MSc - Cyber Security with Placement Year

University of Hertfordshire

1. Information as a weapon. 2. Information environment. 3. Cyber battlespaces and domains of conflict: - network warfare; - command & control warfare; - defensive operations; - threat intelligence, indicators & warnings; - protection measures; - attack response & restoration. 4. Offensive operations: - perception management; - intelligence for targeting & damage assessment; - attack operations. 5. Disciplines of cyber operations (information operations): - PSYOPS; - deception; - NETOPS; - intelligence & counterintelligence (situational awareness); - INFOSEC; - OPSEC.

The project is a showpiece opportunity for students to demonstrate what they know about current research and practices in cyber security and show off their skills in selecting and using appropriate techniques and tools employed in cyber security to conduct a practical investigation into a particular cyber security problem. The project is a self-directed piece of work, conducted with minimum supervision that demonstrates the student's ability to plan and manage a substantial piece of work, and steer their own efforts. Students are expected to be thorough in their work, and, particularly, identify and tackle any difficult or challenging aspects of the problems they are trying to solve. It is not just the quantity, or even the quality of work that is considered when grading the project, but the level of difficulty and the scope of the problem being addressed.

Digital forensics is the discipline that deals with the collection, examination, analysis and reporting of digital evidence. Nowadays digital forensics techniques are employed in various types of investigations from cybercrimes to corporate investigations. When a security incident is reported, digital forensics techniques are applied in order to retrieve related evidence in an evidentially sound manner. The constant development of a range of technologies is contributing to the establishment of formal methods and procedures for the digital forensic investigators. In this module the students should expect to familiarise themselves with the current research in the field and study the digital forensic practices. They will study the formal methodologies and policies involved in the investigation. A highly practical element should also be anticipated in this module as the students will work with various tools in order to practically analyse digital devices and extract digital evidence.

A range of topics will be covered in this module. The detailed content will vary according to current research directions. Case studies will be used throughout. Issues will be considered in relation to each topic as appropriate. These pervasive issues are: models, design, standards, protocols, and performance. A more detailed description of the module content is provided in the module delivery information for students.

Today, Information Environments have become large, diverse and heterogeneous. System boundaries and jurisdictions have blurred and system assets can be located in different geographical locations. Stakeholders span across an integrated supply chain, new vulnerabilities are being constantly discovered and threat agents can expand their operations at an international level with little effort. The first and last line of defence to any information environment is a thorough, explicitly defined and well implemented risk and threat assessment process. The module will discuss procedures and controls for ensuring and assuring the information assets of an organisation. It will touch upon threat, risk, vulnerability and the different methods for managing them. It will look at security models, security standards and compliance issues for training students to conduct and manage risk and threat assessments.

The module will involve a broad case study involving the provisioning of a system which adheres to ethical and professional guidelines and standards. This will be a team project. One such case study might take the form of a large online platform where teams would have to create policies both for developers and users. The likely topics of those policies would be: issues involving sharing of user content, licensing of third party codes, moderation of content, consents from users relating to the tracking of user activity). The team would have to edit the platform such that all forms and submissions of user data are compliant with regulations particularly operative in the UK and the European Union.

In today's knowledge-centred virtual-computing era, the Cyber Domain is the Information Environment of choice for committing and facilitating crime. Criminals exploit system vulnerabilities in order to manifest threats for furthering their objectives. To secure a system, it is essential for computer security professionals to understand the structure, configuration, tools and techniques computer criminals rely upon, in order to successfully commit to their act. It is equally important to perform regular penetration tests for discovering vulnerabilities. The module will discuss the mind-set, culture and ethics of the professional Pen-Tester, the current practice for conducting a 'PenTest' and of course, research the technologies and tools involved. The module will train scholars to hack infrastructures, mine search-engine results, extract and analyse document metadata, identify and exploit vulnerabilities, enumerate users and services.

The module will explain the benefits of the Supervised Work Placement and encourage students to apply. It will support students in their application by informing them about the types of employer and job role available, helping them select the most appropriate for their strengths and weaknesses, and how employers conduct the recruitment process. The module will assist students to make an application, throughout the entire process, via a series of lectures, seminars, individual guidance and online communication. This includes writing of CVs and letters of application, preparation for psychometric and other forms of assessment, and development of interview technique. For those who are successful in securing a placement there will be further help in preparing for employment.

Supervised work experience provides students with the opportunity to set their academic studies in a broader context, to gain practical experience in specific technical areas and to strengthen their communication and time-management skills. It greatly assists them in developing as independent learners, so that they will be able to gain maximum benefit from the learning opportunities afforded by their future study programme. It gives them opportunities, according to the nature of the placement experience, to acquire the basis of technical expertise in specialist areas, which they may be able to enhance through study after completion of the placement, especially in the final project.

Students working at, and beyond, Master's level are expected to understand both generic and domain-specific investigative methods, and to be able to apply them in their work. This module explores a range of such methods and helps students to enhance their proficiency in the skills that are expected of those working at postgraduate level. Furthermore, this module involves working actively as part of a team of fellow students on a complex, multi-domain computing problem. Typically, the project can be a research project to answer a research question, a thorough empirical investigation of a specific topic, or a development idea from student themselves, or a virtual or real client. Each team would be expected to manage the project, to report regularly to their supervisor(s) on the progress of the project, and to collectively deliver a set of appropriate outputs from the project. The output(s) of the team project will typically be a computing product or system and its presentation together with appropriate documentation.