Education

Keeping cyber secure

Powerful economies, mighty militaries, big financial corporations and the smallest non-profit organisation; in the 21st century none of these are above cyber threats.

That’s what makes Cyber Security, the new computer science master specialisation launched by the 3TU Federation, critical. It is a multidisciplinary specialisation under the aegis of TU Delft and the University of Twente.

The course has been structured with a real world approach to cyber security. While it has a computer science core, students will also take classes in law, economics, criminology, management and psychology. “Cyber security raises a lot more questions than computer security. For instance, how should governments deal with critical infrastructures? What is the economic impact of something like Bitcoins? Students need to learn everything around a technology in order to make it more complete,” said Professor Pieter Hartel, a visiting professor at TU Delft and expert on cyber security and crime.

The course is open to students who have enrolled for an MSc in Computer Sciences either at Delft or Twente. Tele-lecturing rooms have been set up on both campuses and classes will be live streamed at both universities.

Besides cryptography and cyber data analytics, the core courses will include cyber crime science and cyber risk management. Electives range from biometrics, a hands-on hacking lab to reverse engineering. There will also be an ‘off-site summer school where students solve a real world problem’.

Not only is cyber security an increasingly important field today, Hartel explained that in the Netherlands the demand for people with such an expertise far outweighs the supply. And as such, the course is expected to create highly employable graduates.

“Designing a curriculum is a significant enterprise and, especially with this course, we have to keep adjusting it and updating it to ensure that our graduates have the most current qualifications and are highly sought after,” said Hartel.

The first classes kick off in September. At the time of going to press, students had yet to pick their specialisations. “We expect anywhere between 30 to 50 students and at least one-third of them to be internationals,” he added.

3tu.nl/cybsec

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