The National Science Foundation has awarded Cal State San Bernardino's Information Assurance and Security Management Center a four-year, $2 million grant to train future protectors of the national information systems.

The grant will establish a scholarship at CSUSB for the Federal Service Cyber Corps program (aka Scholarship for Service), which was designed to increase and strengthen the cadre of federal information assurance and security professionals who protect the government's critical digital information infrastructure.

"To have this program at California State San Bernardino provides an extraordinarily unique opportunity for students, said Karen Dill Bowerman, dean of the university's College of Business and Public Administration.

"This program, since its inception just three years ago by Dr. Tony Coulson, has been gaining excellence at every juncture. First we received the designation by the Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. We were then awarded certification by the Committee on National Security Systems, and we are now a Scholarship for Service Cyber Corps site," Bowerman said. "With these designations, we are one of a very few in the nation to offer what we can offer to students."

"The cyber infrastructure is as important to the economy as roads and bridges," said Coulson, a professor of Information & Decision Sciences and director of the Information Assurance and Security Management Center. "As a matter of fact, 90 percent of all financial commerce is conducted electronically. Any disruption of the public or private infrastructure could wreck the financial computer networks and have a calamitous effect on the nation's economy."

Qualified students will receive scholarship funds in exchange for paid service in the federal government for a period equivalent to the length of their scholarship.

The CSUSB Information Assurance and Security Management Center was created to promote the study and application of information security management, computer forensics and other related information assurance topics, Coulson said.

"Our center will bring together Cal State San Bernardino faculty from related disciplines with government and industry leaders for the purposes of research, curriculum development, training and awareness," Coulson said.

The Scholarship for Service Cyber Corps program provides scholarships that fully fund the typical costs that students pay for books, tuition, and room and board while attending an approved institution of higher learning. Additionally, participants receive stipends of up to $8,000 for undergraduate and $12,000 for graduate students. The scholarships are funded through grants awarded by the National Science Foundation.

For more information on the CSUSB Information Assurance and Security Management Center, visit its Web site at iasm.csusb.edu or contact Tony Coulson at (909) 537-5723 or e-mail ids@csusb.edu.