Online Master’s Degree in Cyber Crime

A top online Master’s Degree in Cyber Crime prepares an individual to become a criminal justice professional in a variety of fields, including the FBI and CIA, arson investigation, and local, county, and state police agencies. An accredited online masters degree in cyber crime is designed to help professionals in criminal justice advance in their fields and concentrate in specializations. Students are able to balance work, school, and family with the flexible format of an online degree.

Online Master’s Degrees in Cyber Crime Requirements

Students who seek to achieve an online master’s degree in cyber crime from an accredited online school will need to be able to critically process information and analyze sources objectively. Individuals should have criminal justice experience or coursework. Bachelor’s degrees that could be accepted for an accredited online masters degree program in cyber crime could include:

• Bachelor of Science in Cyber Crime
• Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice
• Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies

Students who pursue an online master’s degree in cyber crime often find positions in criminal justice fields, including government investigative positions.

Online Cyber Crime Master’s Degree Education

Good online master’s degree programs in cyber crime typically require 60 credits and take between 3 to 4 years to complete. The types of cyber crime degrees offered by the best cyber crime master’s programs online include:

• Master of Science in Cyber Crime
• Master of Science in Criminal Law
• Master of Science in Crime Scene Investigation
• Master of Science in Policing

Information on Cyber Crime Courses

Course work in a cyber crime master’s degree program online focuses on criminal justice courses and information processing. Students study procedures in data recovery and interviewing individuals. A masters online degree in cyber crime is evaluated through informative papers on pertinent subject matter, comprehensive exams, and scholarly discussion with fellow students. Final comprehensive exams must be passed in each subject.

• Crime Management
  This course examines various aspects of crime management, including probation, sentencing, investigation, re-entry, and parole administration and service. Students explore special problems presented in this field, and discuss methods of changing policy and procedure.
• Psychology of Different People
  This psychology course explores aspects of social psychology, including social cognition, social perception, self-knowledge, conformity, and group processes. Emphasis is placed on interaction and behaviors such as aggression and pro-social behavior.
• Current Issues in Criminal Justice
  This course presents a detailed analysis of policing, including recruitment, selection and training. Students also cover policing philosophies and strategies, police organization and misconduct, and police accountability.
• Security Policies
  Students are guided through policy formation and administration in this course. They explore policy elements and procedures for various concentrations, including organizational security, personnel security, communications and operations management, information security, and access control policies.
• Cyber Crime
  Cyber crime basics are explored in this course. Students focus on denial of service attacks, malware, assessing a security system, encryption, internet fraud, industrial espionage, cyber terrorism, and information warfare.

Specializations and Concentrations

Cyber crime is a specialization of criminal justice fields. It pertains most readily to information systems and crime through information delivery. Specializations within cyber crime could include:

• Forensic Investigation
• Internet and Information Fraud

Careers in Cyber Crime

The increasing use of the internet and other forms of information technology has increased the need for cyber crime specialists. Students who seek a top online master’s degree in cyber crime are able to work in homeland security, emergency management, and emergency services. Students often pursue careers in the following titles:

• FBI Agent
  FBI agents conduct sensitive national security investigations that entail surveillance, wiretaps, and undercover assignment. Agents also enforce federal laws. FBI agents receive law enforcement availability pay scale in addition to special federal salary rates, and can expect some growth of about 17% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Cyber Intelligence Analyst
  Cyber intelligence analysts develop cyber threat profiles based on geographic region, country, group, or individual actors. They produce cyber threat assessments based on entity threat analysis, and establish method and identity of hackers. Cyber intelligence analysts can earn an average of $75,000 annually.
• Cyber Crime Investigator
  Cyber crime investigators participate in investigative functions, prepare investigative reports, coordinate investigations and maintain high level of cooperation between departments to ensure security. Cyber crime investigators can earn an average of $63,000 annually.
• Computer Forensic Investigator
  Computer forensic investigators are responsible for duties ranging from crimes against children to file system recovery on computers. They recover data from digital media to aid in investigation and prosecution of cyber crimes. Computer forensic investigators can earn an average of $50,040 to $75,000 annually, and look at a 22% growth by the year 2018 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Information Security Administration
  Information security administrators study and develop new initiatives and security solutions that meet organization requirements. Administrators are also responsible for managing technical assessments of the major information security subsystems in accordance with established policy and best practice guidelines. Information security administrators can make an average of $58,000 to $81,600.

An accredited online masters degree program in cyber crime can lead to a variety of positions in criminal justice and prevention of cyber crime. This is a growing field with great potential for individuals in the criminal justice field. Graduates have the ability to enter into lucrative government positions, or branch off on their own and start personal consulting operations.