Topic outline

  • General

    This course will be offered entirely online this year. 

    The Cybersecurity course focuses on overall understanding of cybersecurity including different types of threats, cyber defense strategies, evaluation of technological solutions and emerging trends. After the course students are expected to understand digital security. 

     

    Course content 

    • Cybersecurity fundamentals and goals 

    • Cyber threats landscape 

    • Network security 

    • Application/web security 

    • Device security 

    • Cloud/IoT security 

    • Cryptography basics 

    • Incident response 

    • Digital Forensics 

    • Risk management 

    • Cybersecurity management and governance 

    • Emerging cybersecurity trends 

     

    Learning outcomes 

    After successfully completing the course, the student  

    • understands fundamental concepts and terminology of cybersecurity. 

    • identifies various types of cyber threats and analyzes different cyber defense strategies. 

    • knows about the basics of cryptography and principles of incident response. 

    • familiarizes with cybersecurity management practices and governance frameworks. 

    • analyses emerging trends, technologies, and advancements in cybersecurity. 

     

    Course information

    The course consists of six online-lecture days from April to June 2025 (April 29th, May 6th, May 13th, May 20th, May 27th, and June 3rd). Attending all the lecture days (for the whole time!) is mandatory; two absences are permitted for a good reason, but you'll be assigned compensatory work for absences.  

    To pass the course, you need to submit all the assignments (more details about assignment given below). There will be no exam for this course. All assignments are mandatory as well, and deadlines must be met! Group members will also grade each other, and this may have an effect on the overall grading as well.  

    The course is graded pass/fail. 

    NB: All texts which you submit in the assignments must be written by you (in the case of group exercises, your group) in their entirety. Quotations are okay, as long as they are clearly marked as such. If you use an AI to help you with your assignments, this needs to be stated in the beginning of your submission. State what tool you used and where. 

    The schedules for the lecture days can be found in their own sections (in the menu on the left) once the schedule is finalized. Links to the virtual lectures can be found below - note that you need to be logged in and enrolled to see it. 

    Hand in all personal and group assignments as PDF files. 

    The responsible teacher for this course is Dr. Tanesh Kumar. The course assistant is Juho Kaivosoja. 

     

    Assignments

    There are in total seven assignments on the course:

    Four individual assignments. These are worth 10 points each. You need to get 4 points from each one to pass. 

    Two group assignments. These are worth 15 points each (for each group member). You need to get 6 points from each one to pass. 

    Final Project. This is worth 30 points, and you need to get 14 points to pass. 8 of the points will come from peer reviews and 22 will come from the staff grading. The final report will be comprised of a group report and presentation. 

    • Individual: 40 (4 assignments @ 10 each) 

    • Group: 30 (2 assignments @ 15 each) 

    • Final Project: 30 (group report + presentation) 

    To pass the course, you need to submit all the assignments and get at least a total of 50 points from all the assignments. 

     

    Lecture Schedule 

    Lecture 1:  Basics of Cybersecurity (29.04.2025) 

    Lecture 2:  Cyber Threats and Cyber Defense Strategies (06.05.2025) 

    Lecture 3:  Cryptography and Incident Response (13.05.2025) 

    Lecture 4: Cybersecurity Management and Governance (20.05.2025) 

    Lecture 5:  Emerging Trends in Cybersecurity (27.05.2025) 

    Lecture 6:  Student Final Projects (03.06.2025)