Course details
On this course you will be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry.
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Contact hours and assessment
Details of the assessment methods and contact hours for each unit of the course can be found in the programme specification.
Year 1
Core units
Principles of Programming: Covers the fundamental skills required to implement software solutions. Lab sessions will focus on the application of concepts to real-world problems, and you will test and debug a given program using a suitable strategy.
Computer Fundamentals: Enables you to understand the concepts and terminology of computer systems and computer security. You will do this through group based lab exercises where you will collaborate with other students focusing on problem based learning. This unit sets the foundations for you to further develop your knowledge of computing and cyber security.
Data and Databases: Develop your knowledge and practical expertise in the application of database design techniques, as well as your understanding of data processing.
Networks and Cyber Security: Learn the fundamentals of how to secure networks using firewalls and intrusion detection and prevention systems, and become familiar with the relevant terminology. Understand how evolving technology is impacting many organisations and how they facilitate their network security.
Application of Programming Principles: Having completed the Principles of Programming unit, you will use your knowledge to gain an insight into more complex system development. Lab sessions will allow you to complete team based exercises.
Business Systems Analysis and Design: Learn and understand the role that computer systems play within organisations, and the value they provide to stakeholders. You will have the opportunity to design, construct, and evaluate interactive systems to meet an organisation’s needs.
Year 2
Core units
Cyber Psychology: The role of this unit is to provide students with an understanding of psychological concepts relevant to human use of, and interaction with, computer technology. We will examine the role psychological factors play in security incidents, techniques and practices, and the psychology underlying the prevention and mitigation of cyber security incidents.
Cyber Security Management and Teamwork: This unit imparts the essential development and management skills, methods, actions, tools, and techniques needed to protect and secure an organisation's critical information assets and systems. The unit will provide experience of working in a team on a project specific to cyber security management and provides students with an understanding of broader issues such as how to govern information security as well as on practical issues such as developing and managing an information security solution and managing incidents.
Digital Forensics Fundamentals: Become competent in building plans for digital investigations and executing relevant forensic techniques in a computer-based environment. Practical sessions will focus on file forensics.
Economics of Information Security: Using case-study examples, you will look at the range of factors firms must consider when setting their information security strategy. Incentives, externalities and vulnerabilities influence executive choices on enterprise investment in security products. You will learn to understand the methodologies used to estimate the economic costs of cybercrime and the role regulations play in better aligning incentives for organisations with information security.
Enterprise Security and Privacy: This unit provides a detailed picture of the security and privacy issues surrounding an enterprise, i.e. an entity that incorporates business, information and technology and where its value is greater than the sum of its parts. We will cover a number of services found in a modern organisation and an emphasis will be given to services outsourced in a cloud environment. This emphasis is motivated by the fact that cloud security has been ranked as the greatest challenge of business engagement with cloud service provision.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): Having established that the security of a system will eventually fail, the “correct” response to a security incident is of critical importance for the sustainability of an organisation. The unit will be delivered through a combination of lecturer-led sessions and practical lab exercises.
Optional Placement Year
You’ll complete a minimum 30-week work placement which can be carried out anywhere in the world. The placement year offers a chance to gain experience and make contacts for the future.
Final Year
Core units
Cybercrime: Examine the subject from the criminal angle and investigate the history and causes of cybercrime through the experiences of victims and law enforcement. You will also consider the technologies that stand behind certain cybercrimes, namely malware (viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, etc.), email spamming and denial of service (DoS) attacks, and consider how to handle a digital crime scene.
Cyber Situational Awareness: Cyber security managers should be capable of constructing and understanding the threat landscape in their organisations. Cyber situational awareness is an interdisciplinary, evolving complex topic requiring co-ordinated synergy between technical capabilities and human competencies. The aim of this unit is to provide the learner with the necessary skills and knowledge to manage cyber situational awareness as a main component in the development of a Security Operations Centre.
Individual Project: To conclude the course, you will pursue a topic of your choice, and demonstrate your ability to study independently. The project is a significant piece of work, and will provide invaluable transferable skills. You will identify and systematically study a problem and select, evaluate and implement an appropriate approach towards a solution. You will appraise your own work throughout, and present coherently the relevance of your project to the security agenda.
Option units
Advanced Digital Forensics: You will gain the skills required to carry out a digital forensic investigation, and become competent in identifying what factors have led to an incident as well as reconstructing attacks that organisations often face.
Business Continuity Management: the wider topic of resilience, which is the ability of an organisation to keep functioning during and after an attack, incident or natural disaster.
Human Factors in Computing Systems: This unit will present generic Human Computer Interaction research that can be used for a range of software and systems engineering projects. You'll learn about design processes, standards and guidelines, usability tools and techniques, and workload measurement approaches.
Information Assurance: A growing and diverse study of how information flows through cyberspace. Information Assurance is about getting the right Information, to the right people at the right time.
