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COMP30720

Academic Year 2021/2022

Ethical Computer Hacking (COMP30720)

Subject:
Computer Science
College:
Science
School:
Computer Science
Level:
3 (Degree)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Assoc Professor Mark Scanlon
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
Online
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

Applications continue to be leveraged as a means of attack into organisations and even individual stakeholders. As an asset to organisations it is fundamental that a mature application security program is in place to protect against threats. In this module, students will gain an deep understanding of application security from threats to the vulnerabilities that open up an application to threats, how a vulnerability can be leveraged to perform an exploit and finally countermeasures in preventing or safeguarding against threats to mitigate risk. Students will be faced with a number of real world challenges while remaining inside an ethical sphere.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Students should have a strong understanding of ethics, the hacker mindset and the motivation of whitehat and black hat hackers.
2. Students should have a strong understanding of the top industry threats.
3. Students should have an understanding of security assessment techniques.
4. Students should be able to demonstrate industry utilised hacking tools.
5. Students should be able to articulate risk appropriately.
6. Students should be able to demonstrate impact of vulnerabilities through POCs.
7. Students should be able to demonstrate industry best practice mitigations.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

12

Practical

24

Autonomous Student Learning

84

Total

120


Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lecture based content delivery.
Practical exercises.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment: Case Study Varies over the Trimester n/a Graded No
20
No
Multiple Choice Questionnaire: Multiple Choice Quiz Varies over the Trimester n/a Graded No
30
No
Project: Project Week 12 n/a Graded No
50
No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback individually to students, post-assessment for the case study and multiple choice assessments. The project feedback will be available after the grade approvals process is complete.