MSIT Launches Minor in Cybersecurity Leadership 

Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing fields in the country. Beginning this fall, it will also be a new area of focus for students in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program.  

Beginning in the 2023-24 academic year, MSIT will offer a minor in cybersecurity leadership. The minor will be open to students across Northwestern Engineering’s professional Master’s programs. 

Students can earn the minor by completing five courses (one 10-week course and four five-week courses) for a total of three units. The classes will be focused on a holistic view of cybersecurity topics that are appropriate for leadership roles in this area, said Randall Berry, director of the MSIT program.   

“It’s clear that effectively leading in cybersecurity is more than just understanding security technology,” he said. “It's about the human element – how to lead teams and how to manage workforces to ensure that people are doing the right things.” 

Existing courses that make up the minor are: 

• Information Security and Assurance (full credit)  
• Cybersecurity Leadership (half credit) 
• IT Risk Management (half credit) 
• Law and Information Technology (half credit) 

A fifth five-week, half-credit "Special Topics" course is currently under development and will be required to complete the minor.  

Two of the five-week courses – Cybersecurity Leadership and IT Risk Management – are taught by adjunct lecturer Todd Fitzgerald, who has built and led Fortune 500 company security programs for more than two decades. He also is a member of MSIT’s Industry Advisory Board, which is tasked with ensuring the program’s courses remain aligned with business needs.   

“When I started my IT career, security was predominantly viewed as the department that granted access to files and little else,” Fitzgerald said. “The role has evolved into a strategic leadership role to protect the business." 

That has put cybersecurity experts in high demand.  

According to Forbes, the unemployment rate for cybersecurity fell to 0 percent in 2016 and has never increased. In fact, a skill gap has emerged. Cybercrime Magazine projects that there will be 3.5 million job openings in the cybersecurity field by 2025.  

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects jobs for information security analysts will grow by 33 percent from 2020 to 2030, a rate four times faster than the average employment growth rate of all occupations nationwide.   

“The biggest myth of cybersecurity is that you can throw enough money at preventive controls and not incur a data breach,” Fitzgerald said. “There are so many different aspects to cybersecurity leadership that no one security leader, even the most seasoned, has all the answers.”  

These new demands on cybersecurity experts make the timing right to add the minor, Berry said.  

“This is offering at a leadership level a much broader perspective of things that are critical for cybersecurity,” he said. “We felt there was enough interest and demand for cybersecurity professionals that it made sense to carve out a minor that focused on that.”  

The new minor shows how the MSIT program is committed to remaining aligned with industry needs. It should demonstrate to prospective students that the program's leadership remains focused on preparing students to excel in the workforce after graduation, Berry said. 

“MSIT as a program has been around for more than 20 years, and cybersecurity is an area where we've seen increased interest year after year after year,” he said. “There's a very high demand, and it's not just in tech industries. Any industry today should be concerned about cybersecurity.”