Embry-Riddle Designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education

Embry-Riddle is the only CAE/CDE in the state of Florida having the Secure Software Development focus area and is one of only five universities in the nation that have this specialized designation.

“The Center of Excellence designation by the NSA and DHS is a major accomplishment for our Cybersecurity and Assured Systems Engineering Center (CyBASE),” said Dr. Remzi Seker, Director of CyBASE and Professor of Computer Science in the College Engineering. “As one of only five schools in the country with a Secure Software Development specialization, our students and research teams should see immediate benefits in access to prospective research grant awards, scholarships, and job opportunities.”

“The CAE designation recognizes that cybersecurity is a campus-wide practice involving other departments, including the Security Studies & International Affairs (SSIA) Department in the College of Arts and Sciences as well as our campus IT Department,” said Dr. Tim Wilson, chair of the Department of Electrical, Computer, Software, and Systems Engineering. “Dr. Seker, with the help of Drs. Glenn Dardick and Gary Kessler in SSIA, have done a tremendous job in bringing a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education to Embry-Riddle.”

Information security is one of the fastest-growing and best-compensated fields in the information technology industry, with worldwide spending having just passed the $76 billion mark, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. The estimated number of cybersecurity jobs to be filled today exceeds 260,000 and job openings are expected to increase almost 20 percent in the next 10 years.

“Over the last four years, Embry-Riddle’s research capacity has grown tremendously and now includes emphasis in fields like cybersecurity in aerial systems, aeronautical navigation and avionics, network security and forensics, and applied cryptography,” said Dr. Kessler, professor of cybersecurity and chair of SSIA. “This includes hot topics like the vulnerability of mobile devices and unmanned aerial systems (drones), cloud computing security, and eHealth privacy and security.”

“The new CAE designation for the Daytona Beach Campus offers research opportunities for our students that are only available at a few universities in the country, while also boosting our program to help meet the growing national demand for highly-skilled cybersecurity professionals,” noted Seker. “There are also strategic and economic benefits, plus job creation opportunities for businesses and government agencies, both locally and across Florida.”