COIT11241 - Cyber Security Technologies

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Cyber security professionals need to create, analyse and test computer systems and networks to assure they will operate in the presence of attacks. In this unit, you will learn the types of attacks that may be encountered and the tools and techniques to prevent, detect and respond to those attacks. You will build your skills in virtualisation, cloud services and scripting to solve cyber security challenges. You will also learn special cyber security tools for detecting vulnerabilities, monitoring network traffic and responding to attacks.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites Pre-Requisites: COIT11238 Networked Infrastructure Foundations AND COIT11222 Programming Fundamentals.

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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2024

Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton

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).

Assessment Overview

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.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Online Quiz(zes) 30%
2. Portfolio 50%
3. Presentation 20%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 78.57% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 36.84% response rate.

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.

Source: Student Evaluations and Teaching Team Reflections
Feedback
The unit requirements are unclear.
Recommendation
More detailed steps will be included in the assessments and tutorial exercises will be created to help students understand the assessment requirements.
Action Taken
Additional tutorial exercises were created to help with the assessments.
Source: Teaching Team Reflections
Feedback
The unit covers too many topics.
Recommendation
The topics covered by the unit will be reduced. For example, advanced topics such as Metasploit will be removed.
Action Taken
Topics such as Metasploit and Wazuh were removed.
Source: Teaching Team Reflections
Feedback
Windows virtual machines and Wazuh are difficult to use on computers with less than 16Gbytes of RAM and 30Gbytes of free hard drive space.
Recommendation
Additional information about the hardware requirements for a machine that can handle simultaneous virtual machines will be added to the eUnit profile and unit materials. Troubleshooting support will also be added to the tutorials.
Action Taken
Additional instructions were provided for running simultaneous VMs. Wazuh was removed from the unit to ease the burden on students' virtual machines.
Source: Student Evaluations and Teaching Team Reflections
Feedback
Students appreciate learning real world skills.
Recommendation
Continue to cover tools such as Kali, Wazuh, and Windows controls and attacks.
Action Taken
Kali and Windows controls and attacks are still covered. Wazuh was removed.
Source: Teaching Team Reflections
Feedback
Some students have computers which have difficulty running the required virtual machines.
Recommendation
Transition from on-premise to cloud hosed virtual machines.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student Evaluations
Feedback
Learning materials need to be improved.
Recommendation
Improve the learning materials, for example, by converting the practical exercises into self guided activities.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Explain cyber security challenges and the technologies available to address those challenges
  2. Apply cyber security tools to identify vulnerabilities and protect computer systems
  3. Apply cloud services tools to automate common IT processes and task.

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 7 (the SFIA code is included)

  • Information security (SCTY)
  • Programming/software development (PROG)
  • Security administration (SCAD)
  • Penetration testing (PENT)

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:

  • K0003 Knowledge of laws, regulations, policies, and ethics as they relate to cybersecurity and privacy.
  • K0004 Knowledge of cybersecurity and privacy principles.
  • K0005 Knowledge of cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
  • K0006 Knowledge of specific operational impacts of cybersecurity lapses.
  • K0040 Knowledge of vulnerability information dissemination sources (e.g., alerts, advisories, errata, and bulletins).
  • K0044 Knowledge of cybersecurity and privacy principles and organizational requirements (relevant to confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, non-repudiation).
  • K0071 Knowledge of remote access technology concepts.
  • K0075 Knowledge of security system design tools, methods, and techniques.
  • K0130 Knowledge of virtualization technologies and virtual machine development and maintenance.
  • K0135 Knowledge of web filtering technologies.
  • K0160 Knowledge of the common attack vectors on the network layer.
  • K0274 Knowledge of transmission records (e.g., Bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Infrared Networking (IR), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). paging, cellular, satellite dishes, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)), and jamming techniques that enable transmission of undesirable information, or prevent installed systems from operating correctly.
  • K0290 Knowledge of systems security testing and evaluation methods.
  • K0297 Knowledge of countermeasure design for identified security risks.
  • K0318 Knowledge of operating system command-line tools.
  • K0339 Knowledge of how to use network analysis tools to identify vulnerabilities.
  • S0031 Skill in developing and applying security system access controls.
  • S0060 Skill in writing code in a currently supported programming language (e.g., Java, C++).
  • S0073 Skill in using virtual machines. (e.g., Microsoft Hyper-V, VMWare vSphere, Citrix XenDesktop/Server, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, etc.).
  • S0154 Skill in installing system and component upgrades. (i.e., servers, appliances, network devices).
  • S0167 Skill in recognizing vulnerabilities in security systems. (e.g., vulnerability and compliance scanning).

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
2 - Portfolio • •
3 - Presentation •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Communication •
2 - Problem Solving • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • •
5 - Team Work •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • •
8 - Ethical practice • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10