Symmetric and public key encryption. Authentication, key infrastructure, certificates. Covert channels. Access control. Vulnerabilities.

CNT 5415 Practical Applied Security Hands-on training in practical installation and maintenance of secure systems, including such topics as security configuration, DMZs, firewalls, anti-virus software, and hardware security modules.

COT 5428 Formal Foundations for Cybersecurity Formal models and methods for achieving rigorous security guarantees. Cryptographic indistinguishability properties, reduction proofs. Formal analyses of security APIs. Secure information flow.

Elective Courses

Offered by the School of Computing and Information Sciences

CAP 5610 Introduction to Machine Learning Decision trees, Bayesian learning reinforcement learning as well as theoretical concepts such as inductive bias, the PAC learning, minimum description length principle. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

CAP 5640 Introduction to Natural Language Processing The concepts and principles of computer processing of natural language, including linguistic phenomena, formal methods, and applications. Students will conduct an independent research project.

CAP 5768 Introduction to Data Science Foundations of databases, analytics, visualization and management of data. Practical data analysis with applications. Introduction to Python, SQL, R, and other specialized data analysis toolkits. Prerequisites: STA 3164 or equivalent.

CAP 5771 Principles of Data Mining Introduction to data mining concepts, knowledge representation, inferring rules, statistical modeling, decision trees, association rules, classification rules, clustering, predictive models, and instance-based learning. Prerequisites: COP 4710 and STA 3033.

CAP 6778 Advanced Topics in Data Mining Web, stream data, and relational data mining, graph mining, spatiotemporal data mining, privacy-preserving data mining, high-dimensional data clustering, social network, and linkage analysis.

CIS 5373 Systems Security Risk, Trust, and Threat models; Types of Attacks; Safe Programming Techniques; Operating System Mechanisms, Virtual Machine Systems; Hardware Security Enforces; Application Security; Personal Security.

CIS 5374 Information Security and Privacy Information Security Planning, Planning for Contingencies, Policy, Security Program, Security Management Models, Database Security, Privacy, Information Security Analysis, Protection Mechanism.

CIS 6930 Advanced Special Topics (advisor approved sections only) A course designed to give groups of students an opportunity to pursue special advanced studies not otherwise offered.

COT 5407 Introduction to Algorithms Design of efficient data structures and algorithms; analysis of algorithms and asymptotic time complexity; graph, string, and geometric algorithms; NP-completeness.

TCN 5080 Secure Telecommunications Transactions Telecom and information security issues such as: digital signatures, cryptography as applied to telecom transactions, network policing, nested authentication, and improving system trust.

TCN 5455 Information Theory Entropy and measure of information. Proof and interpretation of Shannon’s fundamental theorem for various channels, including noiseless, discrete, time-discrete and time-continuous channels.

TCN 6430 Networks Management and Control Standards Protocols for management of telecom networks, including Simple Network Management Protocol and Common Management Information Protocol. Extension of protocols to optimize network performance. Prerequisites: TCN 5030 or equivalent.

TCN 6880 Telecommunications Public Policy Development and Standards A concept-oriented examination of the domestic and international telecommunications policy processes and standards setting environment.

Offered by Electrical and Computer Engineering

EEL 5278 Smart Grid Cyber Security and Intelligent Electronic Devices Design, simulate and solve smart grid cyber security issues. Manmade and natural large scale disturbances. Smart grid cyber networked standards and new Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED).

EEE 5718 Advances Security of Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems In this project-based class, the students will gain advanced hands-on training in the security of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) areas. Prerequisites: Programming coursework, any CS oriented courses or any embedded coursework or permission of the instructor.

EEL 5807 Advanced Ethical Hacking This will give individuals an exposure to the latest hacking tools and techniques to understand the anatomy of computer attacks and teach them the countermeasures to protect their valuable data.

EEL 6787 Network Security Network Security Requirements, Number Theory, Steganography, Encryption Design Principles and Algorithms, Message Authentication and Digital Signature Principle and Designs, Network System Security Design.

EEL 6803 Advanced Digital Forensics This course provides students with the advanced skills to track and counter a wide range of sophisticated threats including espionage, hacktivism, financial crime syndication, and APT groups.

EEL 6805 Advanced Malware Reverse Engineering This course provides the student with the necessary tools and techniques to perform practical reverse engineering on suspicious files and firmware encountered in a range of devices and understanding the implications associated with a malware attacks.

EEL 6931 Special Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering (advisor approved sections only) Course covers advanced topics not in existing graduate courses in electrical and computer engineering. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.

TCN 5271 Ubiquitous and Embedded Sensor Network-Centric Telecommunications Techniques impacting ubiquitous, embedded sensor network-centric telecommunications, context-awareness, autonomy, data quality, uncertainty, privacy, trustworthiness and wearable computing.

Offered by the School of International and Public Affairs and the College of Business

ISM 6326 Information Security and Compliance Provides Knowledge and skills needed to protect enterprise assets by mitigating IS/IT related security risks. An exposure to IS/IT security-related Laws, Regulations, and Compliance is also provided. Corequisite ISM 6222

ISM 6328 Information Security Management Provides knowledge and skills needed to protect enterprise assets by mitigating IS/IT related security risks. Includes application of telecommunication technology and concepts

ISS 5135 National Security Essentials An examination of the U.S. national security structure, current security-related controversies and potential U.S. responses to security threats.

PAD 6379 Homeland Security Risk Assessment Provides the technical framework needed for design, implementation, and evaluation of risk assessments used in local, regional, and state Homeland Security administration.

PAD 6399 Homeland Security Management for State and Local Government Provides a broad overview of the legal, technical, financial, and organizational environment in which Homeland Security initiatives are designed and successfully implemented.

Up-to-date information on tuition and fees is available at http://finance.fiu.edu/controller/UG_Calculator.htm.

Currently, the cost per credit hour for a graduate-level course is $455.64 for Florida residents and $1001.69 for non-Florida residents. The estimated cost of a full-time spring or fall semester (9 credits) is $4,295.15 for Florida residents and $9,209.60 for non-Florida residents. The M.S. in Cybersecurity consists of 30 credits. The estimated total cost for a full-time student is $14,446.76 for Florida residents and $30,828.26 for non-Florida residents. These estimates do not include online course fees. Tuition and fees are paid on a semester basis.

Tuition, fees, and the above estimates are subject to change. Estimated costs may not reflect costs paid. 

For inquiries related to the M.S. in Cybersecurity, including admissions and academic issues, please contact Rebeca Arocha, the Graduate Program Advisor. Email is preferred.

For information on the M.S. in Cybersecurity, please email rarocha@fiu.edu.