new delhi niit has finalised a contract with a usbased educational institute to develop a degree course in information systems security along with the nyselisted itt educational services which has about 70 campuses and 28000 students across 28 states in the us niit has entered into an agreement for developing the course earlier this year the value of the order is worth 2 million it is a degree course that we have designed and developed and it is near completion now said niit chairman rajendra pawar this is a significant step because it builds a bridge between the formal and the nonformal sectors represented by niit in global education he added pawar said the security programme was the first of its kind and had an appeal for global corporations we have tapped into our experience in security area based on our projects with fis and online training he added the programme will emphasise application of the technologies used to secure computer systems core technical courses will include the study of computer security architecture firewalls user authentication methods and security techniques for both windows and linux platforms other areas of instruction include risk management hacker techniques system and forensic investigation over the past year niit has struggled to beat a slowdown in the education and software business after a global downturn in the it sector it has seen declining profit growth and flat revenues in fact despite a massive erosion of values of it companies the companys plans for big acquisitions in the us did not fructify and it began to focus instead on a larger number of smaller alliances and acquisitions it has entered into alliances for instance with universities in australia new zealand the uk and the us to create access for its students to a degree course through this niit career education has been accorded a status which a university gives only to offerings of other university last month it acquired the usbased osprey for 3 million and said it would generate about 35 million from implementing sap solutions in january it acquired a 10 per cent stake in click2learn a nasdaq listed company for 3 million and became its exclusive custom development partner from this acquisition niit estimates earnings of about 15 million in two years as an overall strategy the companys top brass has maintained that it would not cut back spending on developing new products and services and be ready for the market as and when the it upturn begins