Online Courses are offered online throughout the year. Our best advice is to check the university’s schedule as these classes may have fixed dates associated with them.
- Time Commitment: Like many online courses, cyber security Online Courses take 6-10 weeks. Overall, you can expect to devote 3-6 hours of your life per week to each course.
- Format: Video lectures are usually pre-recorded, although instructors interact with students in virtual forums, live chats and/or during virtual office hours.
- Assessment: Assessment strategies differ per class & per instructor. Peer-to-peer reviews, interactive class discussions, a group wrap-up project are all possible deliverables. Many Online Courses incorporate programming labs, regular quizzes and classroom discussion to re-enforce and test comprehension.
Please be aware these are REAL courses and require effort to not only learn, to succeed in them. Less than 10% of students who start Online Courses go on to finish them – with many citing time requirement being the major reason why they couldn’t complete these courses.
Building An Information Risk Management Toolkit
Provider: University of Washington
Instructor: Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Research Associate Professor, Information School, University of Washington
Duration: 10 weeks
Workload: 4-6 hours per week
Register: www.coursera.org/course/inforisk
Topics Covered
Introductory MOOC in risk management; great way to learn about risk management from a cybersecurity perspective. This course explores a variety of structured, risk management approaches that inform & help with cybersecurity & business risk decision-making situations.
You’ll learn about:
- Removing FUD & using business risks to articulate cybersecurity risks
- Developing and maintaining risk assessments (RA) and risk management plans (RM)
- Regulatory and legal compliance issues
- Creating a control framework to mitigate risks
- Risk transfer
- Business continuity and disaster recovery planning
The University of Washington offers a variety of on-line courses.
Assessment
Unspecified.
Materials
Unspecified.
Prerequisites
Unspecified.
Cryptography
Provider: University of Maryland
Instructor: Jonathan Katz, Director, Maryland Cybersecurity Center, University of Maryland, College Park
Duration: 7 weeks
Workload: 3-5 hours per week
Register: www.coursera.org/course/cryptography
Topics Covered
This is the 3rd course in the University of Maryland’s Cybersecurity Specialization. It covers foundations and practical applications of modern cryptography. Ideas about defining security, hardness assumptions and the possibility of proving security of complicated constructions based on low-level primitives will all be explored.
Topics include:
- Principles of modern cryptography
- Classical encryption schemes
- Private-key encryption
- Message authentication
- Hash functions
- The public-key “revolution”
- Public-key encryption
- Digital signatures
By the end of the course, you’ll have a firm grasp of cryptographic primitives in wide use today and a knowledge of how to combine these in order to develop modern protocols for secure communication.
Assessment
Unspecified.
Materials
Unspecified.
Prerequisites
Intended for students majoring in either computer science or mathematics. Prior experience covering discrete mathematics and basic probability (e.g. a course) is expected. Prior exposure to algorithms will be helpful but is not necessary. Familiarity with programming in a C-like language and mathematical maturity.
Cryptography I
Provider: Stanford University
Instructor: Dan Boneh, Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University
Duration: 6 weeks
Workload: 5-7 hours per week
Register: www.coursera.org/course/crypto
Topics Covered
This is the first of two cryptography MOOCs offered by Stanford University. In Cryptography I, you’ll learn how to:
- Analyze the inner workings of cryptographic primitives and discover the correct ways to use them
- Reason about the security of cryptographic constructions and apply your knowledge to real-world applications
The course is split into two halves. During the first half, you’ll examine deployed protocols and analyze mistakes in existing systems.
In the second half, you’ll discuss public-key techniques that allow two or more parties to thwart eavesdroppers with a shared secret key. You’ll cover relevant number theory, public-key encryption and basic key-exchange.
Assessment
Quizzes, written homework and programming labs.
Materials
Unspecified.
Prerequisites
Some programming background is helpful. However, the instructor will distribute lots of starter code and point you to relevant online resources. Some knowledge of discrete probability is also useful.
Cryptography II
Provider: Stanford University
Instructor: Dan Boneh, Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University
Duration: 6 weeks
Workload: 6-8 hours per week
Register: www.coursera.org/course/crypto2
Topics Covered
In a sequel to Cryptography I, Cryptography II digs deeper into the workings of public-key systems and cryptographic protocols. The weekly workload is a little heavier and the topics more challenging.
You’ll explore:
- Constructions for digital signatures and their applications
- Protocols for user authentication and zero-knowledge protocols
- Privacy applications supporting anonymous credentials and private database look-up
The course finishes with an exploration of advanced topics such a multi-party computation and elliptic curve cryptography.
Assessment
Quizzes, written homework, programming labs and a mandatory final exam.
Materials
Unspecified.
Prerequisites
Firm knowledge of the topics covered in Cryptography I and a basic understanding of discrete probability theory.
CyberSecurity And It’s Ten Domains
Provider: Kennesaw State University
Instructor: TBD
Duration: TBD
Workload: TBD
Register: mooc.kennesaw.edu/courses/cybersecurity.php
Topics Covered
This course is designed to introduce students, working professionals and the community to the exciting field of cybersecurity. Throughout the MOOC, participants will engage in community discourse and online interaction. Participants will gain knowledge and understanding of cybersecurity and its domains. They will engage with expertly produced videos, gain insight from industry experts, participate in knowledge assessments, practice assessing their environmental awareness, and gain access to materials that address governance and risk management, compliance, business continuity and disaster recovery, cryptography, software development security, access control, network security, security architecture, security operations, and physical and environmental security. Learning will be assessed using strategies aligned to knowledge and understanding.
This course is eligible to be evaluated for Kennesaw State University course credit.
You’ll engage with industry experts, practice evaluating your environmental awareness and participate in knowledge assessments.
Assessment
TBD
Materials
TBD
Prerequisites
TBD