Information Systems Security

Professional Communication and Presentation Skills will introduce learners to the professional writing, collaboration and presentation skills needed to be successful in their chosen field.  Learners will gain an understanding of the strategies and competencies required for effective communication with an emphasis on developing the interpersonal skills needed to perform as part of a high-functioning team.  Coursework will require learners to work in individual and collaborative settings.

Equivalents:

• COMM 265

This introductory course provides students a grounding in basic switching, routing and general protocols. These are analyzed and implemented from both a functionality and vulnerability viewpoint. The configuration of defensive and offensive tools is practiced in the lab environment.

This introductory course provides students with a firm grounding in the fundamentals of strategy from a military and cyber-warfare viewpoint. Topics include: implications of economics and politics on strategy, tactics vs strategy, writings of classic strategic thinkers from ancient to current times and methods of critically analyzing situations and strategic plans. Through the use of case studies and essays these fundamental concepts are applied to modern cyber-warfare and industrial espionage.

This introductory course provides students the basic principles of programming applicable to program design and exploitation. Principles are illustrated using an intermediate, compiled language such as C. The examination of program data structures and execution flow is emphasized in the lab using debuggers

This course examines the structure, implementation, and use of scripted and object oriented languages. The crafting of tools for various conditions will be emphasized in the labs and assignments.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 204
• ITSC 205

This course focuses on the fundamental's aspects of modern processors architectures and low-level programming environment. It emphasizes on modern processors designs and its interaction with other system component such as memory and I/O, Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) and memory structure. Assembly and C programming languages and debuggers are used for practical exercises

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 202

This course explores internal structure (data structure) of most common operating systems. Topics include: kernel structures, system calls, process and threads management, inter-process communication techniques, memory management, storage and file systems structures. Laboratories will focus on examining operating systems' structure and vulnerabilities caused by design and the implementation of defensive practices.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 202
• ITSC 200

This course provides an examination of the implementation, strengths, and weaknesses of both industrial protocols and business protocols. Topics include: networking security protocols, advanced routing, and intrusion detection/prevention.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 200

This course provides students with a solid introduction to a variety of enterprise and industrial wireless protocol standards and exploitation techniques. The lab will focus on the use of offensive and defensive wireless tools to harden systems in a variety of environments.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 206

This course provides students an introduction to web technologies with an emphasis on web application hardening and exploitation. Topics include: application auditing, proxies, web attacks, web server hardening, man in the middle attacks, secure application protocols and data exfiltration.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 200
• ITSC 202

This course provides students practical, hands on experiences with the analysis and neutralization of malware. Topics include: disassemblers, cloaking/obfuscation, malware design, packing techniques, infection vectors and polymorphism.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 203
• ITSC 304

This is a laboratory-based course and provides hands-on ethical hacking. Students will work independently on laboratories that focus on implementing techniques for vulnerability management, exploitation, post-exploitation, detection, monitoring, and hardening operating systems to protect it and mitigate risks. A final penetration testing project will be implemented to apply knowledge and skills learned in the course.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 204
• ITSC 205

This course provides students practical, hands on experience with the Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Topics include: industrial wireless network exploitation, encryption key exchange, debugging, component identification, the use of logic analyzers and oscilloscopes, firmware retrieval and analysis, sensor systems and common system architectures.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 203

This advanced course provides students the tools and processes for the collection and evaluation of evidence found in computer systems. The emphasis is on the complexity of investigating incidents in a forensically sound manner consistent with current Canadian and international laws. Topics include: identifying and preserving evidence, chain of custody, file and log analysis, proper legal documentation, memory forensics and the identification of malware within a system being examined.

Pre-requisites:

• LAWG 200
• ITSC 304

Many modern businesses are required to comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. At the core of PCI is encryption. The fundamentals of modern encryption are explored and the PCI standard, auditing, and penetration testing techniques will be discussed.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 302

This course examines the business and computing infrastructure needed to protect an organization from attacks. Topics will include: physical security, risk analysis, disaster recovery, data security controls, security models, access controls and security testing frameworks.

Pre-requisites:

• LAWG 200

This course provides a general overview of persuasion and manipulation techniques, an introduction to neuro-linguistic programming, basic human psychology and improvisational acting. The goal of the course is to allow an entry level penetration tester to successfully infiltrate an organization to conduct security testing.

Pre-requisites:

• ITSC 205
• LAWG 200

This introductory course provides students with a basic understanding of the structure of both the Canadian and the Alberta legal systems. Topics include copyright, intellectual property, contract, evidence collection, and privacy law and their effect on security professionals. The application of the law will be contrasted with ethical guidelines that are enforced on security practitioners.

Pre-requisites:

• COMM 256
• ITSC 201

In this capstone course, you will investigate issues across many different subject areas or domains of knowledge, may connect with community issues or problems, and create a solution. Your project should demonstrate the technical and professional skills learned in the program and beyond. You are expected to apply your creativity and problem-solving abilities to a real-world context.

Pre-requisites:

One of the following sets of pre-requisites, as applicable to your program of study:

Information Technology Services

• CPNT 300, CPSY 302, CPSY 350, INTP 301, and ITSC 300

Software Development

• CPRG 303, CPRG 304, CPRG 306, CPRG 307, and CPSY 301

Information Systems Security

• ITSC 203, ITSC 301, ITSC 304, ITSC 307, and ITSC 309

Film and Video Production

• FVDO 300, FVDO 302, FVDO 303, FVDO 304, and FVDO 308

New Media Production & Design

• MMDA 300, MMDA 303, MMDA 323, MMDA 324, and MMDA 326

Interactive Design

• COMM 238, CPRG 218, DSGN 221, DSGN 227, MMDA 203, PHIL 241, and PMGT 200

STAT 245 is an introductory course in data analysis for students in engineering technology programs. Students apply techniques to organize, display, analyze and report data. Outcomes include methods of descriptive and inferential statistics. Students will be exposed to software-based methods in laboratory sessions using industry-grade data. Some advanced topics of analysis are selectable toward the end of the course.

This cooperative work term course provides the opportunity to apply your classroom learning in a practical workplace setting, as well as gain valuable industry experience. This course is optional.

Pre-requisites:

One of the following sets of pre-requisites, as applicable to your program of study:

Information Technology Services

• CPNT 224, CPRG 217, CPSY 204, CPSY 206, and PHIL 241

Software Development

• CPRG 211, CPRG 250, CPSY 200, CPSY 202, and PHIL 241

Information Systems Security

• ITSC 204, ITSC 205, ITSC 206, ITSC 302, and LAWG 200

New Media Production & Design

• MMDA 225, MMDA 237, MMDA 243, MMDA 244, and MMDA 247

Film and Video Production

• FVDO 250, FVDO 252, FVDO 254, FVDO 256, and FVDO 258

Journalism

• JOUR 251, JOUR 254, JOUR 258, PHOT 256, and PUBL 261

Interactive Design

• CPRG 218, DSGN 221, DSGN 227, MMDA 203, and PMGT 200

Integrated Artificial Intelligence

• ARTI 407, ARTI 408, ARTI 409, DATA 480, and PROJ 407