COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

Cybersecurity Center for Business

Delivering results to impact a critical need.

With five degree programs at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and partners at the state and national levels, the Cybersecurity Center for Business is at the forefront of one of the nation’s largest issues. Partnering with UW-Whitewater’s Department of Computer Science, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and College of Business and Economics, the Cybersecurity Center for Business offers cybersecurity education, research, and outreach for organizations and learners in Wisconsin.

Cybersecurity, the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks, is of utmost importance in this digital age when cyber threats and attacks are commonplace. Enhancing the nation’s cybersecurity resilience is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and cybersecurity jobs are in high demand. UW-Whitewater is designated as one of the national Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (CAE-CD) by the National Security Agency.

The Cybersecurity Center for Business offers education services and opportunities that address identified gaps in training, tools, and resources that offer value for the organizations and learners in the state.

What does the Cybersecurity Center for Business do?

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Supports degree-seeking students and student organizations

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Publishes in leading conferences and journals

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Develops partnerships with public and private organizations

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Develops leading-edge research pipeline

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in IT Major with Networking and Security Emphasis

Program Level Learning Objectives

  • Describe major components of a corporate IT Infrastructure.
  • Understand the standards and technologies in networking and security that support making informed business decisions.
  • Compare and contrast technologies in networking and security designed to solve similar problems.
  • Present and defend IT and security recommendations for business solutions.

 

NCAE-CD Program of Study KU-Aligned Course Learning Outcomes

ITSCM 180: Introduction to Programming for Business Applications

Course Outcomes:

  • Describe fundamentals of procedural and object-oriented programming
  • Explain business programming concepts such as requirements and technical specifications
  • Gather business requirements and develop programs that meet the requirements
  • Use programs to manipulate files, handle execution errors, and manage data

ITSCM 221: Information Technology Infrastructure

Course Outcomes:

  • Describe the standards of data communication that support corporate network infrastructure and the Cloud.
  • Illustrate network diagrams for hardware and software inventory and asset management.
  • Compare network technologies designed to solve business problems.
  • Describe the key concepts of information security and how it relates to network infrastructure and the Cloud.

ITSCM 314: Database Design and Administration

Course Outcomes:

  • Understand the database development process and the role of modeling in that process
  • Compose SQL queries against a relational database
  • Create and load a database using SQL and supporting tools
  • Understand the concept of relational integrity and know how to apply it.

ITSCM 320: Business Analysis

Course Outcomes:

  • Develop a business case for a proposed system
  • Create business process models
  • Perform data modeling for a computer application

ITSCM 385: Agile Project Management

Course Outcomes:

  • Analyze business-oriented skills in a given project management environment
  • Comprehend necessary project management tools and knowledge to solve business problems
  • Apply theoretical concepts to effectively guide and motivate individuals
  • Recognize how critical and creative thinking aids project management

ITSCM 451: Information Technology Service Management

Course Outcomes:

  • Define IT Service Management processes, functions, and roles
  • Select relevant information assurance processes to implement for an IT service, given the specific context
  • Demonstrate the ability to integrate the knowledge, skills, abilities, and values learned in developing a business crisis response playbook

Our work

The Cybersecurity Center for Business has partnered with several different local, state, and national organizations to support its work, including:

There has been a staggering increase in cybersecurity attacks, particularly against small and medium-sized businesses and organizations in rural America. Many small businesses cannot recover from such attacks – 50 percent will close within six months of an attack. There is also a cybersecurity workforce shortage with more than 6,000 open positions in Wisconsin alone.

Through the WiSys U.S. National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) grant, our goal in the pilot project, CyberFirst Coop, is to address these issues in rural Wisconsin’s small agricultural businesses with a focus on farmers. A team of UW-Whitewater faculty and staff and partners will employ a student-based cybersecurity team to provide a broad-based assessment of small, rural agricultural businesses (farms) information systems, including determination of their vulnerability to security breaches such as ransomware attacks. We will assess cyber-readiness of agricultural organizations and help learners and employees develop their cybersecurity skills to add new cybersecurity talent to the pipeline.

This grant is complete and is no longer accepting any new applications.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) and represents a unified standard for implementing cybersecurity across the defense industrial base (DIB), which includes more than 300,000 companies in the supply chain. The Wisconsin Execution of Cybersecurity Understanding, Remediation, and Education for Defense (WISECURED) grant promoted CMMC best practices to mitigate compromises of sensitive defense information located on contractors' information systems.

The WISECURED program provided:

  • Awareness
  • Self-assessment of a firm’s cybersecurity level by identifying the gaps in security
  • A plan for attaining the official CMMC

Student activities

 

  • ISACA Cybersecurity Club: UW-Whitewater's Cybersecurity club
  • CCDC competitions: UW-Whitewater Cybersecurity students compete in CCDC Competitions every year
  • Hackathons: ISACA club in conjunction with other student organizations organizes Hackathons on campus.
  • Speaker Series: ISACA club organizes a speaker series throughout the academic year. The club invites a range of speakers, from industry and academia to help students gain valuable knowledge about cybersecurity and latest trends in the industry.

Cybersecurity degree programs at UW-Whitewater

As a leader in cybersecurity education, UW-Whitewater offers the following degree programs:

Cybersecurity resources

UW-Whitewater IT resources protect the information resources at UWW campus with a variety of security solutions such as secure VPN, network authentication, spam filtering, etc.
Learn more about these resources »

The following websites are extremely helpful in keeping up to date with Cybersecurity news and resources.

Suvojit Basu

Professor

Information Technology and Business Education

Department Chairperson

Administration

HH HH 3420

262-472-5005

basuc@uww.edu

Members of the Information Technology and Supply Chain Management (ITSCM) Department Advisory Board advise on Cybersecurity activities and initiatives.

 

  • Kyle Banie, Milwaukee Tool
  • Leslie Bensen, MGIC
  • Sid Bhatnagar, ASQ
  • Derek Bressler, Aptargroup Inc
  • Nicholas Craigo, American Family Insurance
  • Rochelle Day, Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds
  • Chrissy Ficks, Cisive
  • Scott Froh, Retired IT Infrastructure Executive
  • Michael Grimes, Northwestern Mutual
  • Nic Herfel, TDS Telecom
  • Craig Huss, Church Mutual Insurance Co
  • Kyle Jassoy, GE Healthcare
  • Casey Jessen, Sentry Insurance
  • Angela Jorgensen, Northwestern Mutual
  • Marcus Knuth, Acuity Insurance
  • Shri Kunche, Insperity
  • Derek McCarty, CUNA Mutual Group
  • Brian Medlin, Insperity
  • Allen Musser, Milwaukee Tool
  • Ryan Peasley, Wipfli
  • Krystal Powell, SC Johnson
  • Jonathan Schultz, Apsidien
  • Sara Simon, Stoughton Trailers UWW Alumni
  • Randy Smith, Molson Coors
  • Michael Stockhausen, Accenture Federal Services
  • Rhommer Varilla, Safenet Consulting
  • Jason Von Ruden, InfoTech
  • Troy Woletz, Nelnet Inc
  • Mike Agg, Acuity Insurance
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