Program Overview

Cybersecurity via Study Centres MSc

Overview

This newly developed Cybersecurity course will provide you with the technical and practical skills to make a difference to society by providing safe and secure digital environments, allowing the public, business and industry, and the economy to function safely.

You will contribute to the wellbeing of society by raising awareness of threats and attacks and designing systems, structures and networks to identify attacks and recover from them to allow business continuity.

The course has been designed to cover a wide range of relevant, interesting and exciting topics in the cybersecurity field. You will study industry-specific topics and specialise in areas such as network security, cybersecurity in organisations, big data security, breach and incident response, and user experience design.

Why us?

• We give you exposure to the latest technologies used in industry, including Oracle, CISCO and more
• Standards at partner study centres are the same as for UK-based courses
• Progress in some of the most attractive fields and industries as we prepare you for a range of cybersecurity jobs

Course structure

We use a wide variety of teaching and learning methods which include lectures, group work, research, discussion groups, seminars, tutorials and practical laboratory sessions. Compared to an undergraduate course, you will find that this Masters requires a higher level of independent working.

Assessment methods include individual written research papers, practical assignments including the creation of cybersecurity solutions (design, implementation, evaluation and maintenance), analysis of cybersecurity problems, threats and challenges, application of cybersecurity tools and techniques, creation of policies and procedures for cybersecurity, formal paper reviews, presentations and the Masters project.

Course modules

Core modules:

• Fundamentals of Cybersecurity (30 credits)
  • Cover a range of governance and management topics which will enable you to determine, establish and maintain appropriate governance, delivery and creation of cybersecurity solutions for information, systems and network security.
  • Understand the underlying technologies of secure systems and gain a critical awareness of the inherent risks and related privacy issues of their use in the cybersecurity environment by applying concepts such as the principles of least privilege, separation of risk, defence in depth and secrecy.
  • Learn to analyse the range of trade-offs in balancing the security properties of confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) and the usability demands of computer and information systems.
  • Learn how to select the appropriate tools and techniques to address and manage concepts of risk, threats, vulnerabilities and potential attacks.
  • Explain, apply and evaluate the concepts of trust and trustworthiness in a cybersecurity context and apply the issues associated with authentication, authorisation and access control.
• Technology Management for Organisations (30 credits)
  • Learn to apply the principles, policies and procedures of cybersecurity and data science to provide resilient and robust organisational solutions for secure and valuable information.
  • Develop techniques and use tools that will enable you to undertake critical analysis of the challenges and opportunities of using cybersecurity to mitigate and manage risk to data and enable business continuity in the case of data breaches.
  • Develop a critical understanding of governance, standards, audit, assurance and review in order to evaluate the challenges in managing technology.
• Cyber Resilience and Incident Response (30 credits)
  • Consider cybersecurity in design and development using the concepts of secure design across a range of platforms and problem areas.
  • Study applied cryptography, secure programming and defensive programming.
  • Gain the knowledge and skills to undertake first-response in cyber breach and associated incidents.
  • Evaluate effective measures for securing evidential content in the wake of an event, technical issues relating to breaches, factors for mitigating risk, the impact this may have on the organisation and those directly affected by breach data loss in a legal context.
  • Acquire the technical knowledge and skills to respond to breaches and implement proactive measures to potentially prevent their occurrence.
• Cybersecurity and User Experience Design (30 credits)
  • Study the two themes of cybersecurity and usability in software design.
  • Learn to understand the trade-offs and challenges these themes present.
  • Research challenges in the areas of usable security through a survey of past and recent research in usable cybersecurity.
  • Examine the nature of usability and the user experience, as it applies to cybersecurity, the impact of user psychology, user models, usage contents and usability evaluation techniques.
• Computing Masters Project (60 credits)
  • Develop a practical deliverable and investigate an area of academic research through the support of a sponsor for example: an IT strategy; an investigative study; a technically challenging artefact (e.g. a feasibility study, design, implementation, re-engineered solution); or undertake a theoretical review based on a novel research question (provided by a research active member of staff).
  • Underpin the project with a literature review that is a conceptual framework of your study - a systematic synthesis of concepts, assumptions, expectations, beliefs, and theories that supports and informs your research.

Facilities

This course is delivered at one of our Study Centres. Use the tab on the left to contact them directly to find out more about their facilities and location.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for Ireland. Please contact the Student Admin team on or .

Please contact the study centre for more information on their specific requirements and equivalent qualifications from outside the UK.

Fees and finance

Please contact DEI College directly for information on fees and finance.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

The MSc in Cybersecurity seeks to develop graduates who will become proficient cybersecurity professionals with the technical knowledge base and skills set to master the complex problems and complex requirements in cybersecurity.

Career options

On completing this course you will be equipped with the technical and practical skills to make a difference to society by providing safe and secure digital environments, allowing the public, business and industry, and the economy to function safely. We will prepare you for a range of cybersecurity jobs, including roles such as:

• Infosec manager
• Security analyst
• Security architect
• Security administrator
• Incident responder
• Security engineer
• Security auditor
• Security software developer
• Vulnerability assessor