Bachelor of Arts in Security Management

This course will assess the criminal justice system including research theory, inquiry structure, and modes of observation, data interpretation, program evaluation, and policy analysis. The student will approach the study of research methods through reading assignments, assessing scenarios, research readings and/or questions regarding issues in research in Criminal Justice. The student will prepare a research survey regarding a topic in the criminal justice field. Students will examine the importance of theory as it relates to criminal justice research and differentiate between major research approaches, designs, data collection techniques, and research works. Students shall be introduced to the American Psychological Association (APA) style of writing regarding basic research paper format. (This course is to be considered a perquisite taken as one of the first three 300 level courses from the criminal justice and/or security curriculums).

This course examines various elements and aspects of International and Domestic Terrorism. Students explore the cultural and ideological philosophies, as well as the social, economic, political, and religious conditions of select states, groups, and individuals that comprise the phenomena of terrorism. By examining the historical and contemporary aspects of terrorism students develop a working knowledge of the current Global War on Terror and are better prepared to comprehend terrorist motives and ideologies. Topics include: History and Development, Types of Terrorism, Conventional and Unconventional terrorist tactics, the Media’s impact on terrorism including the US Counterterrorism Policies. Particular attention is addressed to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

This course is an overview of the principles and issues in business and organizational security management. It reviews the classical management functions including the role of the Chief Security Officer and the principles of organizing the security function. It assesses the traditional management theories and concepts of planning, staffing, span of control as they are applied to the organization. Students examine the challenges embodied in various aspects of physical, personnel, and information security. Principles of loss prevention and the protection of assets are also considered. The history, legal foundations, functions, operations, processes, and tools of security management are explored to ensure the student has a broad understanding of security management and its current role in government and business operations.

This course assesses legal and ethical issues that inevitably affect security managers. It examines dimensions of security management including pertinent points of civil and criminal law, personnel law and obligations, negotiations, contract management, constitutional rights of individuals, legal compliance, liability, ethical standards and dilemmas, and decision-making.

This course explores industry standards, practices and methods of determining the adequacy of security management programs. It reviews the interplay of management structures, functions and processes as well as proper procedures for conducting physical security analyses and evaluations. The course examines the principles of operating technology-centered programs for the protection of assets.

This course focuses on the contemporary issues of security management such as substance abuse, violence, ideologies, adjudication and reconsideration reviews, security countermeasures, case management, use of examinations such as polygraphs, report writing, international commercial sales, and media relations. It also addresses the security manager’s role in personnel management, security planning, organizational communication, recruitment, retention, training and development, and management of contracts, as well as examines techniques and tools that help security managers understand bias, educate, and shift attitudes of employees towards more proactive security practices.

This course focuses on principles and practices that security managers can put to immediate use. The bedrock requirements of effective organization, staff selection, and daily operating procedures are emphasized over abstract concepts. Topics include guard operations, plans, policies, and procedures, workplace violence, managing change, bomb threat management, security awareness training, physical security, securing information systems, investigations, and employee screening.

Effective physical security is based on an accurate threat assessment followed by the implementation of an overlapping system of physical and electronic safeguards designed for the specific needs of the client. Topics covered include threat assessment, the security survey, architectural design for security, physical and electronic security methodologies, security lighting, perimeter protection and the guard force, clear zones, wall materials, signage, and the importance of effective and continuous local, state, and federal governmental liaison.

The course will prepare students to use intelligence methodologies and templates to assist in case support or investigations, security and counterintelligence, trend development and forecasting, and efficient use of open source information to maximize resources. The course will examine the current use of intelligence in law enforcement (federal, state, and local) and its applications in support of investigations and operational planning. The intelligence cycle, collection plans, use of open source intelligence and the Internet, including Visual Investigative Aids provide credibility to intelligence information gathering. An assessment of source reliability, information validity, security applications, and intelligence sharing will be examined in-depth. The methods also have application in the private sector.

This course examines the techniques and technologies for penetration of networks, detection of attacks, and prevention of attacks. This course addresses the techniques, the technologies, and the methodologies used by cyber intruders (hackers) to select a target and launch an attack. An understanding into the mind and psyche of the hacker is essential to anticipating the moves of the hacker and to design effective countermeasures. This course focuses on techniques and technologies to detect such attacks even while the attack is in progress; early detection enables the administrator to track the movements of the hacker and to discover the intent and goals of the hacker. This course assesses the various countermeasures to keep the system out of the “sights” of the hacker and to keep the hacker out of the perimeter of the target network. This course also explores the laws and the legal considerations in prosecuting computer crime.

This course will discuss both computer and network security, from the wetware (human), software, and hardware perspectives. The "wetware" component will deal with identification of potential risk situations, establishing policies for avoidance, recovery, and prosecution, and proactive measures to reduce causal factors for security breeches in an organization. The "software" perspective will examine types of inappropriate software activity, as well as asset protection issues (recognizing software assets). This component will also address software tools available to assist in reducing administrative costs due to both malicious and accidental loss. The "hardware" component will address hardware approaches to protecting assets, as well as hardware techniques used to compromise assets. Specific technologies discussed include firewalls, symmetric key encryption, public key encryption, digital certificates, and cryptographic systems (SSL/TLS, VPNs, and Kerberos).

This course allows students to examine a broad range of computer security issues and provides the student with technical knowledge not normally addressed in traditional training. It explores the protection of proprietary information and security planning with an emphasis on networked computer vulnerabilities. It also focuses on detection (e.g. viruses, hackers, types of computer crime, computer forensic examination, etc.), as well as disaster recovery and technology law. A primary focus is put on security of systems and computer crime prevention. Also addressed is the maturing criminal population with increased computer literacy, whose tendency is to move from violent actions to more profitable computer crime. Finally, issues of privacy and freedom of information are examined. This course meets the topical requirements of the IAW 8570.1M Technical II and Management I categories.

Security is one of the most important concerns in the world of Information Technology. This course examines the technical issues and the administrative practices to implement and manage security; in particular, this course focuses on the principles of security auditing. This course explores the various technologies and tools to assist with discovery and auditing in the world of security management. This course also assesses the audit practices, audit processes, audit plans, discovery process, discovery software, penetration strategies, identification of potential attacks, log analysis, user baseline analysis, activity analysis, risk assessment, roles and responsibilities, and the roles and responsibilities of security auditing professionals.

This course examines the principles of security planning and policy. It focuses on a variety of security guidelines, policies and plans (security requirements, internal users, external users, operational costs, geography, capacity plan, growth plan, business organization, business scenarios, business factors, business processes, business functions, business products, product lifecycle, technical factors, roles and responsibilities, and organizational authority). This course addresses physical security, authentication, network security, encryption, software development, email, Internet, acceptable use, acceptable speech, and viruses/worms. It also covers the need for actionable and maintainable policies and the need for periodic audits of policies and configurations.

This course examines how laws have had to change to account for the expanded realm of crimes in the digital age. Despite legislation intended to combat the problem of identity theft, it continues to be one of the most common crimes associated with the Internet. Sexual harassment complaints can now be triggered simply by an employee forwarding questionable email to fellow employees. Some regard intellectual property rights violations to be innocent flattery, while others consider them to be violations that must be stamped out by force of law. Plagiarism by students who pull content from the Internet is a growing problem. Stalkers can log into their victims lives and gain access to highly confidential medical and financial information, and even sabotage their victim's reputations. This course examines current literature on such topics.

Industrial espionage results in millions of dollars in lost revenue each year. This course provides a brief history of espionage and examines the World Wide Web as an enabler of espionage, the role of governments in industrial espionage, the rise of the competitive intelligence professional, tensions between openness and security, and the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.

This course is designed to provide a solid foundation for undergraduate study in the online environment. Students will be introduced to learning theory, the tools available in the online classroom and campus, and online research. Identification of personal learning style allows students to improve their study/learning techniques and prepares them to succeed in college level courses. Students will be introduced to formatting and citation styles. APUS policy and procedure is addressed. There is an emphasis on written communication to assist students in the transition to the online environment.

The Capstone course is a senior level course designed to allow the student to review, analyze and integrate the work the student has completed toward a degree in Security Management. The student will complete an approved academic project or paper that demonstrates mastery of their program of study in a meaningful culmination of their learning and to assess their level of mastery of the stated outcomes of their degree requirements. NOTE: All required, core, and major courses must be completed prior to enrollment in this course. Student must have SENIOR standing to register.