Montgomery College Designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education Article Headline

Montgomery College has been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD), a program jointly sponsored by the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. The CAE -CD is a validated program of study through the academic year 2027. In its endorsement letter, the NSA said Montgomery College’s program’s ability to meet the increasing demands of the program criteria will serve the nation well in contributing to the protection of the National Information Infrastructure.

The goal of the CAE-CD program is to reduce vulnerability in the nation's information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense; and to produce a growing number of professionals with expertise in the discipline, contributing to the advancement of state-of-the-art cyber defense knowledge and practice.

According to Silvia Vargas, Cybersecurity Program coordinator, “This honor represents not only the hard work of the program faculty and staff, but also, the hard work of students and the exemplary representatives they have been in the workforce. We acknowledge the threat that all of us face through cyber-attacks and we are committed to training professionals who will contribute to countering those threats.”

Receiving the CAE-CD designation indicates that Montgomery College is helping reduce threats to our national infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense as well as providing the nation with a pipeline of qualified cybersecurity professionals.

In addition to the prestige of attending a CAE-CDE institution, students attending designated schools are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and the Federal Cyber Service Scholarship for Service Program.

Montgomery College offers a Cybersecurity Associate in Applied Science degree. Montgomery College has transfer agreements with Capitol Technology University, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Marymount University, University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), and SANS Technology Institute (STI).