CYBRBAPS - Cyber Defense
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Program Type
Bachelor of Applied Science
College
College of Information Science
Career
Undergraduate
Program Availability
The following emphases will no longer accept new applicants beginning Spring 2027:
-Defense and Forensics
-Cyber Operations
-Cyber Law & Policy
-Defense and Forensics
-Cyber Operations
-Cyber Law & Policy
Program Description
The Bachelor of Applied Science in Cyber Defense at The University of Arizona produces graduates capable of designing, implementing, and maintaining robust cyber defense systems to protect organizational assets and critical infrastructure, helping to address the nearly 3.5 million open jobs in the cyber field. The program is based on the National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) requirements. This program uniquely emphasizes comprehensive security analysis including vulnerability assessment, incident response, security architecture design, and risk management frameworks - capabilities that distinguish cyber defense specialists from general technology professionals. Graduates meet rigorous academic standards including deep technical understanding of network security, cryptographic system application, digital forensics, and secure software development, making them eligible for employment in any industry requiring defensive cyber knowledge, skill, and abilities. The curriculum reflects updated NSA knowledge unit requirements with enhanced focus on emerging threats, cloud security, and artificial intelligence applications in cyber to better prepare graduates for the evolving threat landscape.
Learning Outcomes
- Critical Thinking & Problem Solving; Demonstrate understanding of how variability affects outcomes; how to identify anomalous events; how to integrate and differentiate continuous functions of multiple variables; and how to solve complex problems using computation and scripting languages.
- Cyber Threat Intelligence; Describe and demonstrate how knowledge about an adversary's motivation, intentions, and methods are collected, analyzed, and disseminated to help security personnel and business staff to align resources and protect critical assets within an enterprise architecture.
- Defensive Cyber Operations; Describe, evaluate, and operate a defensive network architecture employing multiple layers of protection using technologies appropriate to meet mission security goals.
- Forensics; Demonstrate and explain how to acquire a forensically sound image; understand user activity; determine the manner in which an operating system or application has been subverted; identify forensic artifacts left by attacks; and recover deleted and/or intentionally hidden information.
- Law, Ethics, & Policy; Describe and explain the relationship between cyber ethics and law; criminal penalties related to unethical hacking; and apply the notion of Gray Areas to articulate where the law has not yet caught up to technology innovation.
- Malware Reverse Engineering; Safely perform static and dynamic analysis of unknown software, including obfuscated malware, to fully understand the software's functionality.
- Networking; Demonstrate a thorough understanding of how networks work at the infrastructure, network and applications layers; how they transfer data; how network protocols work to enable communication; and Networking how the lower-level network layers support the upper ones.
- Offensive Cyber Operations; Explain and demonstrate the phases of offensive cyber operations; what each phase entails; who has the authorities to conduct each phase; and how operations are assessed after completion.
- Operating Systems & Low Level Programming; Demonstrate a thorough understanding of various operating systems and be able to develop low level applications with the required complexity and sophistication to implement exploits for discovered vulnerabilities.
- Security Principles & Vulnerabilities; Demonstrate and explain the various types of vulnerabilities and their underlying causes; how security principles interrelate and are typically employee to achieve assured solutions; and explain how failures in fundamental security design principles can lead to system vulnerabilities that can be exploited as part of an offensive cyber operation.
- Cyber Threat Intelligence; Describe and demonstrate how knowledge about an adversary's motivation, intentions, and methods are collected, analyzed, and disseminated to help security personnel and business staff to align resources and protect critical assets within an enterprise architecture.
- Defensive Cyber Operations; Describe, evaluate, and operate a defensive network architecture employing multiple layers of protection using technologies appropriate to meet mission security goals.
- Forensics; Demonstrate and explain how to acquire a forensically sound image; understand user activity; determine the manner in which an operating system or application has been subverted; identify forensic artifacts left by attacks; and recover deleted and/or intentionally hidden information.
- Law, Ethics, & Policy; Describe and explain the relationship between cyber ethics and law; criminal penalties related to unethical hacking; and apply the notion of Gray Areas to articulate where the law has not yet caught up to technology innovation.
- Malware Reverse Engineering; Safely perform static and dynamic analysis of unknown software, including obfuscated malware, to fully understand the software's functionality.
- Networking; Demonstrate a thorough understanding of how networks work at the infrastructure, network and applications layers; how they transfer data; how network protocols work to enable communication; and Networking how the lower-level network layers support the upper ones.
- Offensive Cyber Operations; Explain and demonstrate the phases of offensive cyber operations; what each phase entails; who has the authorities to conduct each phase; and how operations are assessed after completion.
- Operating Systems & Low Level Programming; Demonstrate a thorough understanding of various operating systems and be able to develop low level applications with the required complexity and sophistication to implement exploits for discovered vulnerabilities.
- Security Principles & Vulnerabilities; Demonstrate and explain the various types of vulnerabilities and their underlying causes; how security principles interrelate and are typically employee to achieve assured solutions; and explain how failures in fundamental security design principles can lead to system vulnerabilities that can be exploited as part of an offensive cyber operation.