Introduction to Cyber Security

This course focusses on building skills needed to better protect your digital information from security threats. It is offered by the Open University through Future Learn, an online education platform.

The course is supported by the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Programme, is National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Certified Training, and is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Information Security (IISP). It elaborates on the tips and strategies to protect data on a network, including firewalls and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The learners will also be exposed to Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and honeypots to detect attacks. This course will also guide participants to use cryptography and network encryption for protecting information, including encryption keys and exploring real-world uses of cryptography.

Some of the learning goals of the course are:

• Describing basic authentication mechanisms to develop skills to improve password security and alternative authentication methods
• Identifying main malware types and developing skills for preventing malware infections
• Defining firewalls, virtual private networks and network intrusion detection and prevention technologies
• Describing legal and regulatory issues relating to cyber security to understand how to recover from security failures
• Applying basic risk analysis and management techniques