The Montana Board of Regents formally approved the Network and Information Security Certificate program at Missoula College. The program, developed by Professor(s) Penny Jakes, Dianne Burke, and Tom Gallagher, fills an important niche in educating individuals for a growing high-technology sector in the Missoula economy. A recent Kauffman Foundation report ranked Missoula fifth among
cities with a population of less than 250,000 for its number of
high-tech launches. It also provides a response to address the rapidly increasing number of cyber-crime attacks throughout the world most recently seen in Western Montana when electronic payment systems of supermarkets were accessed by hackers in November.
Courses for the program will ensue during Spring Term. Details of the program of study can be found at http://ace.mc.umt.edu/programs/NIS/
UM Provost Perry Brown states “This certificate program means that one of the foundational pieces of
all this cyber and data science stuff we’re moving on is solidly in
place. You put that together with the Cyber Innovation Lab
and some other things people are working on, plus the big data courses
we already teach, and you see the pieces coming together.”
Complete details of media coverage of the story can be found online at the Missoulian
