Business Data and Cyber Security will prepare future cyber security professionals for negotiating the constantly changing use of data and information in a business world that requires constant cyber security awareness and vigilance. Value and vulnerability of business data for decision making and problem-solving are a core focus. Information and cyber security awareness and methods are embedded throughout. Graduates of this cyber course will have the skills required to apply cyber security practices to their use of business data; and analyse and communicate business information needs. 

View course outline

This cyber course provides a general introduction to policy-making principles and processes for postgraduate students. The cyber course primarily uses national IT security case studies but provides comparisons to other states as appropriate. The aim of the course is to provide the political context in which debates about cyber security and other international relations issues takes place. The cyber  course utilises a number of approaches to public policy and administration so that students emerge from the course with knowledge about decision-making processes but also the assumptions and constraints which guide those decisions. We cover the main political actors, problem definition, agenda-setting, communication, institutional decision-making, and policy implementation and review. 

*only for students with programming experience. More information can be found in the entry requirements section. 

View course outline

In this cyber course, students will be introduced to real-world cyber security challenges that organisations face and learn to apply knowledge and skills to address them. The challenges will be examined both from the attacker's perspective (how systems are exploited) and the defender's perspective (how to secure systems or respond to threats). Common attack and defence strategies for software, web applications, networks, operating systems, cryptographic systems and humans will be explored. The cyber course will also introduce cyber security management concepts, including security operations, risk management, security engineering and security architecture, as well as provide guidance on different career paths specialising in cyber security. 

View course outline

The cyber course Information Risks, Threats, and Controls considers a broad perspective of organisational vulnerabilities of the digital age, including Enterprise Risk Assessment and critical enterprise threats. Topics addressed include recognition, analysis, and synthesis of IT risks, threats, and vulnerabilities, and measures to mitigate them, including policy, control, and implementation. While this cyber course acknowledges the need to recognise and analyse risks, threats, and vulnerabilities across and within the various disciplinary structures of an organisation, (including fiscal risk, brand and reputation, production, operations, legal, and OH&S) it does so from the perspective of the responsibility for Information and Cyber Security plans to support and ensure the risk management of other departments and disciplines. The focus, throughout, is specifically on Information and Cyber Security and Data Privacy. 

View course outline

The purpose of the course is to learn about secure software, including its design, implementation and maintenance. During the course students will be exposed to a selection of topics such as: performing threat modelling, issues in authentication and authorisation, auditing for security, input sanitising, TOCTOU vulnerabilities, memory management issues, fixing vulnerabilities, and microarchitectural security. 

View course outline

In this cyber course, students will be introduced to two important areas in contemporary computing: human factors and ethical theory and practice. In human factors, students will study all areas that assist in performing work in an appropriate manner. In ethics, students will study those areas that discuss whether the tasks that we seek to achieve fit our definitions of what is right for individuals, companies, and our society. By combining these two areas of study, participants will be introduced to tools, thinking, and analyses to establish whether the computing tasks they are being asked to perform are fit for purpose in terms of both usage and ethics. At the end of this course, students will have a sound understanding of key issues in ethics and human factors, be able to compare approaches and propose solutions, and have participated in a number of authentic activities to give them confidence as future professional practitioners in this sphere.

View course outline

This course will prepare students for advanced research in cyber security that aligns with professional standards and the recent qualitative and quantitative research methods and techniques used in the cyber community. Research will include the use of reports and investigations on recent cyber- attacks. Students will be introduced to the steps required for a research project such as, formulating a research question, evaluating threats to validity, literature review, collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data and how to present your research outcomes.

The cyber course will particularly focus on how to effectively evaluate published cyber security research and communicate research results to peers and colleagues in the cyber security community.

Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)

1. Analyse recent research methods and techniques used in the cyber security community to generate an effective research design.

2. Develop a research design and method (qualitative and quantitative) that aligns with professional standards and addresses recent reports and investigations on cyber attacks for a cyber security research project.

3. Formulate a valid research question using cyber security research methods and design techniques.

4. Develop a cyber security research proposal for an organisation that suggests how to prevent cyber-attacks.

5. Propose a solution to a cyber security research project using effective communication methods to disseminate the results to the cyber security community. 

View course outline

This course will cover the latest privacy techniques and practices that enterprises and governments have adopted. Students will gain a deep understanding of what the risks to human-related privacy are and will be encouraged to rethink how to design and build products and systems with privacy and respect for their users across countries in which they may operate. The course will also introduce the concept of pure provable privacy -- differential privacy -- and show how it is being put into practice. Differential privacy was initially incepted at Microsoft Research, and the theoretical and technical impact of differential privacy is profound in global industries, which has already been deployed by Google, Apple, Uber, and US Census Bureau. Finally, the course will show ways of achieving differentially private mechanisms through a practical translation and explore the limits of the use of differentially private techniques in synthetic data generation by demonstrating practical attacks that thwart privacy properties. 

View course outline

The Human-Centred Security course will expand students’ understanding of cyber security beyond the sphere of technology by addressing the role human behaviour plays in securing and subverting systems.  The cyber course takes a transdisciplinary approach combining academic research from a range of disciplines (such as computer science, psychology, international relations and political science) with practitioner experience, to explore ways of creating solutions to complex cyber security problems.  The course is grounded in security theory so that students can develop an understanding of what it means to be cybersecure as an individual, as a society and as a nation-state. Students will explore the relationships between people and technology from the perspective of users, designers and developers of technology, as well as policy makers.     

At a practical level, students will learn how to evaluate tools to understand and shape cyber security behaviours.  They will be able to generate ways of conducting transdisciplinary research to design solutions to complex cyber security problems.  Students will develop expertise that enables them to critique cyber security strategies and policies and generate productive security dialogues across communities.

View course outline

Business Information Systems and Management covers the critical aspects of information management and information systems needed in all businesses in the 21st century. The overarching focus of this cyber security course is the ability to leverage technology for business and enterprise purposes. This is managed through a three-fold focus: there is a strong emphasis on systems thinking and systems analysis for managing complexity; and an equal emphasis on the role of systems and computing for organisational need and practice. The third focus is on the ability to manage effective liaison and communication between business staff and IT departments and personnel. 

Students will undertake an individual applied cyber security research project based within a workplace or industry context.  

This is an advanced cyber research project conducted individually under the guidance of an academic supervisor. It gives students the chance to investigate and contribute to an area at the cutting edge of cyber security. As part of the IT security project, students will present their work to an audience and write a major report detailing their results. 

The final cyber security research project is the equivalent to two courses and will span two online teaching periods.