Introduction

Information Assurance (IA) is the practice of assuring information and managing risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information or data and the systems and processes used for those purposes. While focused dominantly on information in digital form, the full range of IA encompasses not only digital but also analog or physical form. Information assurance as a field has grown from the practice of information security which in turn grew out of practices and procedures of computer security. Generally, IA is considered more of the strategic risk management of information systems rather than the creation and application of security controls. In addition to defending against malicious hackers and codes (e.g., viruses), IA practitioners consider corporate governance issues such as privacy, regulatory and standards compliance, auditing, business continuity, and disaster recovery as they relate to information systems. Further, while information security draws primarily from computer science, IA is an interdisciplinary field requiring expertise in accounting, fraud examination, forensic science, management science, systems engineering, security engineering, and criminology, in addition to computer science. Therefore, IA is best thought of as a superset of information security, integrating people, technology and operations to establish security and protection across multiple layers and dimensions.

The MSc (Information Assurance) programme offered by UTM AIS will be the integration of digital forensic science, security engineering, IT risk management of management systems and standard compliance towards a safe and secured Information Society against emerging threats.