The Information Systems Security Lab (ISSL) at Iowa State has helped make the university’s computer security education program one of the best in the nation.

The National Security Agency recently designated ISU as a center of academic excellence in information assurance education, said ISSL co-coordinator Doug Jacobson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. ISU is one of the first schools in the nation to receive this recognition, he said.

One of the goals of ISSL is to educate students about computer security.

“Computer security is becoming a major concern for the government. One of the things the government is looking for is schools that teach computer security,” said ISSL co-coordinator Jim Davis, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

He said ISU offers seven computer security courses and another will be added shortly.

“That makes us one of the largest computer security education programs in the country,” he said.

In addition to providing education, ISSL’s research has led to software used nationwide.

One type defends computer networks from certain types of attacks made by computer hackers that is used in 200 schools, Jacobson said.

The lab also is developing software to assist in electronic commerce.

“If you were a company, you would run it on your Web server so people could use credit card numbers and that kind of thing in a secure way to do transactions,” Davis said.

Another product developed by the ISSL, called Network Watchdog, is a program that helps network administrators apprehend hackers.

When a hacker tries to break into the mock system, “it keeps them busy for a long period of time, thereby giving network administrators time to try to ferret out who’s trying to get into the system and do something about it,” Davis said.

Both Jacobson and Davis said they hope to expand facilities, recruit more faculty and endeavor into more research projects.

Jacobson said ISSL has assisted the Department of Public Safety and other law enforcement agencies.

“We’ve helped on cases of software piracy, and if students are being harassed by e-mail, we’ve helped law enforcement track back the sometimes long path of how the messages were created to find out who had done it,” Jacobson said.

ISSL was originally funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and continues to be funded by company donations, sales of its research projects and royalties from product sales, Jacobson said.