Cybersecurity Sequence: Upcoming Network Security Course with Bruce Tong
The J. Warren McClure School of Emerging Communication Technologies is planning to have a new Network Security course join the ECT curriculum! The course is planned to be created and led by University IT Auditor and adjunct professor Bruce Tong, an alumnus of the Information and Telecommunication Systems program.
To Bruce, his description of Network Security varies due to his variety of experiences. As an IT auditor, Network Security concerns “controlling risks related to the disclosure of sensitive data, evaluating the effectiveness of those controls, and forming opinions on if the organization is complying with information security requirements.” Having also worked as a software engineer, Bruce also considers Network Security to be important when constructing systems to meet information security requirements: “Networks are critical infrastructure for IT Systems. Network Security involves ensuring the availability of the network as well as the security of the data being transported.”
Bringing his experience to the classroom, Bruce is sorting through multiple potential topics to discuss in his upcoming course. Network design issues and penetration testing are a few of the topics he has found interest in. Hands-on-experience and activities that could relate to the course are also being explored. “Most recently I've been learning to pick locks” says Bruce, “I think that would make a great activity related to studying how locks work and how well they protect important facilities.”
The Network Security course is still in its early stages, but Bruce feels that it will bring awareness of information security issues to ECT Programs that will benefit students in their future careers. “Engineering and Security are synergistic areas of knowledge and expertise” says Bruce, “You're going to face security-related requirements when you go to build networks, systems, and services. Your designs will be better if you take security into account.”
In terms of what Bruce is most excited for, creating and teaching this new course allows him to explore topics in more detail than he would normally dive into when working as an IT Auditor. For students, he feels that the Network Security class will allow them to look at networks from a different perspective. While ECT students have explored the skills to build network systems, they will now be able to explore how to identify flaws and how to protect their systems from these potential risks.
Bruce Tong’s network security course is planned to start in Fall 2022. Stay on the look out for more details!
The McClure School of Emerging Communication Technologies strives to offer the best academic programs in the IT (Information Technology), the game development and the Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) industries. Our programs and certificates cover numerous aspects of the rapidly changing industries of information networking, cybersecurity, data privacy, game development, digital animation and the academic side of esports.