Cyber Security – MSc

Provided by University of Southampton

About the course

Course content

This one year MSc Cyber Security degree offers a multi-disciplinary approach to this critically important topic, embracing not only the technical subjects, but also aspects of criminology, risk management, law and social sciences giving you skills that are highly regarded by leading employers.

Introducing your degree

Cyber security is a topic of critical importance to commercial and academic organisations, as well as to governments and their citizens. Our Cyber Security programme, primarily aimed as a broadening qualification for computer science graduates, offers a multi-disciplinary perspective to the subject, giving students an excellent basis for a future career in the cyber security field.

Overview

There is currently a worldwide shortage of skilled practitioners in cyber security. In the UK, the National Audit Office recently named "addressing the UK's current and future ICT and cyber security skills gap" as a "key challenge", whilst at a time when cybercrime “as-a-service” is on a steep rise, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skill calls for companies to make of cyber security a Board level responsibility. Our MSc is specifically designed to give students a well-rounded, multi-disciplinary view of the subject area, embracing not only the technical subjects, but also aspects of criminology, risk management, law and social sciences. We believe a broad grounding in cyber security will give our students a key advantage in the marketplace.

Career Opportunities

This programme provides an excellent platform for either immediate employment in the cyber security field or further research in industry or academia. Our graduates should not only understand technical aspects of cyber security, but also the broader context in which these sit.

Our students should be able to seek careers in:

• Established companies designing and marketing specific off-the-shelf security products (anti-viruses, anti-spam, software analysers, firewalls, etc.)
• Emerging cyber security professions embedded in companies and business of any sort. These include the expert figures required as companies are urged to take responsibility for the analysis of their cyber-threats and the design of their cyber-defences
• A growing range of cyber security consultancy companies who study and analyse trends in cyber security and who provide advice to a wide range of clients
• Professions for which cyber security plays a key role, and for which understanding the broader context is becoming increasingly important, e.g. the military, intelligence agencies, and crime prevention and investigation
• Government departments, e.g. in the UK the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BiS), who provide analysis and strategy advice for the UK and its businesses

Academic possibilities include further study towards a Ph.D. qualification, or research assistant positions undertaking cyber security related research.