Cyber Security (CybSec) | Master's programme Computer Science, MSc

Tackle cyber security risks and develop and implement countermeasures to make the digital world safer and more secure.

Nowadays, numerous sectors won’t be able to function without the cyber space: banking, education, healthcare, transport and logistics, travel, telecommunications, and so on. At the same time, government and business information systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks, data theft, and human error. The repercussions of cyber security failures can be far-reaching and result in serious financial loss and legal liability. If you have a passion for working with real-world data, assessing cyber risks, and designing and implementing countermeasures to help protect digital systems, the specialisation in Cyber Security might be for you.

What is Cyber Security?

You can focus on data security and learn to encrypt digital information, such as bank customers’ sensitive data, to protect it from unauthorised access or modification. What about going in the direction of network security and designing future-proof secure networking protocols by taking into consideration changing user behaviour and evolving network security threats, such as distributed denial-of-service attacks, ransomware, or phishing attacks?

Are you interested in risk assessment and analysis of the socio-economic context of cyber security? You can, for example, analyse the risks that factors such as hospital policies, procedures, and employee training pose to sensitive healthcare data. If you want to take a holistic approach to managing the security of an information system throughout its entire lifecycle, from concept to termination, you can dive into lifecycle security management. You can, for instance, develop ontologies that prevent security vulnerabilities or threats and create best practices to root them out.

Examples of courses you will follow during this specialisation:

Cryptography lies at the core of cyber security. Its primary goal is to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of information in the presence of adversaries and you will learn the basics in the course Security and Cryptography.
In the course System Security, you will learn about security at all levels, from hardware to operating system, and explore security problems and solutions at each level.
How should you discuss legal issues related to cyber security with lawyers? Learn about key legal frameworks in relation to cyber security, data protection and privacy, and fundamental rights in the course E-Law.

Learn from experts in the field

Thanks to the Twente University Centre for Cybersecurity Research (TUCCR), which is a partnership with institutes such as the National Cyber Security Centre in the Netherlands, you will learn from experts in the cyber security domain. You will work in state-of-the art security labs where you will have access to testbeds, data lakes, and dedicated attack-defence environments. You will also get to work on real-world problems. You can perform an audit of a company's network security infrastructure, identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the systems, and develop a plan to address the issues. Also, you can look into the dangers of clicking on a malicious link or attachment in a phishing email and ways to increase awareness among employees about the risks of and countermeasures to such human actions that compromise their security.

What will you learn?

As a graduate of the Master's in Computer Science with a specialisation in Cyber Security, you have acquired specific scientific knowledge, skills, and values that will help you in your future career.

Knowledge
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- understand formal and cryptographic foundations underlying security and privacy of modern ICT systems;
- have an in-depth understanding of computer systems and networks and how to detect, mitigate, and prevent attacks on them;
- understand cross-disciplinary aspects of security and privacy such as law and business processes.
Skills
After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- can assess the security of ICT systems by means of, for example, penetration testing, risk assessment, and data monitoring and analytics;
- can apply different methods and approaches to design secure and privacy-enhancing ICT systems;
- can do scientific research on security and privacy methods, contribute to such research, apply the results, and follow sub-field trends.
Values
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- want to protect today’s society against the growing attacks on digital systems that it depends on;
- are aware of the social, economic, and ethical consequences and implications caused by privacy breaches and insecure systems;
- are curious and committed to lifelong learning to keep up to date with the ever-evolving digital threat landscape.

Other specialisations

Is this specialisation not exactly what you are looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. You can also find out more about related Master’s at the University of Twente:

Master's in Business Information Technology

Curriculum