COIT12202 - Network Security Concepts

General Information

Unit Synopsis

As the Internet becomes more pervasive, so do the threats to the security of our computer systems and communications. This unit provides you with grounding in security technology. You will study common network security attacks, then the technologies to defend against those attacks. These technologies include cryptography, access control, authentication, firewalls, and wireless network protocols. This unit provides security knowledge that is required for industry standard certification exams, such as CompTIA.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Prerequisite: COIT12206 OR COIT13147

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).

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Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2025

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney

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

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.

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 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 78.26% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 35.38% 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: Teaching staff and discipline team feedback
Feedback
Advanced security practices or exercises can be included as emerging topics in this unit, such as wireless, IoT applications, and cloud cybersecurity.
Recommendation
Update the teaching materials with advanced cybersecurity practices and exercises, such as wireless, IoT applications, and cloud cybersecurity.
Action Taken
The teaching materials have been updated to include new content and activities on cloud (Week 8), wireless (Week 10), and IoT (Week 11) cybersecurity.
Source: Students and teaching team feedback
Feedback
Python/(Power)Shell scripting can be introduced for cybersecurity practices/exercises.
Recommendation
Design some practices or lab exercises based on the Python/(Power)Shell scripting to enhance students' understanding of how to use the scripting technologies to perform cybersecurity practices.
Action Taken
Redesigned tutorial activities from Weeks 2 to 6, enabling students to practice Python and PowerShell scripting for cybersecurity tests. Questions 2 and 5 in Written Assignment 2 were devised to assess students' proficiency in Python and PowerShell scripting.
Source: Student Feedback
Feedback
The students felt restricted by the word count when addressing the final assessment adequately and suggested either increasing it or removing the limit.
Recommendation
Increase the word count limit from 2500 to 3000 words for the final assessment.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: External Reviewer
Feedback
The teaching materials lack state-of-the-art cloud computing security practices.
Recommendation
Incorporate firewall configuration on the Azure cloud platform into the tutorial activities.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.