ITEC614 - Introduction to Cyber Security

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Incompatible

ITEC640 Information Systems Security

Teaching organisation

150 hours over a twelve-week semester or equivalent study period

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit will cover the importance of cyber security, security threats, risk analysis and mitigation techniques. The unit demonstrates the basic cyber security concepts, security tools and the common architectures used as industry standards. Students will learn how to defend against cyber threats and attacks and study existing techniques for managing security issues and maintaining the working environment. This unit introduces the broad discipline of cybersecurity and outlines how to ensure data confidentiality, privacy, integrity and availability of information. The unit also covers ethical and legal issues in cyber–space to understand how cyber security affects legal compliance and solidarity in communities and society. The aim of this unit is to equip students with some background knowledge in cyber security, that will help them to understand advanced topics in cyber security.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - synthetise vulnerabilities and potential security threats to information systems and analyse their consequences in real world scenarios in collaboration with peers (GA5, GA7)

LO2 - apply appropriate security tools to safeguard data, systems and networks from malicious attacks (GA5, GA10)

LO3 - critically evaluate the consequences of different level of risks in an organisation and propose appropriate security countermeasures to minimise the impacts or likelihood of risks (GA4, GA5)

LO4 - appraise the impact of cybersecurity systems across societies and national borders (GA2, GA5)

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

Topics will include:

• Introduction to cyber security
• Cybersecurity cube (Multimode only)
• Threats, vulnerabilities, attacks
• Protecting secrets
• Risk assessment and management
• Ensuring Integrity
• Access control
• Protecting a CS domain (Multimode only)
• Becoming a CS specialist (Multimode only)
• Legal, privacy and ethical issues
• Impacts of cyber attacks

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Multimode

This unit will be delivered in multimode over a twelve-week semester or equivalent study period. Students will have access to all primary learning materials online, along with formative and summative assessments, all of which will be available online, to provide a learning experience beyond the classroom. While there are no formal classroom lectures for this unit, students will be required to attend weekly three-hour workshops, which will include a seminar and specific tasks related to achievement of the unit learning outcomes. Workshops facilitate learning by doing, which is particularly effective for information technology units as technical skills can be better learned through hands on practices.

ACU Online

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in situations similar to their future professions. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. The first assessment provides students with an opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge and gain practical skills. In assessment task 2, students will critically analyse a recent security breach and investigate the cause of breach and will also apply their knowledge to propose an appropriate security solution. The last assessment provides students with an opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge and assess risk for a cyber physical system using standard risk analysis models.

To pass this unit, students must demonstrate competence in all learning outcomes and achieve an aggregate mark of at least 50%. Marking will be in accordance with a rubric specifically developed to measure students’ level of achievement of the learning outcomes for each item of assessment. Students will be awarded a final grade which signifies their overall achievement in the unit.

Overview of assessments

Multimode;

Online

Representative texts and references

Stallings W, 2020, Cryptography & Network Security: Principles and Practice, 8th edn, Pearson US.

Stallings W & Brown L, 2018, Computer Security: Principle and Practice, 4th Edn, Pearson US.

Stallings, W. (2018). Effective Cybersecurity: A Guide to Using Best Practices and Standards. Addison-Wesley Professional.

Anderson, R 2020, Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems, 3rd edn, Wiley.

Charles J. Brooks, Philip Craig, Donald Short, Cybersecurity Essentials, SYBEX, 2017.

Whitman, M & Mattord, H 2016, Principles of Information Security, 5th edn, Cengage, Boston.

Pfleeger C & Pfleeger S & Margulies J 2015, Security in Computing, 5th edn, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.