Cyber Security

MSc Cyber Security has been designed in collaboration with some of the UK’s cyber business leaders. We prioritise the ‘complete picture’ to give you the insight and toolkit needed to make effective operation decisions that protect organisations at risk of cyber attack.

You begin by building knowledge of the fundamentals of cyber security before examining existing and emerging defence and offense strategies. Equipped with a good understanding of vulnerabilities and attack vectors, you then explore how to build an active cyber defence armoury. Modules on law and regulation, systems of governance, operational resilience and risk assessment provide the conceptual context needed to engage the practical realities of cyber security management.

Cyber Security Bootcamp offers a holistic perspective of cyber security. You’ll learn about threat detection and prevention strategies, risk management, investigative tools, and the way in which each are leveraged by organisations to secure operations and minimise disruption.

Critical Vulnerability Analysis exposes specific strategies for evaluating and reporting, for example, structural vulnerabilities and inadequate cybersecurity safeguards. Business preparations that include a degree of penetration testing are examined.

Business Security Architecture aims to develop your understanding of how to define an appropriate security architecture for a business. You also learn about established architectures, trade-offs between security and business functionality, and strategies of information governance.

Offensive and Defensive Cyber Operations aims to provide you with an in-depth understanding of the techniques used in computer and network defence. As cyber defenders you learn about the strategies and technical skills to protect and harden cyber systems such as collecting appropriate data through logging, detecting persistent hacking attempts, and responding to intrusions.

Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) is about learning to define the relevant CNI for your country and analyse its potential impact on a chosen business or sector. You explore the unique operational resilience challenges and the emerging industry and government standards for that sector. Protecting CNI is of developing concern that is rising up the national risk registers internationally. An understanding of this topic is therefore a key part of a cyber security professionals knowledge base.

Cyber War is about who the threat actors currently are, and who they may be in the near future. It examines how attackers identify targets of opportunity and how they work to disrupt them. Across the module you analyse case studies of past cyberwars with a view to understanding their motivations, attack strategies and impacts.

Dissertation: taking into account relevant theories, practice and organisational contexts, you first identify a target for enquiry in agreement with your supervisor. Following approval of your plan, you proceed to conduct the research, evaluate data, and articulate findings and recommendations in the form of an academic report. The final stage of your dissertation is a viva in which you defend your arguments.

This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the programme document for more details on which modules are core, required or optional.

• Cyber Security Bootcamp
• Business Security Architecture
• Critical Vulnerability Analysis
• Offensive and Defensive Cyber Operations
• Critical National Infrastructure
• Cyber War
• Dissertation

You're assessed by a combination of reports, presentations, and set exercises. Tasks such as table top scenarios and cyber wargames give assessment a real-world edge, while providing insight into practical methods of communicating complex cyber security topics to key stakeholders.

Teaching methods include lectures, seminars and discussion forums alongside a wide range of practical activities such as scenario simulations that require continual action. Our learning methods are designed not only to help you build critical knowledge, but also to cultivate the interpersonal skills and disposition you need to operate effectively as a future cyber security leader.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

In addition to the teaching staff discussing their research and practise in cyber security, the course engages guest lecturers to offer additional insight into the active edge of the subject.

Students have benefitted from guest talks from government, industry, the public sector and local cyber security companies. These included recognised specialists from the UK and the USA in social engineering, the insider threat, the Dark Web, the Cyber Cold War, running a cyber security business, and pentesters.

For graduates of Computing disciplines, MSc Cyber Security supports entry into a range of IT roles where cyber security is an integral component but not necessarily an entire responsibility. You’ll be able to demonstrate your value to a range of companies quickly, and later build on the management skills gained during your study to compete for more senior positions.

For those already employed in the IT field, this Cyber Security Master's provides opportunities for professional upskilling. The programme helps improve your prospects of transitioning to cyber security roles and decision-making positions. The knowledge you gain on the course will in addition help you increase your profile within your company, while benefiting the teams you work within.

Cyber security career roles include, but are not limited to:

• Cyber Security Analyst
• Cyber Security Specialist
• Network Intrusion Analyst
• Targeted Attack Specialist
• Security Management
• Data Protection Officer
• Threat Intelligence Analyst.

You'll have access to our:

• Knowledgeable staff and industry speakers
• High-spec computing labs
• Commons building
• Newton Park library
• Virtual Learning Environment
• Access to free courses via LinkedIn Learning.