In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
In this unit, you will learn techniques for securing information and communications against adversaries, in particular with regards to confidentiality, integrity and authentication. Informed by the history of cryptography, you will learn the cryptographic primitives that are used to secure information today such as symmetric key encryption, message authentication codes, public key cryptography and digital signatures. You will also study future issues in cryptography, including the challenges raised by quantum computing. While you will learn and use basic mathematics, this unit will focus on cryptographic concepts relevant to cyber security specialists, rather than the mathematical underpinnings of the algorithms. This practical treatment of cryptography will be highlighted in laboratory tasks, where you will use software to attack and secure information in various realistic scenarios.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisite: COIT12202 Network Security Concepts
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student and tutor feedback
Some tutorial activities were too time consuming, making it hard to spend time exploring issues in depth.
Update tutorial instructions to include more realistic estimates of time required for tasks, and increasing time for discussion in class.
Feedback from Unit Coordinator reflections
When students used the class-wide Teams channel to complete group tasks in tutorials, observing the progress of students across different campuses was a motivation for students and useful feedback for the teaching team.
Include Microsoft Teams chat as a requirement in more tutorial tasks, e.g., sending encrypted messages, exchanging keys, conducting adversary-in-the-middle attacks.
- Discuss principles used to design secure cryptographic algorithms
- Explain the operation of attacks on cryptographic algorithms
- Compare the strengths and weaknesses of different cryptographic algorithms and their implementations
- Design secure information services using a variety of cryptographic algorithms.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 9 (the SFIA code is included)
- Information Security (SCTY)
- Security Administration (SCAD)
- Specialist Advice (TECH)
- Information Assurance (INAS)
- Vulnerability Assessment (VUAS)
- Infrastructure Design (IFDN)
- Threat Intelligence (THIN)
- Infrastructure Operations (ITOP)
The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Framework defines knowledge, skills and tasks needed to perform various cyber security roles. Developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the NICE Framework is used by organisations to plan their workforce, including recruit into cyber security positions.
This unit helps prepare you for roles such as Systems Security Analyst, Network Operations Specialist and Systems Administrator, contributing to the following knowledge and skills:
- K0005 Knowledge of cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
- K0018 Knowledge of encryption algorithms
- K0019 Knowledge of cryptography and cryptographic key management concepts
- K0053 Knowledge of measures or indicators of system performance and availability.
- K0071 Knowledge of remote access technology concepts.
- K0075 Knowledge of security system design tools, methods, and techniques.
- K0201 Knowledge of symmetric key rotation techniques and concepts.
- K0318 Knowledge of operating system command-line tools.
- K0622 Knowledge of controls related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of data.
- S0040 Skill in implementing, maintaining, and improving established network security practices.
- S0060 Skill in writing code in a currently supported programming language (e.g., Java, C++).
- S0077 Skill in securing network communications.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - In-class Test(s) - 30% | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 25% | ||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 45% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||