Cybersecurity

Cyber criminals leverage technology and human behavior to attack our online security. This course explores the fundamentals of and vulnerabilities in the design of computers, networks, and the internet. Course content includes the basics of computer components, connectivity, virtualization, and hardening.

Students learn about network design, Domain Name Services, and TCP/IP. They will understand switching, routing, and access control for internet devices, and how denial of service, spoofing, and flood attacks work. Basic programming introduced in the course will inform hashing strategies, while an introduction to ciphers and cryptography will show how shared-key encryption works for HTTPS and TLS traffic.

Students also explore the fundamentals of data forensics and incident response protocols. The course includes analysis of current threats and best-practice modeling for cyber defense, including password complexity, security, management, breach analysis, and hash cracking. Computational thinking and programming skills developed in this course will help students solve a variety of cybersecurity issues.

There is no computer science prerequisite for this course, though students with some background will certainly find avenues to flex their knowledge.

UC-approved course

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