The cyber ops curriculum is intended to provide the basic education for cybersecurity jobs in intelligence, military, and law enforcement.
NSA officials told Reuters that the program, which is part of President Obama's national initiative to improve cybersecurity through education, aims to prepare students for careers at the US Cyber Command, the NSA's signals intelligence operations, and law enforcement agencies investigating cybercrimes.
"We're trying to create more of these, and yes they have to know some of the things that hackers know, they have to know a lot of other things too, which is why you really want a good university to create these people for you", Neal Ziring, technical director at NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, told Reuters in an interview.
So far, four universities have received the new designation of Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations: Dakota State University, the Naval Postgraduate School, Northeastern University, and the University of Tulsa, according to Reuters.
Of the 10 requirements needed to be designated a center of excellence, the two most lacking at many schools are courses on reverse engineering and mobile communications security, NSA officials said.