Hello everyone, I have been following your interesting discussions since a while, and here seems to be the place to find all the "real" answers , I am interested in an information assurance masters (cyber & forensics are considered) , my goal is to join the best hands- on, practical application program to be an information assurance consultant, Pen testing , ISO2700X implementation & digital forensics for OS & Mobile are examples. Cost : no more than a 1000 USD monthly without books, with 8 week modules this is about 18000 USD or less I have 15 years of IT experience and I am a working ISO, so reputation of school is not my issue , accreditation is required for a path to DBA/PHD , Knowledge & skill is what matters to me most. I did a survey on all DL I could find and is narrowed down to the below list : Central Queensland University University Of East London Edinburgh Napier Dakota State University NJIT Iowa State University WGU American Sentinel University Boston So... which of these universities offer Knowledge and practical skill ? I am trying to attach a full analysis done during the last month over 32 universities worldwide , hope you or a visitor might find it useful, and many thanks for your inputs
I did American Sentinel University for undergrad. I would not recommend them over other schools on your list. If you can afford $1,000 per month, then I recommend that you do Dakota State, Iowa State, or Boston University. They have better name recognition. I attended WGU for graduate. WGU covers all of those things you want to do on your list, but doesn't have as big name recommendation. You could use the flexibility to make your assignment about digital forensice for OS & mobile when you do the Forensics course. There is a hacking course, but as far as pen testing, you could probably do that in your Capstone. There's a course on ISO 27000 also. Hope this helps.
Thanks , this does help alot in narrowing the list , So you find all these have practical and handson ?, Dakota is very good so far , so what are the second best in terms of hands on ? I want to keep at least 3 runners to apply as I am not a CS grad Anyone has experience with the rest of the options ?
I guess that I'm wondering what you mean by hands on. Do you mean labs? If you do the work required for your assignments, that would be your hands on. The extent that you have to do hands on (at WGU, at least) depends on how much you already know. For example, you may have a course that teaches you how to use a tool such as Metasploit. Of course, if you've not used it before, then knock yourself out to make sure that you know it inside and out. If you've already done it before, there will not be a "required" exercise to use it. Of course, depending on the assignment, you may not be able to complete it without prior experience or going through some type of exercises. Hope this makes sense.
FYI ... American Sentinel University is DETC accredited only. If you need a regionally accredited school leave them out.
The University Of Illinois-Springfield offers a MS in Computer Science. You can take all security related classes. It requires 7 classes of student's choice and the graduate research class. It is about $12,000 and it's all online. Most of my classes require some hands on work but not all. I think hands on would be up to you. Here's the link: Department of Computer Science Here are the security related classes offered: Foundations of Network Security and Information Assurance Intrusion Detection Incident Response and Evidence Collection Intro to Digital Forensics Bio Metric Authentication Threat Management Cyberwarfare Computer Viruses/Worms Information Security Policies
Those are great replies , and @ instant000 yes , I mean by hand-on labs or virtual labs where I get step by step instructions , the exercise part is something that I must do to expand my knowledge , so I do need to know who offers such experience from these universities? will check & probably contact university of illinois , I missed that out during my search , thanks for the tip jam937! Here is a link for the excel sheet I used in my assessment if anyone is interested in reviewing it and save some search time : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_0Xwhoo_xmcUVdRYnlUckloU3c/edit?usp=sharing Will keep it updated till enrollment
I do mean labs whether virtual or remotely accessed, during these labs I expect to work step by step on an actual case, the exercising is an effort that I will have to do to gain knowledge, if the school is geared with such labs and a good professor then I am heading its way, neither the admission nor online documents could give much details on this part in except for John Hopkins whom announce it out loud in their program description (yet JH is out of budget for me) @jam Thanks ! I researched UOI and it does seem an interesting option to be considered, some of the courses talk about concepts and principles apart from implementation and design , I will send them an inquiry to check,
