Program Requirements

The Master of Science in Cybersecurity is a 30 credit hour online degree program, which may be completed within one calendar year by well-qualified students.*  The program is designed to support both professionals seeking career advancement and those seeking a career change to the Cybersecurity field. 

All courses are scheduled in 7-week sessions allowing students to take two classes at a time, completing the program in 5 sessions.

To earn the MS-Cybersecurity, students must complete the following courses:

Foundation Prerequisites:

Students who have not taken the following subjects as part of another degree program must complete these three courses.  If a student has received credit for one or more of these courses, they may begin taking the 7000-level courses that they meet the prerequisites for.

• Programming Principles 
  In this course, students analyze and formulate software solutions appropriate for a business organization. Topics may include foundational program constructs, requirement analysis and software design & development.

• Computing Infrastructure 
  This foundation course will provide an overview of computer organization, architecture and operating systems. Topics include computer infrastructure, operating systems fundamentals and system management.

• Data communications and Networking 
  This course will provide an overview of computer networks. Topics include network technologies, protocols, and traffic analysis.

Required Courses:

Students must complete all nine of the following courses.  Refer to the KSU Graduate Catalog for course descriptions.

• CYBR 7000 Cyber Law, Policy, and Enforcement (3 credit hours) 

• CYBR 7050 Cybercrime Detection, Analysis, and Forensics (3 credit hours) 
  • Pre-requisite: CYBR 7000

• CYBR 7100 Secure Application Development (3 credit hours) 
  • Pre-requisite: Programming Principles

• CYBR 7200 Securing Enterprise Infrastructure (3 credit hours) 
  • Pre-requisite: Computing Infrastructure and Data Communications & Networking

• CYBR 7220 Mobile and Cloud Security (3 credit hours) 
  • Pre-requisite: CYBR 7200

• CYBR 7240 Cyber Analytics and Intelligence (3 credit hours) 
  • Pre-requisite: CYBR 7200

• CYBR 7300 Management of Cybersecurity (3 credit hours) 

• CYBR 7350 Contingency Planning for Cybersecurity (3 credit hours) 
  • Pre-requisite: CYBR 7300

• CYBR 7400 Introductions to Cryptography and Its Applications (3 credit hours) 
  • Pre-requisite: CYBR 7200

Capstone Course:

Students will select ONE of the capstone courses listed below. Refer to the KSU Graduate Catalog for descriptions.

• CYBR 7910 Capstone in Cybersecurity Practicum (3 credit hours)
  • Pre-requisite: CYBR 7100, CYBR 7220 & CYBR 7240 

• CYBR 7930 Capstone in Cybersecurity Management (3 credit hours)
  • Pre-requisite: CYBR 7350

Forward Planning Schedule:

Forward Planning Schedule - as of 12/2021

MS-CYBR Handouts: 

MS-CYBR handout showing sample 1-year/5-session schedule - as of 10/21

MS-CYBR one and two year sample plans of study - as of 03/22

Personal Computer Hardware Recommendation:

Windows-based machines are generally recommended, however MacOS/iOS/Linux machines may be used successfully in many cases. Many courses will assume that the student operates from a current generation Windows-based desktop or laptop computer and will provide instruction for student work using tutorials and instructions written for Windows. Some courses may offer alternatives with similar software for iOS and Linux distribution systems.

As of late-2021 the recommendation is for a Windows 10 Professional OS running with:

• Intel i7 (preferred) or i5 processor
• 16-32 GB (or more) of RAM
• 1 TB (or more) storage (HDD or SSD)
• stable and reliable Internet connectivity

*Well-qualified students are those with strong undergraduate degrees or professional experience in computing (computer science, information systems, information technology, software engineering, etc.) or security (information security, cybersecurity, etc.)