Keiser University Online Information Security, MS

Keiser University's online Master of Science in Information Security is a 30-credit graduate degree for people who already hold a technology bachelor's and want a defined path toward the CISSP exam. It moves in 8-week terms and the school estimates 20 months. Ask Keiser for a quote so you can compare it with other programs.

Keiser University is a private nonprofit university in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Federal data counts 20,888 students on its enrollment rolls, and 76% of them are enrolled exclusively online, so distance learners are a normal part of campus life here.

The program page says the master's is available online and hybrid. This page covers the online version. It runs 30 credit hours in 8-week terms, and the school's own estimate for finishing is 20 months. That estimate carries an asterisk on Keiser's page, so treat it as a planning number rather than a promise.

Keiser has a sibling program worth knowing about: a Cybersecurity bachelor's degree of 126 credits with two concentrations, Information Assurance and Digital Defense. The master's is a different animal. It has no listed concentrations, it assumes you already have an IT-related bachelor's, and it is built around one professional goal, the CISSP, rather than a menu of specialties.

The degree is a Master of Science. The school says that students qualify to sit for the CISSP after the program. The CISSP is a widely recognized management-level security certification, and it is the only certification this program names. Passing the exam is separate from earning the degree, and the CISSP also asks for professional experience on top of the exam, so confirm the current requirements with the certifying body.

Keiser is regionally accredited by SACSCOC, which is the accreditation that matters if you ever plan to move into a doctoral program or have an employer reimburse tuition.

The federal graduation rate for the university is 61%. That is a school-wide figure across every program and level, so it describes Keiser as a whole and is not a forecast for this master's degree.

Where this degree can lead: Cybersecurity Degree Jobs.

Who It Fits

• You hold a bachelor's in an IT-related computer discipline and want a graduate credential in security without changing fields.
• You are aiming at the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and want a degree that the school says qualifies you to sit for it.
• You have some college credit or a prior graduate course and can use the allowance of up to 12 transfer credits to shorten the 30-credit plan.
• You prefer short 8-week terms where you focus on a small number of classes at a time instead of juggling a long semester.

Who Should Skip It

• Your bachelor's is in an unrelated field such as business or the humanities. The program requires an IT-related computer degree, and applicants are expected to know data structures and algorithms, assembly language and computer architecture, structured programming and discrete mathematics.
• You want to pick a specialty such as cloud security or digital forensics inside the degree. No concentrations are listed for this master's, although the bachelor's does offer them.

The degree is 30 credit hours of graduate work in information security, and it is aimed at graduates of IT-related computer programs.

The prerequisites tell you a lot about the level of the coursework. Applicants must already know data structures and algorithms, assembly language and computer architecture, structured programming in a modern high-level language, and discrete mathematics. That is a software and systems foundation, not a managerial one. You should expect technical material rather than a policy-only survey.

Ask the admissions office for the full catalog entry before you decide. Specifically, ask which classes cover cryptography, network defense, risk management and incident response, and whether there is a capstone or thesis.

The online Master of Science in Information Security has no per-credit price on Keiser's program page, which makes it harder to price from the outside than most programs on this site.

The one federal number we have is a campus charge of $1,447 per credit from the national education statistics survey. Campus charges can differ a lot from what an online student pays, so use it only as a prompt to ask questions, not as a quote.

Ask for three items in writing: the online per-credit rate, every mandatory fee per term, and the amount of transfer credit the school will accept. The school allows up to 12 transfer credits, and each credit it accepts removes a charge from the total. Get the quote for the 30-credit plan and for the shortened plan after transfer, then compare.

The program page lists the degree as available online and hybrid. Classes run in 8-week terms, which means each course is compressed and moves quickly, but it also means you finish one set of classes and reset sooner than you would in a 16-week semester.

Federal enrollment data shows 76% of Keiser Fort Lauderdale's students are enrolled exclusively online. That is a higher share than most of the schools in our cybersecurity list, so the school's online systems, advising and support are used by most of the student body rather than a small side group.

Ask whether classes meet live at set times, and whether any labs or exams must be done in person. Because the school also offers a hybrid version, confirm which one you are enrolling in.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

• The prerequisites are strict. You need an IT-related computer bachelor's plus working knowledge of data structures, assembly language and discrete mathematics.
• Ask for the course list, capstone details and concentration options before applying, so you can judge the technical depth.
• The 20-month completion time is an estimate, and it assumes you take courses back to back in the 8-week terms.

• What is the online per-credit rate for the 30-credit master's, and which mandatory fees are added each term?
• Which courses are in the degree, and is there a capstone, a thesis or a hands-on lab sequence?
• How many of the up to 12 transfer credits would apply to my prior coursework, and can I see that in writing?
• If my bachelor's is in a related but not exactly IT-related field, can I still be admitted, and what prerequisites would I have to complete first?
• Is the online version fully remote, or does the hybrid format ever require time on campus?
• Do classes meet at set times, or can I complete the work on my own schedule within each 8-week term?

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