Bachelor’s Degree in Cybersecurity

Computing disciplines are growing and changing rapidly. What used to be tought at universities twenty years ago is now packaged as a set of tools. This is necessary in order to advance the scope of what is demanded by industry today compared to what was required twenty years ago. The advances in technology have enabled significant leaps in industry practices including the widespread utilization of the internet, introduction of Web technologies, emergence of a new architectural paradigm, ubiquitous availability of mobile computing, globalization of Information Security development processes, and broad use of IT control and infrastructure frameworks such as the International Technical Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT).

With all of the benefits that these advances bring to the table, they also bring risk and cyber crime. To address the risks and the crime, cybersecurity needs to be embedded as part of the culture of every organization. The cybersecurity landscape is always changing as hackers find new ways to access information, which is why creating a workforce that has expertise in defending Qatar’s critical infrastructure is so important. The world faces a current and dangerous shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals and practitioners. Educational institutions have recognized this fact and have started offering bachelor’s degrees in cybersecurity –an education that used to be offered mainly as post-graduate.

At Ahmed Bin Mohamed Military College (ABMMC) we too recognize this urgent need, and we offer a way to develop the required talent by adding a bachelor’s degree in the field of cybersecurity. The Joint Task Force provides the curricular guidance on Cybersecurity Education “Cybersecurity Curricula 2017”.  ABMMC has developed a Bachelor’ degree in cybersecurity that meets the needs of the Qatar Armed Forces and the Qatari nation.

At the Computer Science and Information Systems Department at ABMMC the curriculum has been designed to meet the following requirements:

1. Fulfill the vision and mission of the college by fostering the values and aspirations of the cadets as human beings and leaders living in the Qatari society they are aimed to serve as officers and in the world at large. A selection of general requirement courses achieves this.
2. Follow the Joint Task Force (JTF) on Cybersecurity Education, CSEC 2017.
3. Meet the ABET accreditation criteria for cybersecurity computing programs.
4. Align with the NSA Cybersecurity Center of Excellence Academic Criteria.
5. Follow the NATO Cybersecurity Curriculum Guidelines.

The program also consulted CS2013  and IS2010 guidelines by offering relevant courses of the computer science and information systems disciplines respectively.