MSc in Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is an essential need for a modern society in which information technology and services pervade every aspect of our lives. Cybersecurity has the fastest growth rate among all areas of IT, with the labour market encountering a severe workforce shortage in this field.

The aim of this programme is to provide learners with essential expert technical knowledge, competence and research skills of the most important technical concepts of cybersecurity and how they are applied in emerging areas such as device security and forensics

The course is technical and practical in nature, uniquely embedded in industry, and develops in-depth expertise of core technical topics within the area of cybersecurity such as information security, secure programming, network security, penetration testing, malware analysis, IT law and ethics, and technologies and tools that support application and service vulnerability detection, incident detection, data and log retrieval and analysis. The course also provides a sharper focus into forensics and cloud security through the two specialisations that are offered to the learners.

An honours (level 8) primary degree in computing or a cognate area with a 2.2 award or higher. Cognate area means a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree that also taught programming/application development related modules. Candidates are expected to have programming ability. An assessment and/or interview may be conducted to ascertain suitability if necessary for candidates who do not meet the normal academic requirements.

You need to complete credit hours to successfully obtain this degree. Please check detail of study units at https://www.ncirl.ie/Courses/NCI-Course-Details/course/MSCCYB

This course is ideal for ICT professionals or graduates with an honours degree in computing/computer science or in a cognate area (STEM) that wish to develop a career as a cybersecurity professional; to take a leading technical or managerial role; to progress faster in their employment or to apply the knowledge in their current role. 

Candidates who do not hold a computing degree and are currently working in the IT sector may be considered based on relevant academic qualifications or extensive work experience. 

As a graduate of this course you will be able to:

• Conduct independent research and analysis in the cybersecurity domain including secure application design, development and testing within a given context e.g. web, cloud computing, and forensic investigation
• Demonstrate practical skills and expert knowledge of technologies and tools that support cryptanalysis, application and service vulnerability detection and patching, security incidents detection and log file analysis
• Critically evaluate the design and implementation and evaluation of a research idea
• Analyse and evaluate the legal, ethical and economic ramifications of developing secure applications and services
• Communicate effectively to a range of audiences in both written and verbal media and undertake self-learning in order to acquire new knowledge

You can join one of the following careers:

• Cyber Security Analyst
• Cyber Security Consultant
• Security Risk Manager