Special Topics: Information Assurance and Security [Power to the Edge: Challenges to systems survivability in a net-centric world] This course is an overview of increasingly important aspects of systems development, operation and sustainment, namely information assurance, software assurance, survivability and security. As more and more functionality and dynamic decision-making are pushed down and out into the organization (power to the edge), assurance and security concerns, with their organizational and human dimensions, impact the fidelity of the data and the very survival of the organization. Topics include overview and definitions, defense in depth, legal and policy issues, principles of survivability and information assurance, risk management, insider threat, vendor and outsourcing issues, incident management and forensics. This class is a combination of lectures, readings, and discussion groups. Students will leave the course with an understanding of the various concepts and their impacts on systems and the organization itself. Pre-requisites: Junior or Senior class standing.