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Unit of study_

CSEC5616: Cybersecurity Engineering

2025 unit information

This unit provides an introduction to the many facets of security in the digital and networked world, the challenges that computer systems face, and the design principles that have been developed to build secure systems and counter attacks. The unit puts the focus squarely on providing a thorough understanding of security principles and engineering for security. At the same time, we stress a hands-on approach to teach the state-of-the-art incarnations of security principles and technology, pretesting, and we practice programming for security. We pay particular attention to the fact that security is much more than just technology as we discuss the fields of usability in security, operational security, and cyber-physical systems. At the end of this unit, graduates are prepared for practical demands in their later careers and know how to tackle new, yet unforeseen challenges.

Unit details and rules

Managing faculty or University school:

Engineering

Study level Postgraduate
Academic unit Computer Science
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
? 
None
Corequisites:
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None
Prohibitions:
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ELEC5616 or OCSE5616
Assumed knowledge:
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A technical orientation is absolutely required, especially the capacity to become familiar with new technology without explicit supervision. Good programming skills in Python or a C-related language, basic networking knowledge, and skills from discrete mathematics are assumed. These topics are covered at appropriate level in our undergraduate units INFO1110, INFO1112, INFO1113 and MATH1064.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. Search and retrieve relevant literature, and put it into the context of a security setup.
  • LO2. Communicate the results of a security study to a non-security audience
  • LO3. Identify and understand ethical, legal, and professional issues in security.
  • LO4. Recognise flaws in IT systems at the design stage.
  • LO5. Demonstrate knowledge of security principles to follow in designing a system, including implications for usability and performance
  • LO6. Apply security principles in the design phase.
  • LO7. Demonstrate knowledge of how security principles are matched to certain technologies and the security goals they achieve.
  • LO8. Understand the key representative security technologies today.
  • LO9. Demonstrate knowledge in programming for security (software/communications/network).
  • LO10. Understand common tools to explore a security setup and analyse it.

Unit availability

This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.

The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.

Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 1 2024
Normal evening Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2024
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 1 2025
Normal evening Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Semester 2 2025
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 1 2023
Normal evening Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 1 2023
Normal evening Remote
Semester 2 2023
Normal day Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

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Modes of attendance (MoA)

This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.