CYBR 471 (2021) - Home Page

Kia ora and welcome to CYBR 471. In this course, you will learn about different aspects of attacking and defending computer systems. You will also develop your skills in communication and critical thinking.

The lecturers for this course are Masood Mansoori and Ian Welch.

We will present theory in the Wednesday lecture 9am slot (Easterfield LT 201) and most weeks you will apply this in a practical session taking place in the Friday 9am lecture slot (Cotton CO139). You should expect to spend about 10 hours per week on attending sessions, watching videos, reading, completing practical work and assignments.

The course is primarily offered in-person, but there will also be a remote option and there will be the opportunity via Zoom to get help with completion of the labs or the assignment.

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to...

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the methodologies used by attackers and defenders by developing and documenting plans for both incident handling and for conducting attacks.
2. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a range of defensive and offensive technique such as digital forensics, malware analysis, vulnerability discovery, ethical hacking activities and open source intelligence gathering.
3. Show an appreciation for the legal and ethical dimensions of both cyber defensive and offensive activities in context of military and non-military contexts.

This course will focus on the 1st and 2nd objective with the 3rd objective being covered in earlier courses where we discuss vulnerability disclosure, New Zealand laws and Cyberwarfare.