Course Descriptions

Cybersecurity Studies

Computer Science courses
COSC 160 - Scientific Programming: Java 2 cr.
Object oriented programming, objects and classes, data abstraction, functions, looping, selections, control structures, arrays, searching, and sorting in an environment with scientific and mathematical applications. Credit is not allowed for both COSC 150 and COSC 160.
COSC 215 - Java with Data Structures 3 cr.
Data abstraction, queues, linked lists, recursion, stacks, trees, string processing, searching and sorting, and hashing. Java API support for data structures. Prerequisite: grade of "C" or better in COSC 160, and either a grade of "C" or better in MATH 135 or concurrent enrollment in MATH 135.
COSC 220 - Computer Organization and Assembly Language 3 cr.
Basic structure of computer hardware and software, data representation, addresses and instructions, control structures, device drivers, files, and macros. Prerequisite: grade of "C" or better in COSC 215 or concurrent enrollment in COSC 215.
COSC 325W - Operating Systems and Computer Architecture 3 cr.
Organization of operating systems and basic computer architecture. Implementing multiprogramming, memory management, communicating with input/output devices, concurrency, synchronization, file systems and scheduling the processor. Prerequisite: grade of "C" or better in COSC 220.
COSC 460 - Computer Security 3 cr.
Network, database, and Web security, threat models, elementary and advanced cryptology, protocol analysis, covert channels, access control and trust issues, legal and ethical issues in security. Prerequisite: grade of "C" or better in COSC 325W.
COSC 464 - Cybersecurity Studies Capstone Project 3 cr.

Mathematics Course
MATH 135 - Discrete Mathematics 3 cr.
Sets, functions, relations, partial order, methods of propositional logic, introduction to predicate logic, counting, recurrence relations, asymptotic analysis, techniques of proof writing including induction.

International Relations and International Security Studies Courses
IR 404 - Introduction to Information Awareness 3 cr.
This course will cover fundamentals of the Internet, a survey of foundational cyber-security concepts, and managerial and policy topics. The course is geared to help students have sufficient technical awareness and managerial competence that will enable them to pursue advanced study in cyber security. There is no prerequisite for this course but successful students will have fundamental knowledge of information and computer systems as well as a general awareness of security issues in these systems
IR 432 - Network Situational Awareness 3 cr.
The 21st century created an unprecedented dependence on the Internet that is ever changing and affects all aspects of business and communications. This change brings up challenging problems which business decisions analysts face both at the micro and macro-level. Students will use a variety of software to identify and analyze network communications to solve challenge problems. There will be a heavy focus on the threats facing organizations along with general network profiling techniques. Although there is no prerequisite, students should have a firm grasp on RFC-compliant communications since this class will only lightly cover certain topics.
IR 462 - Applied Threat Systems  3 cr.
This course seeks to broaden the perception of how organizations perceive digital vulnerabilities, exploitation, malware, network communications, memory forensics, and malicious actors in general. Moreover, work will focus on advanced detection threats, as well as integrated approaches for solutions across the digital attack surface.

COSC and IR Capstone Course
COSC/IR 464 - Cybersecurity Studies Capstone Project 3 cr.
The purpose of the Capstone Project is for the students to apply theoretical knowledge acquired during the Cybersecurity program to a project involving actual data in a realistic setting. During the project, students engage in the entire process of solving a real-world cybersecurity issue, from collecting and processing actual data to applying suitable and appropriate analytic methods to the problem. Both the problem statements for the project assignments and the datasets should originate from real-world domains similar to those that students might typically encounter within industry, government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or academic research. Depending on the project's complexity, students will work individually or in small teams on a problem statement, typically specified either by the student or by a faculty, industry, or governmental sponsor. The sponsor will usually be responsible for supplying the relevant data set. Research groups (both from within, as well as external to Duquesne) may propose projects. Pending approval by the instructor, students are free to design their own problem statement and construct their own data set. As the project and problem statements warrant, students may be permitted to organize into teams of two to three participants. Teams larger than three will be considered for approval on a case-by-case basis. Each project team will be supervised by the instructor (in some cases with a relevant faculty advisor and/or industry or government sponsor). The final problem statements and the composition of the teams will be approved by the instructor. Prerequisite: grade of “C” or better in COSC 215 and senior standing.