A new route to career success. A career-focused master’s in computer science with cyber security for £6,000

This module develops the critical reading, thinking and writing techniques you will need throughout the taught programme of study. From effective literature searching, analysis and review, through fact-checking and conflict-resolution, to producing written reports, it perfects the knowledge and skills necessary to start your journey as an efficient researcher.

This module enables you to understand and apply the theory and practice of exploiting vulnerabilities in software as well as key skills of design and implementation of secure software. You will learn the ability to implement secure systems and environments to support software security. You will also explore the use of secure programming languages and the effects on secure software. The uses of obfuscation and encryption in the protection of software are also examined.

Introduces you to the principles of digital forensics to gather and analyse evidence from computer systems and communications. You will learn the techniques, technologies and tools required to gather information within practical environments, and effectively report the results for consideration within legal and commercial situations.

Aims to give you a robust and professional level of competence in the field of ethical hacking. This is led by the coverage of tools, techniques and systems that allow penetration testing to be carried out on computer systems and networks. Module material follows the footsteps of a would-be intruder and thus includes coverage of the communication and social side of computer attacks as well as the technological.

Having been taught how systems, software and devices can be vulnerable to unwanted penetration, you will then investigate countermeasures and organisational strategies to mitigate these risks.

This module focuses on the identification and exploration of security risks, the application of risk control and risk management measures and regulations. You will gain an appreciation of security technology and a critical understanding of security policies, standards and practices as well as the legal, ethical, and professional issues in security management.

This module gives you a thorough grounding in the theories and application of computer algorithms, abstract data types, underlying data structures and their integration to produce efficient programs. It enables you to develop the knowledge and skills to be able to analyse problems and design, implement, and analyse effective algorithmic solutions.

This module provides you with a 360 degree understanding of machine learning techniques, key concepts, methodology, and applications to real-world problems. It covers fundamental concepts in machine learning – a branch of artificial intelligence – including curve fitting, lazy learning methods, artificial neural networks, linear models and kernel methods, ensemble methods and dimension reduction. You will have hands-on experience of how to apply techniques to solve engineering and business case studies. You will learn to link real-world problems to machine learning techniques, suggest the most suitable machine learning method, apply it using a software package and evaluate its performance.

In this module, you will identify, explore, and evaluate concepts of analysis and design and a range of traditional and contemporary methodologies to enable you to appreciate the nature of information and its role in the system’s engineering process.

It provides you with the knowledge to develop a professional approach to practice and evaluate the impact of systems design, development and implementation on society. It includes consideration of professional, ethical, legal, political, cultural and sustainability issues.

This module introduces the concepts of virtualisation and cloud computing, including the networking principles, algorithms and technologies that are used within the architecture of the Internet. By the end of this module, you will be able to: explain the different devices, software and protocols used within online environments; select approaches appropriate to the network stack level; and justify the choices made implementing physical and logical networks.

In this module you will develop the skills necessary to undertake a research project. These include how to conceive, structure and execute a research study, questionnaires and surveys, implementation, testing and statistical analysis. Also included is good practice for presenting your own research coherently in the form of an academic publication.

You will undertake a small research case-study, before producing a full proposal for your dissertation.

This module supports and aids you in carrying out an independent project allocated or chosen through consultation with programme team staff. The dissertation allows you to demonstrate mastery of a specific area of the subject. You will undertake a concentrated review of literature in a chosen subject area and apply knowledge and expertise gained during the taught element of the programme. The dissertation enables you to exhibit deep research and technical skills.