This course is an elective for the Data-centric Computing Stream.

Students who are interested in cybersecurity, defence and threat management should find this course beneficial.

Prerequisites:  COMP 2001, COMP 2004, COMP 2006

Availability: This course is occasionally offered, but will not be available every academic year.

Course Objectives

This course is a discovery of today’s cyber threats and practical cyber defence in a digital warfare world. Modern cyber attacks are designed by skilled, financially motivated and supported adversaries who target and hold business networks for ransom, and destroy physical assets in critical industrial control systems that support our modern way of life. Students will explore information & cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities, incident response and tactical defence strategies at an intermediate level. Real world attack and defence scenarios from the industry are explored with a focus on tactical threat hunting for defence against advanced persistent threats.

Representative Workload

• Assignments 25%
• Labs 10%
• Project - Hardcopy Report 15%
• Project - Presentation 10%
• In-class Exam 15%
• Final Exam 25%

Representative Course Outline

• Introduction and history (3 hours)
• Cybersecurity controls and the human element (3 hours) Network and endpoint security (3 hours)
• Cyber attacks and hacking techniques (3 hours)
• Malware analysis methodologies (3 hours)
• Threat intelligence (3 hours)
• Digital forensics, the kill chain and defence in action (3 hours)
• Cybersecurity teams and active defence (3 hours)
• Case studies (6 hours)

Page last updated May 24th 2021