General Faculty Policy on assessment submission deadlines and late submissions: 

To pass this unit you must achieve a total mark of at least 50%.

Online quizzes, in-class activities, or scheduled tests and exam must be undertaken at the time indicated in the unit guide. Should these activities be missed due to illness or misadventure, students may apply for Special Consideration.

All other assessments must be submitted by 2355 on their due date.

Should these assessments be missed due to illness or misadventure, students should apply for Special Consideration at connect.mq.edu.au

Assessments not submitted by the due date will receive a mark of zero unless late submissions are specifically allowed as indicated in the unit guide or on iLearn.

Late assessments are not accepted in this unit unless a Special Consideration has been submitted and approved.

Quiz 1

Assessment Type ¹: Quiz/Test Indicative Time on Task ²: 2 hours Due: Week 4 Weighting: 5%

This quiz will be based on your previously covered lecture material for weeks 1-3. The quiz questions will be online multiple choice. Quiz will serve as a feedback mechanism to monitor your progress in the unit and there will be a discussion on the solutions when all students have completed the quiz. The allowed time for completion is intentionally short so that you must answer with your own retained information; your answers must be your own original information and not copied from somewhere else.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Analyse the key security requirements and trends in software security and interconnected systems. Identify key threats and analysis tools to evaluate security deficiencies.

Quiz 2

Assessment Type ¹: Quiz/Test Indicative Time on Task ²: 3 hours Due: Week 9 Weighting: 5%

This quiz will be based on your previously covered lecture material for weeks 4-8. The quiz questions will be short answer and must be undertaken in person in the lecture room and is paper-based. Quiz will serve as a feedback mechanism to monitor your progress in the unit and there will be a discussion on the solutions when all students have completed the quiz. The allowed time for completion is intentionally short so that you must answer with your own retained information; your answers must be your own original information and not copied from somewhere else.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Analyse the key security requirements and trends in software security and interconnected systems. Identify key threats and analysis tools to evaluate security deficiencies.

Group Project

Assessment Type ¹: Project Indicative Time on Task ²: 15 hours Due: Week 10, presented Week 11 & Week 12 Weighting: 30%, Topic selection available from Week 01.

Presentations are held in weeks 11 & 12 but content due by mid semester. Group project with up to 6 students per group. Projects will be related to security and forensics issues with emerging technologies such as smart grid and cloud. Each group will be allocated a time slot for presenting their work during Week 11 OR Week 12. Each student in the group is expected to present their work which will be followed by QA session. The QA session will be conducted by the panel (which includes convener and/or other staff members and/or PhD students within the computing department). The presentation and QA session will help the panel to evaluate the individual contribution of each student. The Project will account to 30% (Report-10%, Presentation-10% and QA-10%) of the unit marks.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Analyse the key security requirements and trends in software security and interconnected systems. Identify key threats and analysis tools to evaluate security deficiencies.
• Analyse techniques for exploiting software and networks. Investigate operating system and file system platforms and identify attack surface.
• Design and/or apply security techniques to mitigate software and network attacks. Identification of tools and recovery mechanisms, including forensic analysis and process.
• Evaluate security techniques used to deal with the attacks and the limitations of forensic tools.
• Present and discuss concepts related to software and network security at an advanced level.

Practical activities report

Assessment Type ¹: Report Indicative Time on Task ²: 10 hours Due: Week 07 (initial review and award of up to 10%) and Week 13 (final review and award of up to 10%) Weighting: 20%, requirements released in Week 01 Lecture and discussed in Week 01 Workshop.

During the unit, there will be practical activities relating to security technologies and forensics.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Analyse techniques for exploiting software and networks. Investigate operating system and file system platforms and identify attack surface.
• Design and/or apply security techniques to mitigate software and network attacks. Identification of tools and recovery mechanisms, including forensic analysis and process.
• Evaluate security techniques used to deal with the attacks and the limitations of forensic tools.

Final Examination

Assessment Type ¹: Examination Indicative Time on Task ²: 20 hours Due: Exam period S1 Weighting: 40% The exam will be a written exam with questions from topics covered in the lectures. It will be held in the usual examination period of the semester.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Analyse the key security requirements and trends in software security and interconnected systems. Identify key threats and analysis tools to evaluate security deficiencies.
• Analyse techniques for exploiting software and networks. Investigate operating system and file system platforms and identify attack surface.
• Design and/or apply security techniques to mitigate software and network attacks. Identification of tools and recovery mechanisms, including forensic analysis and process.
• Present and discuss concepts related to software and network security at an advanced level.

Delivery and Resources

• Lectures and Workshops commence in Week 01.
• Lectures are held weekly and are two-hours long; a video of the lecture is automatically captured and will be available on iLearn/Echo360.  Lecture slides will be published on iLearn after the completion of the lecture.
• Immediately following the lecture, there is a one-hour general consultation period where discussions and questions will be covered in an informal setting, such as an open lounge area near the lecture theatre or in a small Active Learning area.
• All reading and viewing material for both background and to support learning outcomes is provided on iLearn and external information is listed in the lecture material.
• Practical activities are designed to be undertaken off-campus at a time and location suitable to the indivudual student.
• Students must use their own computer equipment to undertake the practical activities, a PC or Mac or Linux system is required as the practical activities cannot be undertaken on a phone or tablet.
• Students MUST purchase and use a specific type of workbook that will be described in Week 1; ONLY an appropriate workbook will satisfy the requirements of the Week 13 workbook deliverable.

Unit Schedule

We continually update and modify course content based on recent developments in Security Technolocies and Forensic processes, and also from feedback from students in previous course iterations.