Elective400 LevelSecond SemesterCybersecurity
CSC406
Cybersecurity: Systems & Network Defense
Course Description
Cybersecurity: Systems & Network Defense moves from the fundamentals covered at 300 level into full defensive practice: hardening systems, monitoring for intrusion, and running an incident response from detection to recovery, all inside the department's isolated security range.
Learning Outcomes
- Harden a system and network against common attack vectors.
- Configure and interpret intrusion detection and monitoring tools.
- Execute an incident response process from detection through recovery.
- Evaluate the trade-offs of a proposed security control.
Weekly Topics
Examines defensive security overview from a practical angle, using a case drawn from real systems to motivate the concepts.
Builds directly on the previous week to extend system hardening, with an emphasis on where the earlier techniques stop working.
Combines a short lecture on network defense architecture with an in-class exercise students carry into the week's assignment.
Focuses on common mistakes and misconceptions around intrusion detection systems, using student work from the previous assignment as material.
Introduces log analysis & monitoring and immediately puts it to use in a small design or implementation task.
Situates threat intelligence basics within the broader arc of the course, showing how it connects to what comes next.
Uses a guest dataset or scenario to explore mid-semester review in a setting closer to professional practice.
Introduces incident response planning through short lectures and worked examples, building the vocabulary the rest of the course relies on.
Works through digital forensics basics in a lab-driven session, with guided exercises students complete and discuss in small groups.
Covers red team vs blue team exercise i in depth, connecting the underlying theory to a concrete example the class builds together.
Examines red team vs blue team exercise ii from a practical angle, using a case drawn from real systems to motivate the concepts.
Builds directly on the previous week to extend defense project, with an emphasis on where the earlier techniques stop working.
Combines a short lecture on revision with an in-class exercise students carry into the week's assignment.
Assessment
Assignments — 15%
Practical Work — 40%
Mid-Semester — 10%
Final Examination — 35%
Prerequisite Map
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