Cybersecurity Courses

This comprehensive course examines core and evolving concepts in the business fundamentals of successful technology-based companies including Business Plan Development & Strategies, Marketing, Product & Process Development processes, Intellectual Property, Accounting, Finance, and Operations. Students will learn the fundamentals essential to understanding all aspects of a business and will be able to converse in some depth in each of the areas studied upon completion. Other topics will include Supply Chain Management, Stage-Gate Development Cycles, Balances Scorecards, Blue Ocean Strategy, and Disruptive Technologies.

This course provides an overview of the domains, concepts, and elements and reviews current and emerging trends in Cybersecurity. Students will learn the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework considering IT systems components, operating systems concepts, basic data analysis, and networking concepts including networking technologies and protocols. Real-world examples will be used to cover significant types of security incidents and their impact and remediation. Fundamental security design principles, information assurance fundamentals, and the significance of cryptography. Readings in different media will be used to demonstrate how quickly the threat and vulnerability landscape is changing across different industries.

Rapid progress in global digital transformation and connectivity requires us to think and act differently in the cyber domain. National security, economic security, and business interests are impacted by vulnerable information systems. Domestic and international cyber-crime is on the rise. Hostile governments infiltrate public and private sector systems with relative impunity causing billions of dollars in financial damage and undermining public trust and confidence. Our notion of privacy is also changing. Students will explore cybersecurity through a non-technical lens by studying  U.S. government responsibilities, law, and public policy as they relate to selected topics including finance, health care, and trade. Students will also gain an understanding of privacy, cybersecurity standards manifested in public policy, and how cybercrime is prosecuted.

Understanding and measuring the risk involved with real and potential cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities are fundamental for an organization or enterprise to invest in and to protect its information and operational infrastructure, its constituents, its relationships, and its reputation. Students will learn and apply various modeling techniques to identify and quantify risk and how they are used to determine the value and criteria for managing that risk. Risk management concepts and standards will be explored including its essential elements, effective governance, understanding the appetite for risk, and the need for developing appropriate policies and procedures to mitigate risk. These concepts and standards will be addressed across different industries and environments.

Current and emerging technologies and processes to monitor, detect and respond to security incidents in systems, networks, and clouds will be covered including automation and analytics. Best practices for developing effective incident response plans, including regulatory and legal considerations, will be studied. Also studied is how to build resilience into development, manufacturing, or other business processes in the case of an incident.

Teaches students about all steps of the software development lifecycle and the role Cybersecurity design principles play in requirements definition, design, development, testing, and maintenance. Tools and techniques to provide software security analysis and software assurance will be explored including software reverse engineering.

The use of machine learning and AI is becoming more prevalent for collecting and analyzing data as its consolidation increases in value. Cyberattacks seek to steal, deny access, misrepresent (such as deepfakes), or compromise the privacy of information. Students will explore the power of machine learning and AI’s use in enhancing Cybersecurity tools across the NIST Framework and also in detecting and exploiting vulnerabilities in timeframes and ways heretofore unthinkable.

Web 3 technologies are advancing at ever increasing rate, with security being a critical component of that evolution. This class will serve to analyze the current state of cybersecurity, the most critical needs moving forward - both from a technical as well policy and regulatory perspective. Students will require interdisciplinary skills - technical development, legal, and business. Additional topic areas will include digital identity, securing proofing systems, core internet protocols and development tools. The course will also include a team project designed to advance one or more topic areas covered.

This class is aimed at students who want to focus on financial technology (FinTech) but who may not have a programming or even technical background. This course will bring students up to speed on programming, data structures, and algorithms. C++ is the language of choice in this class because C and C++ are very commonly used by computer engineers.

In order for students to make such impressive learning gains in their first semester, students must come prepared by having good programming skills in C. Novices should achieve this by completing Duke's Coursera specialization Introduction to Programming in C before the start of the term. Those with some programming experience may also wish to complete the specialization to learn professional tools and acquire deep understanding of concepts taught in the specialization.

Students of all backgrounds will take a required self-assessment prior to the start of the term to assist them in choosing the right programming sequence. 3 units.

Blockchain technology is being embraced in finance and other industries as an encryption base for all types of applications.  This course explores the history, current environment, and near-term outlook of financial innovation (FinTech), focusing on applications of Blockchain technology. Topics range from digital stores of value to documents and transactions. Students will learn to formulate an accurate image and deep practical understanding of the capabilities and limitations of various blockchain techniques. Students will gain hands-on experience creating a simple Blockchain contract and will be able to converse on a practical basis about what Blockchain can and cannot do. 3 units.

Most cybersecurity attacks and breaches are due to social engineering techniques like phishing to obtain user identities and access privileges to circumvent an enterprise’s defense mechanisms and to access sensitive data and control systems. The student will study these techniques and current and emerging practices to prevent or minimize unintentional user errors or deliberate illegal insider threats. How to create an effective security awareness program and integrate it all relevant business processes will be one of the key topics covered.

This course will explore the everyday tasks and procedures that the IT security team employs to manage user and admin identities for authentication and access management. Students will learn the latest technologies and practices for multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and real-time privileges administration and what are the best practices for different use cases.

Students will examine the life cycle of a cybersecurity program from development, administration, evaluation, and improvement processes. Operational and strategic roles including the chief information security officer (CISO) in a representative security team will be studied and current and evolving areas where the team is placed in the enterprise. Best practices and models for how a security team’s performance can be measured will be learned with some real-world examples.

Course examines issues of cybersecurity and privacy. Focuses on roles that different government organizations play in protecting cybersecurity. Course also examines the issues raised by the government's acquisition and storage of information in the interests of national security. Examines the intersection between commercial privacy and cybersecurity, business planning and government surveillance in the global economy, focusing on the US and the EU, with particular attention to the tensions that have arisen in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations of NSA surveillance activity, various large scale cybersecurity breaches and questions as to the trustworthiness of technology.