Level 5 Extended Diploma in Cyber Security

Cyber security breaches cause significant personal and organisational damage and pose a clear and present risk to business profitability and resilience. Forbes, the business magazine, estimates that the annual cost of cyber-crime might reach (or surpass) $2Trillion by 2019. At a ground-level, Cyber security breaches are causing business insolvencies and posing challenges to employee safety and wellbeing. In this unit the learner will be introduced to a variety of threats and risks emanating from the cyberspace. The unit will look at various methods of attack and will use case studies to analyse various threat vectors, including Malware, Botnets and Trojans. The unit will introduce and explain various models of measuring threats, risks and impacts. Including, those proposed and recommended by a range of information security standards published by the International Standards Organisation and US NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). Using a well-documented ‘real-world case study’, the learner will investigate and examine the business impact of a recent mega data breach.

In this unit the learner will look at the component parts of digital communications and interoperability with IT networks, hardware, firmware and software components. The inherent insecurity of the internet will be described and discussed. What are the basics of computer science and technology? How do computers communicate with one another? How can networks communicate and how can we plan their security architecture in a more proactive and organised manner? The second half of this unit will look at security planning and core concepts including ‘security engineering’, systems hardening and cyber resilience.

Database security concerns the use of a broad range of information security controls to protect databases (potentially including the data, the database applications or stored functions, the database systems, the database servers and the associated network links) against compromises of their confidentiality, integrity and availability. It involves various types or categories of controls, such as technical, procedural/administrative and physical. Database security is a specialist topic within the broader realms of computer security, information security and riskmanagement. In this unit the learner will explore security risks to database systems and mitigation techniques. Understanding the function of computer programming is essential to understanding the dark arts of ‘Black Hat Hackers’. Learners will examine (as a rolling case study) Python as a popular contemporary programming language. The symbiotic link between developments in computer programming and vulnerabilities to hacking will be examined and explored.

In this unit the learner will examine Incident Response, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTS), and events requiring investigative techniques. Learners will identify and examine aligned business tasks and task forces including Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity Management and Crisis

Management. The unit then focuses on exploring cyber-related incident investigations, including evidential analysis gathering, logging and reporting. Learners will have the opportunity to look at case studies and assess how the approaches used could be applied into their ownworkplace.

Knowing how to build a cyber defence strategy, what legal tools require consideration, how policies can be written and embedded, are all vital ingredients to successful in-house cyber security practices. In this unit the learner will bring together knowledge acquired from previous units and build on this in relation to developing plausible strategic plans, executive buy-in and legal compliance. Key questions and challenges are posed:

What is ‘strategy’ and what can a ‘cyber security strategy’ looklike?

How do we achieve senior-level buy-in?

How do we monitor and safeguard compliance, particularly if our operations are dispersed across a multinational environment?

What are the key legal requirements and industry standards that can assist and enhance our cyber security strategies and practices?

The process of encrypting and decrypting information forms the basis of much computer, device and network security. Cryptography is designed and used to protect the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of information. From the very beginnings of computing, and throughout the industry’s evolution, the establishment of policies, guidelines and laws has shaped the disciplines of information security and organisational resilience in profound and, often, unintended, ways.

In this unit learners will be introduced to the concept and history of cryptography, and its subdisciplines (including cryptology), and how cyber-enabled networks and devices have their communications security underpinned by cryptographic methods and sector standards. Learners will explore methods of attack, including side-channel, additional encryption methods and escrow principles and key. Learners will look at how businesses can deploy encryption to enhance their information security approaches. Learners will develop an understanding of security technical and generic management and leadership teaching. Much of this teaching will be particularly relevant to learners wishing to move into more advanced Information Security Management technical qualifications, including the CompTIA Security + accreditation and the Cyber Security industry gold standard: The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

This unit describes and explains how to conduct investigations with cyber-enabled equipment, including on public-internet-facing networks, or other network environments. Much evidence is lost or ruled inadmissible within courts and tribunal environments because it has been mishandled and corrupted (or could have been) by investigators, or those with a perceived chain of custody over the data. Moreover, in a planet of several billion cyber-enabled devices, but few qualified cyber investigators, it is now the case that many organisations have to manage part or all of a cyber incident investigation, because the national CERT or police/security agencies are otherwise prioritised. In this unit learners will examine the requirements for digital investigations including team formations and tools, understanding the prospects of recovering information, gathering evidential data (including from mobile and IoT devices), safeguarding evidential integrity, as well as the complexity and challenges of storing and presenting evidence within legal environments. Learners will develop an understanding of security technical and generic management and leadership teaching. Much of this teaching will be particularly relevant to learners wishing to move into more advanced Information Security Management technical qualifications, including the CompTIA Security + accreditation and the cyber security industry gold standard: The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

This unit describes and explains how to conduct investigations with cyber-enabled equipment, including on public-internet-facing networks, or other network environments. Much evidence is lost or ruled inadmissible within courts and tribunal environments because it has been mishandled and corrupted (or could have been) by investigators, or those with a perceived chain of custody over the data. Moreover, in a planet of several billion cyber-enabled devices, but few qualified cyber investigators, it is now the case that many organisations have to manage part or all of a cyber incident investigation, because the national CERT or police/security agencies are otherwise prioritised. In this unit learners will examine the requirements for digital investigations including team formations and tools, understanding the prospects of recovering information, gathering evidential data (including from mobile and IoT devices), safeguarding evidential integrity, as well as the complexity and challenges of storing and presenting evidence within legal environments. Learners will develop an understanding of security technical and generic management and leadership teaching. Much of this teaching will be particularly relevant to learners wishing to move into more advanced Information Security Management technical qualifications, including the CompTIA Security + accreditation and the cyber security industry gold standard: The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

In order for an organisation to be more cyber secure, leadership across employee and stakeholder networks is required to be delivered by the C-Suite. However, what happens if the C-Suite either doesn’t listen or doesn’t understand the Tier One threat posed by information security vulnerabilities. In this unit learners will develop an understanding of the key features of tech leadership and performance management. Learners will evaluate strategic leadership and management approaches, within a tech sector setting, and what it means to be a ‘senior levelinfluencer’. Learners will also develop an understanding of security technical and generic management and leadership teaching. Much of this teaching will be particularly relevant to learners wishing to move into more advanced Information Security Management technical qualifications, including the CompTIA Security + accreditation and the Cyber Security industry gold standard: The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). The unit is also highly applicable to learners who are considering taking an MBA, or MBA in Cyber Security, at a later date or who looking to advance into senior management roles within their organisation or sector.

In this unit the learner will look at banking and financial services in relation to cyber security threats and risks and the potential methods to mitigate and lessen organisational vulnerability to cyber security attacks. The unit is relevant to anybody who wishes to learn how to identify and plan for direct cyber-attacks on financial services architecture, including those directly employed by the sector, or learners who need to understand their own organisational financial dependencies underpinning financial systems, including payment systems.

In this unit the learner will look at the emerging cyber offensive and defensive strategies of nation states that reportedly engage in what is called ‘cyber war’ or ‘information warfare’. What nation-state governments have the most advanced cyber capabilities? How might they be used to defend or attack an institution, group or infrastructure? Why is this knowledge important for cyber security practitioners based within businesses? As part of this unit learners will analyse geopolitical considerations in relation to cyber security incidents and also explore the direct, likely implications, for their business organisations, and surrounding Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), that might get caught up in widescale disruption and long-term power outage.