Mission, Goals, & Objectives

The Master of Science in Intelligence and Security Studies (MSISS) program prepares students and professionals to contend with next-generation threats and challenges. It builds and develops students’ skills to pursue careers in intelligence and national security and for advancement in the military, intelligence community, and the defense industry and private sector.

Courses emphasize cyber security and operations, hybrid and asymmetric threats, structured analytic techniques, disruptive and emerging technologies, resilience measures, intelligence collections, artificial intelligence, climate change and biodefense, terrorism, disinformation and fake news, and counterintelligence. Students will also have the option of completing a thesis project of their choosing or pursue experiential learning opportunities.

Program Goals & Objectives

Program Goal 1: Introduce students to strategic-level frameworks to build and reinforce intellectual and practical skills and prepare them for learning activities in intelligence, security, and cyber defense. 

• Apply security foundations, principles, and information technology systems to threats, risks, and vulnerabilities in ways that enhance intellectual and practical skills.  
• Identify best practices, ethical compliance, and policy dimensions of intelligence and security in the private and public sectors in ways that enhance intellectual and practical skills. 
• Apply established best practices to threat intelligence, cyber threats, security risk analysis, security program management, and cyber defense practices to build and reinforce their intellectual and practical skills. 
• Identify ethical dimensions and dilemmas to enhance intellectual and practical skills so they operate and function as intelligence and security practitioners in the field. 

Program Goal 2: Strengthen students’ intellectual and practical skills in addressing cyber and physical incidents across the threat spectrum.   

• Analyze data from different domains using Open-Source Intelligence Collections methods and publicly available information (PAI) to enhance their intellectual and practical skills in transforming intelligence and information. 
• Compare structured analytic techniques to determine which models are appropriate for developing intellectual and practical skills in confronting intelligence and security-related problems and threats. 
• To enhance intellectual and practical skills, identify complexities and dynamism in cyber warfare and sophisticated cyberattacks. 
• Analyze key sectors in U.S. critical infrastructure and identify public-private partnerships in cyber and physical defense to enhance their intellectual and practical skills. 

Program Goal 3: Demonstrate application of knowledge using operational-level components and technological tools in intelligence and security to contend with threats, risks, and vulnerabilities. 

• Apply knowledge to support public and private sector planners with informed analysis and insight. 
• Identify electronic communications and ensure information compliance through detection of information threats, malign operations and cybercrime, terrorism and domestic violent extremism, and threats to law enforcement and homeland security. 
• Apply knowledge of advanced technological tools to intelligence challenges and security problems. 
• Apply early detection tools in threat intelligence, vulnerability management, and risk mitigation in response to penetrations and exploitation from threat actors. 

For more information on learning goals and outcomes, contact institutionalresearch@lvc.edu.