Alan Rea

Dr. Alan Rea is a professor in the Business Information Systems Department in the Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University. He holds a secondary appointment in the Computer Science Department in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Rea is a Co-Director of WMU’s Cybersecurity Programs. In this role he works with faculty from two colleges (Business and Engineering) to develop, deploy, and manage curricula and course offerings for completely online and in-person MS and BS degrees. Rea also works with WMU’s Professional Programs offering Cybersecurity training to businesses and local educators.

Rea regularly teaches courses in information assurance, risk management, system security, and digital forensics. In his courses, he implements free and open source software whenever possible to emphasize the plethora of essential tools and approaches within information systems.

Rea’s research concentrates on secure system development, organizational information assurance, and risk management approaches. In particular, he has examined security implications associated with developing, deploying, and managing cloud services and web applications. Rea's research has been published in the Journal of Information Systems Education, Journal of Information Systems Security, Journal of Information Privacy and Security, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Industrial Management & Data Systems, and Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law. Rea is frequently featured as a media expert and serves on various academic and industry security working groups.