Information security and network security are issues of great relevance to IT professionals as well as being of growing importance in daily life. In this unit in the Bachelor of Information Technology and Systems, with majors in Business Systems, Netcentric computing, Internet systems and Security students will gain knowledge about OSI security architecture, cryptography techniques, network security and system security, advancing concepts learned in earlier networking and data communications studies.

This unit is being introduced as a level 3 IT core in some majors as a result of the Faculty of IT strategic review and the resulting development of new courses.

SEPT 2015: Minor updates for course architecture. Effective 2016.

May 2014: (Admin) update objectives to learning outcomes.

May 2012: Added Clayton to locations and Summer to semesters of offering (to be offered at Clayton in summer 2012/2013). Added ECE2041 Telecommunication as an alternate prerequisite to make the unit available Engineering and Science/Engineering students (who don't complete FIT1031).

This unit has been updated as part of a 2009 review and comparison of data with current Handbook, Syllabus + and Callista data.

June 2018: Minor updates to reflect the prerequisites required for this unit. Added FIT2093 as one of the main prerequisites to FIT3031. The fundamentals of security is covered in FIT2093, this will not be repeated in FIT3031, and merely covered as a revision. While the focus of FIT3031 will be on network security. These changes are required after detailed discussion and directives from the Associate dean learning and teaching. Unit's main focus will be on network security applications with in-depth coverage of VPN's, Firewalls, WLAN security and other network security applications. The unit name will change to Network Security. These changes will be effective from semester-1 2019 onwards.

9/7/2019: Unit to be co-taught with FIT5037 at Clayton campus, for semester 2, 2019 2020 implementation.

9/7/2019: Correction made to the implementation date of the previous comment.

20/9/2019: Admin - updating exam duration to include additional 10 minutes as per University requirement.

4/5/2020: As the MSA course 4307 Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences is in teach-out, the MSA offering of this unit has been re-coded to FZA3031 effective Semester 2, 2020. These units will be managed by South Africa and therefore no separate Monatar entries will be made

18/09/2020 Admin: Update to include new assessment and teaching approach fields as per Handbook requirements.

This is a core unit for the Bachelor of Information Technology and Systems (BITS)

majors in Business Systems, Internet systems, Net-centric computing and Security. It provides students with knowledge about the importance of security in information communication. Students learn the fundamentals of security and are introduced to the latest technologies to design secure information communication systems.

Students will be able to put in practice the skills they acquire from this unit and it will prepare students for what to expect in the industry in the networking security field. Understanding of security concepts and awareness of security issues for networks and information are integral to knowledge about the operation of networks.

This unit is co-taught with FIT5037 Network security.

At the completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. describe OSI security architecture and apply common security standards and protocols for network security applications e.g. electronic mail, IP, web and network management;
2. critically assess threats, vulnerabilities and risks to an organisations information assets and propose control technologies and techniques which can be applied to reduce the security risk;
3. apply cryptographic techniques to develop methods to disguise information to ensure its integrity, confidentiality and authenticity;
4. describe the ethical, legal and criminal issues relating to the security of information and computer networks both Wired and Wireless;
5. implement cryptographic algorithms and security protocols to provide security over networks and the Internet using Vitual Private Networks;
6. design system security against intruders and malicious software;
7. apply security configurations to computer and network based applications.
8. describe and apply firewall configurations to protect networks.
9. implement network management protocols and security requirements.

020113

This unit will provide students with an understanding of: OSI security architecture; common information risks and requirements; operation of encryption techniques; digital signatures; public key infrastructure; authentication and non-repudiation; intrusion detection and response; firewall defence; privacy and ethics issues; security configurations to PC-based applications; and design of information systems with security compliance and security standards and protocols.

Limited copies of prescribed texts are available for you to borrow in the library.

Recommended resources

Technological requirements

Software:

On-campus and Off-Campus Learning(OCL)

In this unit we will use the following teaching approaches to help the students understand the subject through lectures, tutorials and simulated or virtual laboratory sessions. The unit will focus on understanding the fundamental concepts, and use and test these concepts in virtualized environment through simulated virtual machines:

Examination (2 hours and 10 minutes): 60%; In-semester assessment: 40%

1. In-class test: - 20% - ULO: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
2. Hands-on Assignment on network security: - 20% - ULO: All the 9 Learning Outcomes
3. Examination 1: - 60% - ULO: All the 9 Learning Outcomes

Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

(b.) Study schedule for off-campus students:

(c.) Additional requirements (all students):

FIT

Students will be required to have access to PC with minimum specified configuration and to Internet, as per FIT specifications at their time of enrolment in the degree.

Any One of the following units ( FIT1047, FIT1031, FIT1019, FIT1005, FIT2008, ECE2041) AND FIT2093.