Cyber Security & Human Factors (MSc)

You will gain plenty of expertise in cyber security to ensure you're ready to take on the growing security challenges faced by enterprise, industry and government in this complex community. 

Why study MSc Cyber Security and Human Factors at BU?

• Learn to assess risk, anticipate and manage security incidents; develop and assess security procedures and policies to meet the needs of the computing and security sectors worldwide 
• Access to cyber security and digital forensics laboratories with state-of-the-art simulation and analytical systems relevant to intrusion detection, incident management, forensic analysis and system penetration testing, where you can see where cyber attacks are happening all over the world, and how they are being stopped at BU 
• Acquire the skills to be ahead of the game and an become an expert on how to protect information, assets, knowledge and intellect 
• Gain an understanding of the psychology of cyber security and human factors by investigating threats, vulnerabilities and impact risk, by acknowledging the contagion of fear, uncertainty and doubt and the importance of trust management and information assurance  
• Draw on our academics' expert knowledge, their research and recent developments in cyber security to gain awareness of current challenges and how to overcome them. 

Career opportunities

• Work in an area of growth within this important subject area with employment opportunities constantly evolving. As an MSc Cyber Security & Human Factors graduate, you will be prepared to work across the areas of cyber security, online behaviours and academic research.

Entry requirements:

• A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:2 in any subject, or equivalent. 

International entry requirements:

• If English is not your first language you'll need IELTS 6.0 (Academic) with a minimum of 5.5 in each component. For more information see our full entry requirements.

Course details

• This course is delivered full-time and part-time. Each unit can be taken separately as CPD with or without formal assessment. If you do elect to take the unit with assessment you can accrue academic credits towards a full Master’s.

Core units

• Cyber Security: Develop skills and knowledge for cyber security. Material, lectures and seminars in this unit capture concepts of cyberspace ecosystems and the security of socio-technical systems. The unit also covers the life cycle of cyber security mechanisms, including the design, development, management and, most importantly, how they’re sustained.
• Cyber Psychology: Explore the impact of the internet and social media applications on individuals, groups, organisations and society, and human factors relevant to cyber security and online behaviours. You’ll learn to evaluate the principal features of human factors in current and planned online secure systems and identify means of promoting safer online behaviour.
• Human Factors: Soft systems, human factors integration (HFI), training, trust, organisational learning, information and knowledge management will be examined through case study analysis. You’ll also conduct situational awareness and workload measurements in trials, experiments and exercises, and apply user experience (UX) techniques to evaluate interactive systems.
• Research Methods & Professional Issues: Research requires a structured and disciplined approach at all stages. We’ll help you to develop key research skills in many areas from project proposals and planning to critical analysis of research findings, academic writing and dissemination. We’ll also teach you about professional standards and ethical issues for research.
• Individual Master’s Project: An opportunity to critically investigate and report on a particular issue in depth.

Option units (choose one each semester)
Choose one option unit in semester 1:

• Security by Design: Security must be addressed as early as possible when building a system or planning organisational change. However, security never seems to be a driving concern when engaging in innovation. When security is addressed, we discover how hard building security in really is. In this unit, you’ll have an opportunity to build security into the design and specification of secure systems, and the broader socio-technical context that these fall into.
• Blockchain & Digital Futures: This unit defines Blockchain technology, its business aspect, issues, objectives, and challenges, covering Blockchain horizontal and vertical scaling, key basics of cryptography required for understanding the Blockchain technology concepts, different cryptocurrencies, and their issues, challenges, and networks.

Choose one option unit in semester 2:

• Security Information and Event Management: This unit aims to develop your skills and knowledge of the important security event and incident management methods, techniques, solutions and systems. You will cover aspects of the current and emerging threat landscape, incident handling and operations of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and the importance of information sharing for incident management.
• Accessibility & Assistive Technologies: This unit is an introduction to the concepts of accessibility and assistive technology and explores how technology can be used to support people with temporary, situational or lifelong disabilities by helping to overcome challenges to their self-care, educational, vocational and recreational independence.
• Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester-by-semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

Programme specification

• Programme specifications provide definitive records of the university's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.
• Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

Potential job roles

As an MSc Cyber Security & Human Factors graduate, you will be prepared to work across the areas of cyber security, online behaviours and academic research, undertaking roles such as:

• Cyber Psychologist
• Security Designer
• Digital Forensic Investigator
• Incident Manager
• Intrusion Detector.

Careers

• As the security of data is fundamental to any business, you will possess high marketability in the professional arena and be qualified to enjoy career opportunities in a wide variety of industries.

Cyber Security lab facilities

• Our Cyber Security lab is something special. As the name of our facility suggests, it’s all about security here. From the labs we can see where cyber attacks are happening all over the world, and what attacks are happening and being stopped at BU.