Curriculum | 16 Credit Hours
In this hands-on program, you'll learn from some of the world's top cybersecurity experts, gaining hands-on technical and leadership experience you can apply immediately on the job. This is the curriculum order for this program.
Required Core Courses | 10 credit hours
ISE 5001: Security Leadership Essentials for Managers | LDR512 + GSLC
SANS Course: LDR512: Security Leadership Essentials for Managers
Certification: GIAC Security Leadership (GSLC)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 5001 uses case studies, group discussions, team-based exercises, in-class games, and a security leadership simulation to help you absorb both technical and management topics. Covering a wide range of security topics across the entire security stack, this course empowers you to become an effective security manager and get up to speed quickly on information security issues and terminology. Data, network, host, application, and user controls are examined in conjunction with key management topics that address the overall security lifecycle, including governance and technical controls focused on protecting, detecting, and responding to security issues.
ISE 6700: Building and Leading Security Operations Centers | LDR551 + GSOM
SANS Course: LDR551: Building and Leading Security Operations Centers
Certification: GIAC Security Operations Manager Certification (GSOM)
3 Credit Hours
Managing a security operations center (SOC) requires a unique combination of technical knowledge, management skills, and leadership ability. Whether you are looking to build a new SOC or take your current team to the next level, ISE 6700 provides the right balance of these elements to super-charge your people, tools, and processes. You will learn how to build a high-performing SOC tailored to your organization and the threats it faces. You will be given the tools needed to manage an effective defense, measure progress towards your goals, and build out more advanced processes like threat hunting, active defense, and continuous SOC assessment. Each section includes hands-on labs, introductions to some of the industry's best free and open-source tools, and an interactive game in which you will apply your new SOC management skills in real-world scenarios.
ISE 5601: IT Security Planning, Policy, & Leadership | LDR514 + GSTRT
SANS Course: LDR514: Security Strategic Planning, Policy, and Leadership
Certification: GIAC Strategic Planning, Policy, and Leadership (GSTRT)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 5601 gives you tools to become a security business leader who can build and execute strategic plans that resonate with other business executives, create effective information security policy, and develop management and leadership skills to better lead, inspire, and motivate your teams. The course will help you to develop strategic plans, create effective information security policy, and develop management and leadership skills using case studies from Harvard Business School, case scenarios, team-based exercises, and discussions that put you in real-world situations.
ISE 5605: Business Finance Essentials | SEC405
SANS Course: SEC405: Business Finance Essentials
1 Credit Hour
ISE 5605 takes information security leaders on a journey to help them understand and successfully navigate their organization's financial status. Understanding and effectively communicating financial stewardship will contribute to their success, the success of the cybersecurity team that they lead, and, ultimately, the success of their organization.
Elective Courses | 6 credit hours
Students can take two leadership electives or one elective from each group.
Leadership Elective Options
ISE 5800: IT Project Management and Effective Communication | LDR525 + GCPM
SANS Course: LDR525: Managing Cybersecurity Initiatives & Effective Communication
Certification: GIAC Certified Project Manager (GCPM)
3 Credit Hours
In ISE 5800 you will learn how to improve your project planning methodology and project task scheduling to get the most out of your critical IT resources. The course utilizes project case studies that highlight information technology services as deliverables. ISE 5800 follows the basic project management structure from the PMP® Guide 5th edition and also provides specific techniques for success with information assurance initiatives. All aspects of IT project management are covered — from initiating and planning projects through managing cost, time, and quality while your project is active, to completing, closing, and documenting as your project finishes.
ISE 6001: Implementing and Auditing CIS Controls | SEC566 + GCCC
SANS Course: SEC566: Implementing and Auditing CIS Controls
Certification: GIAC Critical Controls Certification (GCCC)
3 Credit Hours
Cybersecurity attacks are increasing and evolving so rapidly that is more difficult than ever to prevent and defend against them. ISE 6001 will help you to ensure that your organization has an effective method in place to detect, thwart, and monitor external and internal threats to prevent security breaches. As threats evolve, an organization's security should too. Standards based implementation takes a prioritized, risk-based approach to security and shows you how standardized controls are the best way to block known attacks and mitigate damage from successful attacks.
ISE 6715: Auditing Systems, Applications, and the Cloud | AUD507 + GSNA
SANS Course: AUD507: Auditing Systems, Applications, and the Cloud
Certification: GIAC Systems and Network Auditor Certification (GSNA)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6715 is organized specifically to provide a risk driven method for tackling the enormous task of designing an enterprise security validation program. After covering a variety of high-level audit issues and general audit best practice, students will dive deep into the technical how to for determining the key controls that can be used to provide a level of assurance to an organization. Tips on how to repeatably verify these controls and techniques for continuous monitoring and automatic compliance validation are given from real world examples.
Technical Elective Options
ISE 5201: Hacker Tools, Techniques, Exploits, & Incident Handling | SEC504 + GCIH
SANS Course: SEC504: Hacker Tools, Techniques, and Incident Handling
Certification: GIAC Certified Incident Handler Certification (GCIH)
3 Credit Hours
By adopting the viewpoint of a hacker, ISE 5201 provides an in-depth focus into the critical activity of incident handling. Students are taught how to manage intrusions by first looking at the techniques used by attackers to exploit a system. Students learn responses to those techniques, which can be adopted within the framework of the incident handling process to handle attacks in an organized way. The faculty instruction, lab exercises, and exam are coordinated to develop and test a student's ability to utilize the core capabilities required for incident handling.
ISE 6255: Defensible Security Architecture & Engineering | SEC530 + GDSA
SANS Course: SEC530: Defensible Security Architecture and Engineering: Implementing Zero Trust for the Hybrid Enterprise
Certification: GIAC Defensible Security Architect Certification (GDSA)
3 Credit Hours
Effective security requires a balance between detection, prevention, and response capabilities. Defensible Security Architecture and Engineering is designed to help you establish and maintain a holistic and layered approach to security. You’ll explore the fundamentals of up-to-date defensible security architecture and how to engineer it, with a heavy focus on leveraging current infrastructure (and investment), including switches, routers, and firewalls. You’ll learn how to reconfigure these devices to significantly improve your organization’s prevention capabilities in the face of today's dynamic threat landscape. The course will also delve into the latest technologies and their capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Multiple hands-on labs will reinforce key points in the course and provide actionable skills you will be able to leverage immediately at work.
ISE 6270: Applied Data Science and AI/Machine Learning for Cybersecurity Professionals | SEC595 + GMLE
SANS Course: SEC595: Applied Data Science and AI/Machine Learning for Cybersecurity Professionals
Certification: GIAC Machine Learning Engineer (GMLE)
3 Credit Hours
This course is squarely centered on solving information security problems. This course covers the necessary mathematics theory and fundamentals students absolutely must know to allow them to understand and apply the machine learning tools and techniques effectively. The course progressively introduces and applies various statistic, probabilistic, or mathematic tools (in their applied form), allowing you to leave with the ability to use those tools. The hands-on projects provide a broad base from which you can build your own machine learning solutions. This course teaches how AI tools like ChatGPT really work so that you can intelligently discuss their potential use by organizations and how to build effective solutions to solve real cybersecurity problems using machine learning and AI.
ISE 6445: Cyber Threat Intelligence | FOR578 + GCTI
SANS Course: FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence
Certification: GIAC Cyber Threat Intelligence (GCTI)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6445 will equip you, your security team, and your organization in the tactical, operational, and strategic level cyber threat intelligence skills and tradecraft required to better understand the evolving threat landscape and to counter those threats accurately and effectively. This course focuses on structured analysis to establish a solid foundation for any security skillset and to amplify existing skills.
