Course Duration: 12 months full time; up to 24 months part time
Computer security and resilience are exciting and dynamic areas of computing science. During this course, you will learn about the principles of secure and resilient systems, distributed algorithms, verification technology, system security, information security and trust, human factors and system dependability. Incorporating group and individual project work, this course aims to introduce you to the latest developments in the field and equip you for a successful career.
Businesses, government, science and industry depend increasingly on computer-based systems. Failures, whether accidental or malicious, can lead to major losses in financial, safety and security terms, as well as having a significant effect on trust. These factors mean that graduates with expertise in developing and analysing secure and trustworthy systems are in great demand in business, industry, research and development labs.
Security is not just about cryptography - it's about understanding the flow of information among agents and within organisations. Resilience is the capacity of a system to recover from damage, whether caused by errors made during software design, by accidental misuse, by human error or by malicious attack. Analysing and designing secure and reliable systems involves taking all these factors into account.
Computer security and resilience are exciting and dynamic areas of computing science. The technologies on which these systems are based are becoming more diverse and flexible as computing becomes mobile, wireless and network-dependent. New techniques for analysing and designing trustworthy systems are being continually developed, and at national and international levels, governments are encouraging these advances.
The Newcastle MSc in Computer Security and Resilience brings together experts in security, fault tolerance, human factors and high integrity computing to deliver a comprehensive programme that aims to introduce to the principles and latest developments in the field, and to equip you for a successful career.
A unique integrated programme - Systems become untrustworthy because of human failures and errors in design as well as software and network problems. Our MSc programme integrates teaching and research expertise in security and system reliability with human factors, verification and distributed systems, giving you a truly integrated view of the technologies relevant to developing trustworthy systems.
An industry focus - Members of our industry advisory group help to ensure that the programme is relevant to the needs of business and industry today. You can choose a project for your final dissertation that has some industry involvement associated with it, including the possibility of working on-site.
State of the art research - Newcastle has a first class record of research and development in dependable and secure computing. The faculty members teaching you have international reputations for their contributions to the field. Many of them have extensive experience as practitioners in industry as well as research scientists.
A personal approach - The experienced and helpful staff will be happy to offer help with all aspects of your course, from admissions to graduation and developing your career beyond. You will have the experience of working as a team with the help and support of fellow students as well as staff - the sort of experience that an on-line course can’t provide.
Advanced study in a leading research centre - As a student on this programme you will be encouraged to play a full part in the life of the School, taking advantage of dedicated computing and study facilities, participating in seminars delivered by researchers and distinguished external speakers. Your project work will be undertaken under one-to-one supervision with an experienced supervisor and will involve making a contribution to the work of one of the school’s research groups.
The first nine months of the programme are devoted to lectures totalling about 20 hours per week, which are examined by written papers. You will also undertake a substantial amount of supervised and unsupervised practical work.
The final three months are devoted to an individual project. An important part of the MSc is the preparation of a dissertation describing the project. You will also be required to give a demonstration of your project where you will be questioned on your dissertation.
Title |
Semester 1 |
Semester 2 |
Semester 3 |
| CSC8102 System Security | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| CSC8105 System Validation | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| CSC8201 The Challenge of Dependable Systems | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| CSC8202 Information Security and Trust | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| CSC8203 Human Factors Engineering | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| CSC8204 High Integrity Software Development | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| CSC8205 Research Skills | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| CSC8206 Group Project (Computer Security and Resilience) | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| CSC8299 Individual Project and Dissertation | 0 | 30 | 60 |
Title |
Semester 1 |
Semester 2 |
Semester 3 |
| CSC8404 Advanced Programming in Java | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| CSC8406 Object-oriented Programming | 10 | 0 | 0 |
Entry requirements may be found in our current online prospectus entry for MSc Computer Security and Resilience.
E-mail: cs.admissions@ncl.ac.uk