The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security designated Wake Tech as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education through 2025. Wake Tech becomes one of 12 colleges and universities in North Carolina with this designation.

DHS and NSA jointly created the National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in cyber defense and cyber operations in 1999. The goal of the program is to reduce the vulnerability of the national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and producing professionals with cyber defense expertise.

“Wake Tech is a leader in IT programs, and it’s fitting that our cybersecurity program has received this designation,” said Dr. Keith Babuszczak, Wake Tech IT Programs Provost and RTP Campus Chief Campus Officer. “Cybersecurity is everyone’s concern and through this designation Wake Tech will continue to prepare the future cybersecurity workforce as well as provide resources for Wake County citizens to be better informed and protected online.”

Babuszczak said program leaders spent two years strengthening and aligning the college’s cybersecurity curriculum with national standards.

Wake Tech offers a two-year Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in Cybersecurity within the college’s information technology program offerings. The cybersecurity degree prepares students for an IT career in digital forensics, network security services, and ethical hacking. Courses include routing and switching, network vulnerabilities, secure communications, system and security administration, data recovery, and computer investigations.

The college started with an information system security degree in 2006 and the updated cybersecurity degree program launched in 2017.

Twenty-four graduates earned their AAS in Cybersecurity this year. More than 700 students were enrolled in the degree and related certificates and diploma programs over the past year. New articulation agreements with NC A&T and Northeastern University will allow Wake Tech cybersecurity associate degree graduates even more options to transfer seamlessly into bachelor’s degree programs in information technology.