MSc Cyber Security with Professional Practice

University of Wolverhampton

The purpose of this unit is to provide an in-depth and specialised knowledge on penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. Students will be introduced to Ethical Hacking and the concept of offensive security with cutting-edge tools and research-informed delivery. Students will learn how to look for weaknesses in a target system to test the security posture for exploits in a lawful and legitimate way. This requires a skill set that includes but not limited to computer networks, operating systems but also aspects of psychology and the human behaviour.

Incident management describes methods to identify, analyse, and correct hazards to prevent a future re-occurrence. The purpose of this unit is to provide specialised and research-informed knowledge with hands-on practicals on cutting-edge incident response and digital forensics methods. The full life cycle of an incident responder is covered from building a CERT-team to utilising ?sound? forensics tools to collect, safeguard, transport and analyse digital evidence. This includes secure stakeholder management within organisational context fully considering ethical and professional responsibilities, but also practical exhibition of the digital investigation process with the application of modern commercial and open-source tools, the judicial process and relevant laws within the UK and critical aspects of international laws affecting incident responders. Students will also be learning about expert testimony and technical topics such as file carving techniques, file systems, network forensics, TCP/IP steganography, memory analysis, in addition to threats associated with emerging technologies such as Internet-of-Things (IoT).

The module seeks to address the discipline of Information Governance and compliance and its associated theories, practices and principles that govern any modern information system in alignment with multi-disciplinary structures, processes and procedures. Particular focus is given to the frameworks, standards and strategies for managing an organisation?s information assets with all the underpinned legal and regulatory requirements need to be fulfilled within existing and emerging Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) frameworks.

Motivated by the growing importance of Internet-of-Things (IoT), this module will provide specialised knowledge and hands-on practicals covering IoT devices and applications while focusing on security. IoT is a fusion of interconnected devices of various sized and complexities with examples ranging from simple sensors to autonomous vehicles and smart homes, therefore, it is essential to learn how to identify emerging threats and plan mitigation techniques to minimise vulnerabilities. Examples of fundamental underpinning technologies enabling IoT include wireless sensor networks, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and embedded systems.

Whether the student progresses to further study or into employment, one of the most important skills expected of a computing professional is the ability to work creatively under the appropriate guidance of a member of staff. It is therefore essential that the students use and develop comprehensively knowledge and skills gained from other units, and from their wider educational and working background (e.g. their first degree which may be in a subject area rather than computing), in a major integrative exercise. The project module is an ideal vehicle for this purpose. Students will be expected to develop an idea (most likely generated by a member of academic staff) and demonstrate their ability to develop it further, producing a suitable artefact by applying their technical, analytical, practical and managerial skills in an integrated manner. They are required to emphasise on a topic which sufficiently reflects on the course they are studying and get an ethical approval prior to commencing their work. No student can proceed to the project without gaining prior ethical approval. Normally students will retain their own intellectual property unless they are sponsored by a company or funded by an organization and the contractual agreement with the organization dictates them to transfers these IP rights. Also, students will not normally undertake projects that require security clearance.

Cyber Defence has become one of the biggest business priorities in an attempt to deal with dynamic attack vectors while still relying on static controls and measures. It is a systematic approach to help organisation to better articulate, manage and change threat thresholds and improve the effectiveness of security controls. This module seeks to address the core principles, methods, tools and products available used in proactive network defence with the aim of preventing cyber-attacks or decreasing the time taken to discover them. The module guides the students through the fundamentals of building and evaluating successful and secure network communication platforms with focus on all strategic, tactical and operational aspects.

This module will enable students to gain valuable industrial experience by undertaking a development task associated with a short work placement. A portfolio will be used to gather records of the tasks undertaken and experienced gained.

This module introduces students to research and methodologies used to underpin scientific work, data analysis, hypothesis? establishment and artefact validation in understanding research on an appropriate subject discipline. The material in this module is carefully designed to meet students? needs and requirements for the programme of study alongside with essential project management skills dictating research activities. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of tools, techniques, methodologies and processes in the field of project management. This module covers traditional approaches in literature review as essential preparation for the project stage and draws expertise from other departments within the University including Library Services.