Cyber Security, Master’s Programme

The general admission requirement is a bachelor's degree or equivalent education of a minimum of three years (180 credits).

The basis for admission shall include:

Either: a specialization unit of at least 80 credits in information systems, information technology or informatics

Or: an integrated study of at least 2 years duration in information systems, information technology, informatics, computer science or electrical engineering.

For the specialization in Security Technologies there must be at least 15 ECTS credits in programming and 25 ECTS credits in relevant mathematics and statistics in the academic basis.

The weighted average grade of C or better is required.

Admission takes place in accordance with regulations on admission to studies and courses at the University of Agder, https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2021-11-24-3370?q=uia

Cyber security is a broad field. The overall goal for the master’s programme is to give the students the knowledge and understanding of security that is necessary to ensure both trust and credibility to ICT-systems. Knowledge of ICT, cryptography and its uses, and understanding of systems are amongst the topics of the programme.

Our community is digitalized to a great extent. This makes us depend on the systems, and that they work as intended. This cannot be taken for granted, and there is a substantial organized criminal activity that aims at the destruction of digital systems to gain money. Others are driven by different motivation factors, like political activism, opportunistic hacking, hate/revenge, governmental active and passive cyber activity. In addition to these security challenges, the protection of privacy is of increasing importance.

There are elements of research in the study programme. Still, the main goal of this study programme is to educate the students to cover the needs of the Norwegian Civil Service and the private sector.

The programme has two specialization profiles:

Security technologies

This specialization has a technological profile, and it educates people to work in preparation, integration, and development of technical solutions for security.

Security management

This specialization profile is centred around management and organizational, and user-centred aspects. This competence is essential when it comes to planning management, implementation, and deployment of systems where solid security is critical.

On successful completion of the programme, the candidate should have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

- have a comprehensive and deep understanding of concepts and methods used within the disciplines

- have comprehensive theoretical insight into the operation of basic security services, cryptographic primitives, and cryptographic protocols

- have a broad overview of specific behavior for the most common implementations of the basic security services, cryptographic primitives, and cryptographic protocols

- have knowledge of systemic aspects of security and security architectures

- have knowledge of concepts and methods for conducting risk and vulnerability analysis

- have knowledge of legislation within security and privacy

- have knowledge of principles and methods for management of security-related projects

- have knowledge of life cycle aspects of large-scale security administration and management

- have a broad understanding of the strategic, economic, organizational, political, and ethical drivers for securing critical infrastructures

Skills

- be able to work independently with theoretical and practical problem solving within security and security administration

- be able to apply relevant professional methods in research and professional development work

- be able to analyze and relate critically to various sources of information and use these to structure and formulate professional reasoning within digital security and privacy

- be able to carry out and disseminate independent delimited R&D projects within cybersecurity in accordance with current research ethics norms and national legislation

General competence

- be able to analyze relevant professional and research ethics issues within cybersecurity

- be able to apply their knowledge and skills to new issues within related subject areas

- be able to contribute to innovation and in innovation processes

- be able to communicate about professional issues, analyzes and conclusions, both with specialists and to the general public

A range of different teaching and working methods will be used, including lectures, seminars, group work and exercises, workshops and laboratory exercises. It is assumed that the students will attain parts of the curriculum objectives through self-study and independent work since much of the teaching is based on presentations, different tasks and problem-solving.

Most of the courses have compulsory assignments and presentations that need to be approved in order to take the examination. Laboratory exercises and participation in seminars and workshops normally have compulsory attendance. There will be compulsory guidance meetings for the Master's Thesis work.

Several different forms of assessment are used, for example, written examinations, oral presentations or examinations, and writing papers and reports. In most courses, compulsory written assignments or other coursework requirements must be approved in order to take the examination. The form of assessment is given in the course description for each course.

When the written Master’s Thesis has been assessed, there will be an adjusting oral presentation and examination regarding the thesis.

The master’s programme is based on international research and includes studies of both local and global problems. ICT systems and infrastructure are increasingly more global, and the risks and threats are international. Through the study programme, the students will have access to international academic and research groups. The courses in the study programme are normally taught in Norwegian, but some of the courses may be taught in English and offered to exchange students from partner universities.

Full-time Master´s students can take the 3rd semester at a partner university abroad. Credits awarded at the foreign university may be transferred into the student´s programme at UiA. To become an exchange student, the courses/thesis work that the student is planning to undertake at the foreign institution, must be given preliminary approval by the study programme manager at UiA, and a written Student Contract must be signed with the International Education Office. UiA has a large number of partner universities, for example, University of Nebraska Omaha (USA), University of Minnesota (USA), QUT (Australia), UNSW (Australia), Deakin University (Australia), Curtin University (Australia), TU München (Germany) and Twente University (the Netherlands) that all offers relevant courses in cyber security. UiA facilitates student exchange through established mobility programmes like Erasmus+, see more on the webpage: https://www.uia.no/student/utveksling

A compulsory course in Health, Safety and Environment is required for students admitted to the programme.

A wireless network is available on campus, and the master´s students use their own laptop computers in most courses.

It is a requirement that all students at UiA have their own portable computer (laptop) for use in teaching and examinations, see Examination Regulations, University of Agder, §12d