NKU Cybersecurity Expands Its Reach

As 2025 begins, the impact of Northern Kentucky University’s cybersecurity programs continues to grow. Last year, the National Security Agency renewed NKU’s designation as Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education for a third 5-year term.  

This designation certifies, among other things, that NKU’s curriculum meets high standards, and that it engages in outreach programming through the Center for Information Security in the College of Informatics. 

The most prominent outreach activity has long been the Northern Kentucky Cybersecurity Symposium, now in its 18th year, offered each October in collaboration with the Salmon P. Chase College of Law. The last symposium brought in more than 400 registrants and 16 sponsors. It was followed the next day by the Kentucky Cybersecurity and Forensics Conference, which brought more than 200 cybersecurity researchers, teachers and students to campus.

Enrollment in cybersecurity degree programs at NKU is growing fast, reaching the 525 mark as the year 2025 began. These programs include an in-person B.S. in Cybersecurity, an accelerated online M.S. in Cybersecurity and a cybersecurity track in the B.S. in Information Technology—offered both in person and online. The most distinctive program is an international dual master's degree in Cybersecurity with St. Andrew’s Georgian University in Tbilisi Georgia, which has brought in 120 students from the Georgian public and private sector.

The next frontier, according to Dr. Ankur Chattopadhyay, director of the Center for Information Security, is NKU’s involvement in a potential new NSA designation, “Cybersecurity/Artificial Intelligence." This reflects the new reality of AI-enhanced cyber offense and cyber defense, and brings together two strengths of the College of Informatics. 

Larissa Heck

Manager of Communication, Events and Administration, College of Informatics