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BAS CD Curriculum & Courses

Cyber Operations

The College of Information Science's Bachelor of Applied Science in Cyber Defense (BAS CD), offered on main campus and online, equips students with the versatile skills they need to become a critical part of the nation's cyber defense.

120

Units to Complete Degree, Includes:
42 Major Units

2

Ways to Study:
On Campus
Online


Learning Outcomes

The BAS in Cyber Defense is a robust program with learning outcomes designed to position graduates for essential careers in cybersecurity and beyond.

  • Operating Systems and 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.
  • Malware Reverse Engineering: Safely perform static and dynamic analysis of unknown software, including obfuscated malware, to fully understand the software's functionality.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 how the lower-level network layers support the upper ones.
  • Critical Thinking and 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.
  • Law, Ethics and Policy: Describe and explain the relationship between cyber ethics and law, US and International cyber laws and 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.
  • Security Principles and Vulnerabilities: Demonstrate and explain the various types of vulnerabilities and their underlying causes and 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.

Sample Four-Year Plan

120 units are required for graduation.

Click to view sample courses by year:

Year 1 | Fall

ENGL 101: First-Year Composition3 units
Major Course3 units
UNIV 101: Introduction to the General Education Experience1 unit
General Education3 units
General Education3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
TOTAL16 units

Year 1 | Spring

ENGL 102: First-Year Composition 3 units
Major Course3 units
General Education3 units
MATH (based on placement)3 units
General Education 3 units
TOTAL15 units

Year 2 | Fall

Major Course 3 units
General Education 3 units
General Education 3 units
First-Semester Language 
Additional Elective Course3 units
TOTAL16 units

Year 2 | Spring

Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Second-Semester Language4 units
TOTAL16 units

Year 3 | Fall

UNIV 301: General Education Portfolio1 unit
General Education3 units
Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
TOTAL16 units

Year 3 | Spring

Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
TOTAL15 units

Year 4 | Fall

Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
TOTAL15 units

Year 4 | Spring

Major Course3 units
Major Course3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
Additional Elective Course3 units
TOTAL12 units
TOTAL DEGREE CREDITS120 units

This is a sample plan and is subject to change based on catalog year, placement tests, AP/CLEP credit, transfer work, minor requirements, summer school, etc. The official degree requirements may be found in the University General Catalog and all University of Arizona students should refer to the Academic Advising Report for specific graduation requirements.


Curriculum & Courses

Bachelor's in Cyber Defense students take a mix of foundations, general education, core major and electives courses, subject to change based on catalog year, placement tests, AP/CLEP credit, transfer work, minor requirements, summer school, etc.

View the BAS in Cyber Defense curriculum, including checklist, sample four-year plan and course.

View or Download Fillable BAS CD Degree Curriculum Checklist (PDF)

Course offerings may vary, so be sure to meet with your academic advisor to plan the path that works best for you.

View All College of Information Science Undergraduate Courses

  


Technical Requirements


The CyberApolis virtual desktops are accessible through the student VPN and remote desktop protocol application, or through a web browser.

System specifications for CyberApolis virtual learning environment:

  • Windows: Version 7 or later
  • Mac: OS 12.0 or later
  • Linux: Modern 64-bit distribution released in the last 3-5 years (e.g., Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian).
  • Memory: 4 GB or higher (RAM)
  • Hard Drive: 60 GB (Mac OS High Sierra and Windows 10 require 16 GB)
  • Processor: Intel i3 (equivalent or higher) with a minimum of 400 kbps bandwidth with less than 100ms of latency

View more details on technical requirements at Arizona Online.

Ready to become part of a critical layer of cyber defense?

Learn more about the Bachelor of Applied Science in Cyber Defense by contacting us at infosci-ugrad@arizona.edu, or review the admissions process and begin your application now.

If you are a current U of A student, learn more about declaring a major, minor or certificate.

Start Your Application