James Madison University Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Presents The Information Security MBA
Information technology is changing the business environment Our civilization is undergoing fundamental transformations; how humans communicate, how goods and currency are exchanged, our perception of time - everything is changing. The root cause behind all these changes is information technology. Executives have the enormous challenge of leading organizations through this era. As ever, they need to lead people, think strategically, manage resources and communicate clearly. But now that information technology has permeated every aspect of business, they need new skills and new vision. And they need to understand how to protect the integrity of their transformed operations. Why an Information Security MBA? Until now the infosec expertise gap among management has never been addressed by higher education. But by combining the Information Security expertise of the College of Integrated Science and Technology (CISAT) with JMU's highly rated College of Business (AACSB accredited), this unprecedented graduate degree will help to create a new manager who understands the business implications of information security. The MBA program at JMU is rated as one of the top 20 business schools offering on-line education by U.S. News and World Report. Program Objective The INFOSEC MBA focuses on managerial decision-making, analytical problem solving, oral and written communication and application of theoretical constructs all set in an INFOSEC framework. Graduates of this program will understand preservation of information confidentiality and protection, risk management, data and system integrity, availability, authenticity and utility all set against a strategic business background. Cohort Sequencing The MBA InfoSec program started in August 2000 in D.C. with a cohort group of 16 students. The next cohort started April 20, 2002 with 27 students. The third cohort started April 26, 2003 with 23 students. The fourth MBA InfoSec cohort started April 30, 2004 with 20 students. Cohort 5 started April 29, 2005 with 23 students. Cohort 6 started Dec 9, 2005 with 19 students. Cohort 7 started April 28, 2006 with 22 students. Cohort 8 is scheduled to start April 27, 2007 in D.C.. Cohort 1 (West Coast) is scheduled to start in Los Angeles, California August 24, 2007. Each cohort group will move through the 14 sequenced courses together during a 27- month period. This will provide the students with a well-paced educational experience as well as a familiar peer group with which to discuss course topics and issues. Curriculum Information Security will permeate every course regardless of the topic area. For example, Organizational Behavior, Foundations of Marketing Management or Quantitative Methods will address some issues of information security as it relates to that specific discipline. During the 14-course curriculum, four courses are solely dedicated to pure information security. Additionally, each of the 14 courses has a student deliverable James Madison University 2
related to information security. And then the capstone course, Strategic Management, brings it all together to forge the new executive. Course Listing and Objectives The listing is in sequential order. Each course is three credit hours. MBA 640 Management Information Systems Recognize the relationships between business pressures, organizational responses and information technology Understand information architecture and infrastructure Describe strategic information systems and explain their advantages Appreciate the information technologist as an agent of organizational change Discuss new forms of organizational practices facilitated by information technology MBA 680 Introduction to Information Security Become familiar with the terminology and vocabulary used in the modern information security realm. Develop an understanding of the three primary areas of information security (access, availability, integrity) and the application of this understanding to develop a mental structure for information security analysis. The mental structure, in turn, will serve as a basis for continued learning and knowledge accumulation in the arena of information security. Gain an appreciation for the three major classifications of controls and countermeasures (preventive, detective, and recovery) used in the modern Information Security realm, and be able to identify examples and samples of controls and countermeasures within each classification. For each control and countermeasure identified, the student will be able to describe the conditions under which the example is appropriate and inappropriate. Develop an appreciation for the trade-offs inherent between the need for tight security and the need for efficiency, ease of use, and user freedoms. The student will be able to identify system design characteristics that contribute to a pareto optimal balance between the two needs. Gain an appreciation for the advantage of constant alertness, learning, and awareness of the advancement of the Information Security art, and to develop an individualized and personalized strategy for maintaining knowledge and awareness of future InfoSec developments. Be able to integrate the above knowledge and understanding to develop a basic Information Security Plan applicable to the student s personal employment situation. MBA 600 Organizational Behavior Develop change strategies for organizations facing dynamic environments Understand theories of personality and their impact on individuals in the workplace Design jobs so as to enhance employee's job satisfaction and performance Manage organizational conflict in a functional and constructive manner James Madison University 3
Develop effective motivational approaches Identify and adopt leadership styles appropriate for the situation being faced MBA 610 Quantitative Methods for Managerial Decisions Apply statistical and quantitative techniques to business situations Employ computational skills in a software-assisted environment Explain, interpret and compute a variety of measures and tools including; mean, median, standard deviation, variance, interquartile range, percentile, proportion, decile, histograms, stem-and-leaf plots, relative frequency distributions, contingency tables, ideas of expected value Conduct linear and multiple regressions, forecasting, linear programming, simulation and decision analysis MBA 620 Accounting For Decision-Making & Control Understand how accounting meets information needs of managers, investors, creditors; how accounting information is used to make short-term management decisions; how accounting is used to improve an entity's efficiency Be able to read and interpret financial statements, distinguish among fixed, variable and mixed costs, prepare operating budgets, identify relevant costs for decision making, use cost-volume-profit analysis as a decision tool MBA 630 Financial Management Understand the concepts of operating leverage, financial leverage and total leverage and how to calculate them Calculate a breakeven analysis for a project Estimate the relevant cash flows associated with a capital budget project Implement capital budgeting techniques to decide which capital budgeting projects should be accepted or rejected Calculate an organization's overall cost of capital, which is the weighted average of the various capital components Forecast an organization's financial needs based on its strategic planning MBA 641 The Microeconomics of Business Decision-Making Apply the basics of markets including supply and demand concepts to explain movements in prices and quantities Explain the vertical and horizontal structure of firms and industries Understand the cost of production and be able to differentiate: accounting vs. economic costs, fixed vs. variable costs, average vs. marginal costs, and the nature of costs applied to the scale and scope of operations Recognize and interpret the behavior of firms in situations of price competition, nonprice competition and collusion Understand antitrust and regulation and apply competing theories of public policies toward competition and exhibit familiarity with major cases in antitrust and regulation James Madison University 4
MBA 681 Managing System Networks Understand the components that comprise the voice and data network Develop a basic understanding for how to design discrete and integrated voice/data networks Learn how various organizations allocate and develop reporting structures to manage their networks Recognize the role that customer support and customer service support plays in network management Work with tools that measure network throughput, availability and other Quality of Service measures Learn about and work with tools that aid in configuration management Learn how network managers perform capacity planning Learn about the role of the auditor in the network management process Learn about security organizations and tools used by network managers. Understand how the network must be included in an organization s overall Disaster Avoidance and Recovery Plan. MBA 642 Operations Management Understand the strategic importance of operations management and its role in creating a competitive advantage Be able to develop, apply and interpret the results of basic procedures for forecasting, aggregate planning, master production scheduling, inventory planning, capacity management, and shop floor control Be able to explain how marketing and finance affect operations management MBA 643 Advanced Topics & Cases in Financial Management Identify conditions of market efficiency Set up the cash flows associated with the acquisition of a capital asset Utilize financial ratios to evaluate the operating and financial performance of a management team Effectively communicate to management the various problems, and potential solutions facing the firm Identify financial restructuring possibilities which will lead to an increase in the value of the firm Identify the attributes that make a firm a good merger partner or take-over target Evaluate financial data and identify problem areas of a firm MBA 644 Foundations of Marketing Management Identify the steps of a marketing management process Conduct a detailed situation analysis including macro-environmental, customer, competitor and industry data Create marketing strategies including identification of product-market segment opportunities, development of product/service positioning and development of measurable marketing objectives Devise and strategically implement, evaluate and control marketing plan James Madison University 5
MBA 682 Managerial Computer Forensics Understand and be able to articulate the types and nature of computer crimes Understand and be able to articulate how computers and transmission facilities can be used in the commission of a crime Understand and be able to articulate the role of, and interplay between, managers, systems administrators, auditors, attorneys, law enforcement personnel and the judicial process in digital forensics Understand and be able to articulate the process of identifying, preserving, and analyzing digital data where a crime is believed to have been committed such that it will stand up in court under cross examination Understand and be able to articulate the dynamics and interplay between computer science and forensic science. MBA 685 Information Security Ethics and Policy Obtaining a working knowledge of government policies related to information technologies, including issues of protecting an individual s privacy Reviewing and understanding the legal environment and the constraints placed upon operations in the information realm A review of ethical principals and practices pertinent to the information age Understanding the information security concerns pertinent to strategic planning and forward thinking in an organization Developing an awareness of the battlefield in information warfare Exploring the information security capabilities inherent in various hardware and software standards (i.e., such as operating systems). MBA 690 Strategic Management Understand the fundamental aspects of strategic planning, industry analysis, strategy implementation, competitive dynamics, organization design, cooperative strategies, global strategies and corporate governance Understand real-world issues faced by managers and apply skills and knowledge gained from previous course work Blend functional with strategic management and apply to various situations such as evaluating new markets, capturing returns from innovation, managing production Understand best new thinking to come out of companies, consulting and research Understand ethical and global issues related to strategic management Instructional Methodology Aside from the 4 hour face-to-face Saturday meeting at the beginning and ending of every course, the MBA InfoSec is completely web delivered. Our Internet-based remote education program employs the latest modes of delivery and allows students to learn and complete assignments and interact with faculty at any time and from anywhere. The MBA InfoSec uses three software platforms to deliver the on-line portion of each course. Blackboard is used as a course management platform. The second platform is Tegrity which has audio and video streaming. Faculty use this software to display James Madison University 6
PowerPoint lecture material with a talking head. The last software platform is Centra Symposium. With a headset and microphone, we conduct a virtual class weekly. If a student cannot be present for the virtual class, all material is recorded for latter use. At the beginning of and end of each eight-week course, cohort groups will meet for 4 hours of face-to-face time on a Saturday at the Sheraton Reston Hotel 11810 Sunrise Valley Dr. Reston Va. This hotel is about 5-7 minutes from Dulles International Airport. Students will receive course information before the start of each new course. Books should be ordered from your favorite.com textbook publisher or distributor. For the West Coast MBA Infosec program, the hotel for the face-to-face meetings has not been designated yet. Prerequisites Applicants to the MBA IinfoSec graduate program who do not have a Bachelor of Business Administration degree are required to successfully complete up to six selfpaced, internet-based MBA five hundred level courses. Each of the six courses is offered in a block system 3 times per year. First block fall semester is MBA 501, 502, and 503. Second block fall semester is MBA 504, 505, and 506. This same sequence takes place in the spring and summer semesters. Each course is three credit hours and cost $500 per credit hour. Course listings are presented below: MBA 501 Management and Organizational Behavior MBA 502 Statistics and Management Science MBA 503 Financial Accounting MBA 504 Managerial Finance MBA 505 Foundations of Economics MBA 506 Legal Environment of Business Admissions Selection to the program focuses on the "whole person concept" which emphasizes academic achievement, Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) scores, and work experience. Specific minimum requirements include: Undergraduate degree and a minimum GPA of 3.0 * GMAT score of 525 or higher Two years full time work experience * If an applicant's undergraduate degree is not in business, up to 6 prerequisite business courses must be taken prior to starting the 600 level MBA InfoSec courses. Application Applicants can find the JMU Information Security MBA application for admission at http://cob.jmu.edu/mba/. A nonrefundable fee of $55 must accompany the application. Further guidance is on the web site. James Madison University 7
University Contact All inquiries and applications should be directed to: Dr. Kenneth Bahn Director, MBA Programs James Madison University MSC 0206 Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807 540.568.3009 bahnkd@jmu.edu www.jmu.edu/mba James Madison University 8