Cybersecurity Concentration
The University of Tampa MBA cybersecurity concentration prepares students for careers in the cybersecurity industry while providing a strong and comprehensive business education. For the concentration, students take 12 credit hours of courses beyond the MBA requirements.
Several courses are designed to cover the top professional certifications in the industry (e.g., Certified Information System Security Professional). As a benefit of the cybersecurity concentration, graduates will find themselves well prepared to take many of these certification exams.
The objectives of the cybersecurity concentration are to equip students with strong information security knowledge beyond the core MBA courses. With such knowledge, graduates will be able to successfully defend and protect information assets for any business regardless of industry.
Other cybersecurity graduate programs are available. Students may consider a full Master of Science in Cybersecurity or a Graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity.
Students are required to have a minimum of nine credit hours of IT courses from three key areas. It is recommended that students complete these before starting graduate work, but they may be taken concurrently with CYB 610 or CYB 620.
Students must have at least one 3 credit-hour undergraduate or graduate course in each of the three areas below with a “C” grade or better:
• One course in programming or application development fundamentals (ITM 251 or similar course)
• One course in network, IT infrastructure or data communications (ITM 280 or similar course)
• One course in information security principles or foundations (ITM 350, ITM 650 or similar course)
Professional Certifications and Work Experience Substitutes
Candidates may use certifications and work experience to substitute for some or all of the IT courses. Each substitute will be evaluated on an individual basis.
Certifications: Professional certifications can be used to substitute the IT courses. A single certification can substitute for only one course. For example, to substitute for three courses, three different relevant certifications would be required. Each certification must be verifiable. The Cybersecurity Program Director will maintain a list of acceptable certifications. Below are examples of some acceptable substitutions for the three required IT courses:
1) Programming language or application development certification (e.g. C/C++, Python, Java, Visual Basic, MCSD) may substitute for the programming course requirement.
2) A networking certification (e.g. Network+, CCNA, CCNP) may substitute for the networking and data communication course requirement.
3) A security certification (e.g. Security+, SSCP, CISA, CISM, CISSP, GIAC Security Essentials) may substitute for the information security principles course requirement.
Work experience: Professional work experience may be used as a substitute for a maximum of one of the three IT courses. The work experience must be full-time, paid, within the last ten years, directly relate to the substituted course and be verifiable. At least two years of full-time work experience is necessary to substitute for the specific course. To be verifiable, the experience must be described on a document from an employee’s place of work as part of the candidate’s admission package.
Concentration Requirements
Requirements List
For the required MBA decision analysis elective, choose one of the following:
| ITM 615 | Data Mining for Business | 4 |
| QMB 612 | Decision Modeling and Analysis | 4 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 4 |
Three of the following:
| CYB 610 | Cloud Systems Security | 4 |
| CYB 620 | Risk Assessment & Contingency Planning | 4 |
| CYB 630 | Incident Response Management | 4 |
| CYB 640 | Secure Software Design | 4 |
| CYB 650 | Security Governance & Leadership | 4 |
| CYB 660 | Penetration Testing | 4 |
| CYB 670 | Cybersecurity Research Seminar | 4 |
| CYB 695 | Special Topics in Cybersecurity | 4 |
| CYB 699 | Independent Study in Cybersecurity | 1-8 |
| ITM 650 | Information Security Management | 4 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 12 |
Prerequisites may be required.
Total Credit Hours: 0-16