About CIS

The Center for Information Security at the University of Tulsa is established to concentrate institutional research, education and outreach efforts in information assurance and forensics. The Center is supervised by its Director, and is comprised of university faculty in computer science and related disciplines pursuing core and multidisciplinary initiatives in information security. The primary objectives of the Center are to contribute to the body of knowledge in the field, to educate its growing workforce, to raise awareness of critical social, legal and technological issues, and to support national, state and local homeland security and law enforcement efforts.

Established in 1996, the Center for Information Security (CIS) has emerged as a leader in cyber security education and research. First designated as an NSA Center of Excellence in March 2000, CIS spans the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, and Law. In March 2002, CIS's curriculum was the first to be certified under all five federal CNSS Standards for information assurance education.

Also, CIS was an early entity to offer Ph.D. programs specializing in information assurance, including a novel interdisciplinary program combining computer science, law, political science, history and economics. CIS also acts as a lead institution in the Cyber Corps initiative. In 2001-02, CIS was the only entity to participate in both the NSF and DoD programs.

CIS is committed to helping educators develop expertise in information assurance and forensics. In June 2002, the NSA designated CIS and CERIAS at Purdue University as two national faculty development centers. Under this initiative, CIS is providing professional development opportunities to faculty members from more than eighty institutions ranging from community colleges to Carnegie research universities, and is assisting them in building programs. CIS is also leading a NSF Advanced Technology Education (ATE) Center focused on cybersecurity education and workforce development in Oklahoma and its six neighboring states. The ATE Center, which includes all of Oklahoma's major community colleges and its CareerTech System, is the second in the nation to focus on information assurance and the first to emphasize the emerging field of digital forensics (September 2004). Meanwhile, in association with a number of federal agencies, CIS is spearheading a national effort to build capacity in digital forensics.

CIS has collaborative relationships with several federal agencies, and works closely with the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) in Oklahoma City and the Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS) at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. CIS is also an active member of the I3P Consortium headquartered at Dartmouth. CIS faculty and students provide advice to state and local governments on cyber security legislation, helping create security policies and procedures, and performing vulnerability assessments for homeland IT systems.