IA 606 Applied Cryptography and IA 612 Intrusion Detection and Prevention

Hello Donkey Face, Thank you for the comment. If you take a moment and read whats elaborated on the petition you will have a better understanding as to why this petition was created. There is no argument regarding these classes, they have a lot to offer and indeed valuable course if you plan to purser a Security career and thus we urge the dept to have them as electives as stated on the petition so student planning to pursue a security career can take those classes. Pursuing a MSIA major does not mean you are entitled to purse a security career; there are plethora of other careers like BSA , and other IT business related careers. Student who are from business background, who intend to go into those careers do not need heavy cryptography and intrusion detections classes however if these classes are made core then the dept should implement the proper prerequisite for the students. If you are not aware , this program provide the options -Business concentration /Network Concentration options for students , therefore this restructuring is fair to all students. I suggest you to visit the MSIA department website and educate yourself as to what the program is all about .

We are the people who are supposed to carry out the security of big and small companies. An Information Security graduate who doesn't understand what hash, certificate, DES vulnerabilities, are might be catastrophic in the near future. It only takes one graduate hired by a reputable company, such as Target, and failing to manage a security team through a project of a new certificate implementation or a new firewall, could result in labeling all St. Cloud State University's IA graduates as incompetent.

I feel MSIA program was formed to accommodate students from different academic backgrounds. I think, in order to keep the initial mission and vision of the program, it would be ideal to make both IA 606 and IA 612 classes electives. This way the students could take the classes according to their concentrations.

I suggest that 606 and 612 can be added into electives. Students who really need the course can take them.

IA606 and IA612 are demanding courses, while I enjoyed these courses more than anyother during my grad studies, I learned about the tremendous pressure felt by my peers who did not come from science/engineering background. The algorithms and mathematical complexities of these subjects cannot be overlooked for the understanding of these subjects, and making it compulsory would actually leave the students overwhelmed with the course content they are rarely familiar with. The switching of these two subject into electives would actually improve our MSIA program, providing fine tuning between different concentrations, and would surely bring in more students from different background. While the course contents for these courses itself needs to be heavily revised to address the latest technologies, having them as electives would actually result in better grade and overall performance with only interested students in the class.

to be honest, IA 606 and IA 612 are necessary courses for a cyber security degree. even if someone wants to go for a managerial position, he or she will need the knowledge of cryptography, network protocols and intrusion detection. so i will suggest better pre-requisites for these courses so that students will be prepared enough for these course. also i think IA 606 should be restructured.

As i see the value of these classes and have taken 606, My grade did not reflect the hours of effort i put into the class.

To me, with my experience IA 606 and IA 612 are the baseline courses for Information Security. Every job in the field of Information security will require some kind of experience in Intrusion detection and understanding of cryptography unless someone is not concentrating their career in this field. I totally agree with some of the points in the petition where cryptography needs linux, algorithm and coding knowledge but as IA 643 has some prerequisites, I also would suggest prerequisites for IA 606 and IA 612 if necessary. I also think, to have a solid curriculum and recognition for our MSIA program IA 606 and IA 612 to be in the core list.

This petition is regarding MSIA , IA 606 and IA 612 classes.

We, the students of MSIA absolutely stand with this decision. These two subjects have become such a burden on us and having said that we can personally connect ourselves to the challenges we faced while we were studying them. Course work at masters level has to be definitely challenging so that a student could come out with flying colors when graduated but not at the cost of spending our time ,running over the assignments days and nights on which we had least knowledge on.We dedicated most of our time for these subjects and ended up with poor knowledge and grades despite of our immense handwork. MSIA has been a great attraction for many,especially international students coming from various backgrounds from IT to non-IT fields but these two subjects are definitely taking life out of the department. We definitely can't work on something that's not giving us any good knowledge. Students from non IT and IT backgrounds as well have been struggling to get through this. Existing students are the important connection for prospect students as they would be letting them know how the department and coursework works. We know how much we love the Department and St Cloud State and would always love to welcome new fellow students but at the same time cannot give someone false hopes on it. Henceforth, we humbly request to make these two subjects as electives and add other necessary subjects if needed in their place. We are hoping that our voices would be heard!

It's so hard for MSIA students.

I believe the department can make a case to the Graduate School for the restructure of the required core courses for IA based on requirements for the same course in other universities.

Hello, I agree with the decision of making IA 606 and 612 as electives as it would give a scope to students to choose what subject they want to take as elective as students with leas technical knowledge will face the difficulty in completion of these courses if made core. Also being an international student we have to meet our Cpt,Opt requirements so sudden change of plan in making it as core subjects will make it difficult and nearly impossible to complete the credits. So, i support this petition. Thanks

I think given the wide varieties of background that our students have in MSIA program both should be kept as selective course. And its up to us whether we want to take these courses if we find it useful. I honestly believe IA 606 and IA 612 is good course bit it does not mean without taking those courses we can not achieve great things.

I came across a course with the code, CNA438 which is Applied Cryptography. There are three pre-requisites to complete in order to do this course. It's unfair that for a 600 level class we do not have even these prerequisites. Specially students like us who are from the management concentration are struggling due to these issues.

For the graduates planning to go with management concentration, IA 606 & 612 should be optional. However, they should be offered some sort of light weight course on these topics so that they can have the basic understanding. It is imperative for an IA graduate to have at least the basics knowledge of these topics. For the ones opting for technical concentration IA606&612 should be mandatory.

IA 606 and IA 612 must be mandatory for those who are coming from IT and ComSci background. Also, both classes can be elective to those who are not from IT/CS background. But, there must be more basic classes related to these to those who are concentrating in the management to enhance their basic understanding. Otherwise, a master of science does not have a significant meaning without understanding these core security part.

For the students who want to go for the management concentration the IA 606 and IA 612 should be considered as electives but for the students who want to pursue the security concentration it should be considered under core courses.

Both classes should be mandatory for students with CS background and for students who want management concentration can take more basic classes in that field or rewrite the both courses in such a way that management concentration student can take without dealing with in depth knowledge of CS.

IA 606 SHOULD be mandatory for those with a technical concentration and IA 612 is objectively one of the most important concepts for cyber security and therefore should stay as a core required course while 606 should be optional for those less technical/management focus. However, there must be a course on crypto systems and implementation course for management majors. You cannot obtain a master's of science without understanding basic crypto, that's insane. For those who were told these courses were not a requisit and now have to face possible immigration and work visa issues, I would suggest to the department that you need to work directly with each student affected and are now directly responsible for creating a solution that meets the needs of our students.