Have you ever wondered how companies and businesses protect themselves against cyber threats? In this course, students will be given an introduction to ethical hacking with a particular focus on understanding the tools available to ethical hackers through Linux platforms such as Kali. Students will develop an understanding of modern techniques that can be employed to evaluate the security of implemented systems, such as networks, servers and end user devices. Based on this understanding, students will also start to develop the skills required to defend against network based threats. Students will apply the skills they learn in this course to ethical hacking challenges in fields such as forensics, cryptography, stenography, incident response and exploiting known vulnerabilities. Students will be given numerous opportunities to work collaboratively as they develop their team building and communication skills by working together to solve problems and create solutions.

Having attempted and learnt from these challenges, students will be invited to participate in external Capture the Flag (CTF) events. CTF events allow ethical hackers to go head to head in a competitive environment to capture as many flags as possible, by ethically hacking their way through systems that have been set up for the challenge. Additionally, students will be provided with access to platforms such as TryHackMe and Hack The Box to further enhance the knowledge they have developed in class. Ethical hacking is an emerging field which favours the practical application of skills to penetrate secure systems in order to demonstrate vulnerability so that steps can be taken to mitigate risk.