CAE-CO Knowledge Units
CAE in Cyber Operations Fundamental
The program must include KUs covering 100% of the mandatory academic content and a minimum of 10 of the 17 optional academic content. Students meeting the academic criteria for the institution's cyber operations program must complete coursework to meet all ten of the mandatory KUs and at least four of the optional KUs offered by the institution. The Outcomes listed in each KU description are examples of the level of depth cyber operations students must demonstrate to meet the requirement.
CAE in Cyber Operations Advanced
The CAE-CO Advanced Program has three types of Knowledge Unit (KU) components that must be met by applicant schools: Foundational KUs, Core KUs and Specialization KUs. Core and Specialization KUs for the CAE-CO Advanced designation must be graduate level offerings.
Designated programs must graduate a minimum of five Master's degree students with a CAE-CO Advanced designation or at least one Doctoral student during the designation cycle. Applicant institutions must provide coursework to satisfy at least 3 Core KUs and 2 Specialization KUs.
Cyber Operations Foundational KUs represent the required knowledge for any cyber operations student and must be met either before entering or at completion of the graduate cyber operations program. The Cyber Operations Foundational KUs are the ten CAE-Cyber Operations Fundamental Mandatory KUs. Each school must use a documented process to vet their own students for the required foundational knowledge. Vetting can be any documented process (e.g. transcript reviews, testing, remediation courses, etc).
| Foundational (10 required) | Core (3 out of 5 required) | Specialiazation (2 out of 11 required) |
|---|---|---|
| M.1 Low Level Programming Languages (programming assignment required) | C.1 Advanced Reverse Engineering | S.1 Reverse Engineering |
| M.2 Software Reverse Engineering (hands-on labs required) | C.2 Vulnerability Discovery and Exploitation | S.2 Operating Systems Security |
| M.3 Operating Systems Theory | C.3 Cellular and Mobile Security | S.3 Cell/Mobile |
| M.4 Networking (hands-on labs required) | C.4 Advanced Network Security | S.4 RF Analysis |
| M.5 Cellular and Mobile Technologies | C.5 Operating System Security | S.5 Internet of Things |
| M.6 Discrete Math and Algorithms | S.6 Software Defined Networking | |
| M.7 Overview of Cyber Defense (hands-on labs required) | S.7 Digital Forensics | |
| M.8 Security Fundamental Principles (i.e., first Principles) | S.8 Anonymizing Overlay Networks | |
| M.9 Vulnerabilities | S.9 Space and Cyber | |
| M.10 Legal and Ethics | S.10 SCADA/ICS | |
| S.11 Advanced Networking |
