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 Composition | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| UNIV 101: Introduction to the General Education Experience | 1 unit |
| General Education | 3 units |
| General Education | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| TOTAL | 16 units |
Year 1 | Spring
| ENGL 102: First-Year Composition | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| General Education | 3 units |
| MATH (based on placement) | 3 units |
| General Education | 3 units |
| TOTAL | 15 units |
Year 2 | Fall
| Major Course | 3 units |
| General Education | 3 units |
| General Education | 3 units |
| First-Semester Language | |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| TOTAL | 16 units |
Year 2 | Spring
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Second-Semester Language | 4 units |
| TOTAL | 16 units |
Year 3 | Fall
| UNIV 301: General Education Portfolio | 1 unit |
| General Education | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| TOTAL | 16 units |
Year 3 | Spring
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| TOTAL | 15 units |
Year 4 | Fall
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| TOTAL | 15 units |
Year 4 | Spring
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Major Course | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| Additional Elective Course | 3 units |
| TOTAL | 12 units |
| TOTAL DEGREE CREDITS | 120 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.