• Course Duration: 8 weeks
• Weekly Study: 3 hours
• Accreditation: GCHQ Certified Training, APMG International, The Institute of Information Security Professionals

What topics will you cover? 

• Threat landscape: terminology, cyber security threats, as well as keeping up to date.
• Authentication: access control, passwords, as well as two-factor authentication.
• Malware: types of malware, attack vectors, as well as preventing infection.
• Networking and communications: fundamentals, security challenges, as well as standards.
• Cryptography: symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, as well as applications.
• Network security: firewalls, virtual private networks, as well as intrusion detection/prevention.
• When your defences fail: cyber security laws, as well as recovering from attacks.
• Managing security risks: risk analysis as well as management.

Who is this accredited by?

GCHQ Certified Training: The Certificate of Achievement demonstrates you have completed a course that meets the awareness level requirements of GCHQ Certified Training.

APMG International: This course is certified by APMG on behalf of the NCSC (part of GCHQ). The NCSC protects critical services from cyber attacks, manages major incidents as well as improve the security of the UK Internet.

The Institute of Information Security Professionals: The Certificate of Achievement for this course demonstrates awareness of cyber security issues across 12 of the IISP skills groups.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

Explain basic cyber security terminology; have skills for keeping up to date on cyber security issues; as well as be able to identify information assets.

Identify main malware types; awareness of different malware propagation methods; as well as skills for preventing malware infections.

Describe cryptography terminology; be able to use cryptography for email; as well as being aware of applications of cryptography.

Describe legal as well as regulatory issues relating to cyber security; and understand how to recover from security failures.

Describe basic authentication mechanisms; have skills to improve their password security; and be aware of alternative authentication methods.

Identify main malware types; awareness of different malware propagation methods; and skills for preventing malware infections.

Demonstrate understanding of firewalls; virtual private networks and network intrusion detection and prevention technologies.

Apply basic risk analysis and management techniques.

Who is the course for?

The course does not assume any prior knowledge of computer security and can be enjoyed by anyone interested in improving the security of their digital information.

What do people say about this course?

“A brilliant course for me, although at the beginning I regarded myself as security savvy I realise the importance of the background knowledge as to why measures are needed. The very mechanism of the web and internet, emails, packets so on and so forth have added to my knowledge in a very valuable way. My web use, email use is no longer business orientated as I am well into retirement but the uses, online purchases etc are now a factor. The threats change and the need to adapt to these threats as they materialise is vital.”

Michael Beith 

“In my current role I am responsible for all the IT in the building; therefore cyber security is important to me. Whilst I felt I was reasonably up on the subject I was open to having a more formal briefing on the subject. Cory Doctorow is very well known in the industry, so his endorsement of the course was one of the factors that made me choose it. Having completed course, I felt it so worthwhile that I recommended that all IT staff in our group took it. As for the certificate I got, it goes on my office wall!”

Neil Sedley 
IT Systems Manager

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK as well as a world leader in flexible distance learning, with a mission to be open to people, places, methods as well as ideas.