This unit is a core requirement of the Master of Computer Science degree.

01/09/2021 - Admin: updating on behalf of Director, External Learning. Update the prerequisites to align with the on-campus unit.

This is a core requirement for the Master of Computer Science degree, introduced in 2020. It builds upon prerequisite knowledge at the level of an undergraduate introductory unit in Architecture and Networks (ITO4137).

This unit provides all graduates with advanced knowledge about a fundamental area within the field of IT, namely information and computer security. This is a very important field in IT and hence knowledge of and skill in this area is essential for a wide range of IT employment. In addition, information and computer security is an active area of research within the Faculty, and this unit contribute to the Faculty's research-teaching nexus.

This is one of the core units offered in the Master of Networks and Security. The unit concentrates on information and computer security. It complements units in other aspects of security: Network Security, Software Security. Security is an extremely important part of information technology; the Faculty must retain its role as a leader in IT teaching and research. Information security is now the number one cause of financial losses. Furthermore, this unit is critical to the Faculty's research-teaching nexus; the Faculty has significant research activity in secure/trusted software development.

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

1. critically assess threats, vulnerabilities and risks to an organisation's information assets and propose control technologies and techniques which can be applied to reduce the security risk
2. apply a variety of cryptographic algorithms to develop methods to disguise information to ensure its integrity, confidentiality and authenticity;
3. apply a variety of methods for key management and distribution and analyse the risks associated with the various approaches;
4. implement user authentication and access control mechanisms to create a security architecture to protect the assets of the information system;
5. demonstrate the use of cryptographic techniques to preserve the security of information and evaluate its effectiveness;
6. apply a variety of security control technologies to IT systems in an organisation.

029901

The unit aims to provide the students with in depth knowledge of techniques required to deal with security problems in information systems. The main areas of study include symmetric and asymmetric encryption techniques, cryptographic hash functions with related topics of message authentication codes and digital signatures. Study of techniques and algorithms for providing mutual trust include key management and distribution and user authentication to establish trust in the identity of communicating partner are also included. It looks at various management issues, including use and abuse of encryption, distributed systems authentication and integrity management. A range of security applications are used as examples. Students will learn how to apply cryptographic techniques in practice.

Online

In-semester assessment: 100%

FIT

ITO4137