Handbook

This course is an opportunity for interdisciplinary study in understanding cyber security, computer security, cybercrime, cyberterror and the principles of engineering secure systems alongside the legal and regulatory framework that surrounds this.

Students in this course will attend lectures (2 hours per week) and tutorials (2 hours per week) with students in COMP6441/COMP6841, Security Engineering and Cyber Security. In those classes, students will explore topics including: insiders, privacy, cybercrime, social engineering, risk, secrets, authentication, physical security, weakest link, supply chain, cognitive biases, organisational change, incident response, security analysis, open source intelligence and reconnaissance. The course draws on case studies and recent developments throughout. Tutorials provide an interactive opportunity to tackle complex policy problems from law and engineering disciplinary perspectives. 

Students will attend an additional 1 hour a week seminar focussing on legal and regulatory aspects, including relevant aspects of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, national security and law enforcement powers, telecommunications laws, cybercrime laws, privacy laws, online content regulation, the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (Cth), Enhancing Online Safety for Children Act 2015 (Cth), export control laws, consumer law, and national/international standards. In particular, seminars explore the responsibilities and potential liabilities of financial institutions, company directors, internet service providers, security professionals and individuals. The course will also analyse Australian cyber security policy and the work of relevant Australian agencies with comparative discussion of select jurisdictions.

There are two optional components of the course. Students can attend an additional 2 hour per week lecture which covers the more technical aspects of security engineering with students in COMP6441 if they wish. Also, students who are familiar with C programming language can optionally attend an additional one hour a week extension lecture with students in COMP6841.

Unless attending optional extension lectures, students do not need to have any programming skills. Rather, students need a keen, devious and analytical mind. To get the most from this course, students will need to engage in independent study and research and be able to act as independent self-directed learners. Face-to-face teaching is significantly more than for a standard law elective (2 hours of lectures, a 2 hour tutorial and a one hour seminar each week), but the reading load is significantly less than a standard law course. Nevertheless, students should expect to commit approximately 15 hours a week to the course including attendance, self-directed research, completion of on-line modules, preparation for tutorials and seminars and completion of assessment.