Course overview
In this course, students will be introduced to real-world cyber security challenges that organisations face, and learn to apply knowledge and skills gained through other Computer Science courses to address them. The challenges will be examined both from the attacker's perspective (how systems are exploited) and the defender's perspectives (how to secure systems or respond to threats).
Common attack and defence strategies for software, web applications, networks, operating systems, cryptographic systems and humans will be explored. The course will also introduce cyber security management concepts, including security operations, risk management, security engineering and security architecture, as well as provide guidance on different career paths specialising in cyber security. This course focuses on hands-on activities, and students are encouraged to participate in public and industry cybersecurity challenges, including capture-the-flag competitions.
Course learning outcomes
- evaluate career paths in cyber security and corresponding required skills, certifications and aptitudes
- Explain security assessment, including vulnerability scanning and network/web penetration testing and formulate some of these
- Evaluate the information security in an organisation, the main components of information security management frameworks and how to effectively manage risks
- Address cyber security challenges using forensic analysis skills such as binary file analysis and reverse engineering
- Identify cyber-security-related privacy issues and ethical considerations.