Global Intelligence and National Security Advisory Notes
The GINS program is a multi-disciplinary program currently housed under the
School of Social Sciences and Education (SSE) in the Department of Political
Science. Students seeking information on the GINS concentration in the
Political Science major should contact the GINS director Mark Martinez
in Political Science. This page is just for those who wish to combine GINS
with Computer Science or Computer Engineering degrees.
Information Security Concentration in Computer Science
The Information Security (IS) concentration in the Computer Science major is
intended for students who wish to pursue a career in information assurance and
security, either with government agencies or with industry. The concentration
combines Computer Science, Mathematics, and GINS courses to create an
interdisciplinary approach to information assurance education. This
concentration was added to the catalog in Fall 2013.
The general format of the IS concentration is to take a core in Computer
Sciences, electives in cybersecurity or data science, cognates in mathematics
and professional ethics, and then a GINS cognate. The GINS cognate exposes
students to the geopolitical, historical, and linguistic aspects of
cybersecurity, so students develop both a strong technical foundation and a
broad view of cybersecurity.
Please refer to the
CEE/CS Degree Information
page for information about the Quarter-to-Semester transition and for
advising checklists for the semester-system catalogs.
Computer Science minor for GINS and SSE majors
A Political Science or Criminal Justice major who wishes to pursue a
Computer Science minor should focus on information security related courses
within the Computer Science degree. This requires selecting specific course
options within the Computer Science minor. The following document gives some
advisory notes on which courses to select:
Computer Science minor with Information Security focus (quarter):
DOC PDF
Please refer to the
CEE/CS Degree Information
page for information about the Quarter-to-Semester transition and for the
advising checklists for semester-system catalogs.
GINS minor for Computer Science/Engineering majors
There is no official GINS minor in the catalog, but students can declare a
Special Minor with GINS coursework. Students interested in this option should
schedule an advising appointment with Melissa Danforth or Mark Martinez.
For students in Computer
Science/Engineering who do not want to switch to the Information Security
concentration,
the biggest challenge with adding a GINS minor to the Computer Science or
Computer Engineering major is the number of courses required. The minor
courses will not double-count towards the major requirements for the
traditional Computer Science or Computer Engineering degrees. However,
the Computer Information Systems concentration in Computer Science can count
the GINS courses towards their
elective requirements (CIS students can offset general electives with a
declared minor, but they cannot offset the 4000-level advanced CMPS elective).
Strategic/Critical Languages Information
Information Security and GINS majors can offset some of the Focus Area courses
with language courses for languages that have been designated as a "Critical
Language" or "Strategic Language" by the U.S. government. At CSUB, the only
critical language currently offered (on occasion) is Chinese. Several community
colleges in the area offer Chinese or Japanese.
The following are additional resources for developing foreign language skills:
NSF SFS Dissemination Workshop
This workshop was primarily for K-12 teachers and university instructors who
are interested in the materials developed for the two cybersecurity REVS-UP
sections at CSUB. REVS-UP is a 4 week summer program for high school students,
where students are on campus all day Monday - Thursday for the duration of
the program. CSUB's NSF SFS grant sponsored two sections of REVS-UP focusing
on general cybersecurity and on cryptography.
