Overview
This unit introduces you to the processes and controls for protecting organisations from cyber security threats. You will learn about management controls such as security governance and policy, risk management, and auditing, as well as processes involving employees and end users that contribute to the protection of an organisation's assets. With recent attacks as case studies, this unit will prepare you to select a range of non-technical measures to minimise future cyber security threats.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisite: COIT11238 Network Infrastructure Foundations and COIT11223 Information Technology and Society
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2025
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student Evaluations
Some inconsistencies across the unit content, assessments, and their associated deadlines.
Review unit content, assessments and submission deadlines to ensure clarity and consistency.
- Discuss the best practice principles, processes and standards in cyber security
- Compare the role of management, operational and technical controls in delivering cyber security
- Conduct an organisational cyber security risk analysis
- Prepare plans for auditing security controls and recovering from security attacks
- Explain techniques for managing people to ensure secure IT systems.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 7 (the SFIA code is included):
- Information Security (SCTY)
- Information Assurance (INAS)
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | |||||
| 2 - Portfolio - 40% | |||||
| 3 - Presentation - 20% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | |||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | |||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | |||||
| 5 - Team Work | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | |||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||||
| 10 - First Nations Knowledges | |||||
| 11 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | |||||||||||
| 2 - Portfolio - 40% | |||||||||||
| 3 - Presentation - 20% | |||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
a.anwaarulhaq@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 14 Jul 2025Module/Topic
Introduction to Cybersecurity Management
Chapter
Online resources supplied
Events and Submissions/Topic
IClass introduction
Week 2
Begin Date: 21 Jul 2025Module/Topic
Cybersecurity Roles and Responsibilities
Chapter
Chapter 2
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 3
Begin Date: 28 Jul 2025Module/Topic
Management of Cybersecurity Risk
Chapter
Chapter 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Weekly Portfolio
Week 4
Begin Date: 04 Aug 2025Module/Topic
NIST Cybersecurity Framework
Chapter
Online resources supplied
Events and Submissions/Topic
Weekly Portfolio
Week 5
Begin Date: 11 Aug 2025Module/Topic
Cybersecurity Policy
Chapter
Chapter 4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 18 Aug 2025Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 25 Aug 2025Module/Topic
Cybersecurity risk Mitigation and
Treatment
Chapter
Chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 7
Begin Date: 01 Sep 2025Module/Topic
In-class Presentation
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 8
Begin Date: 08 Sep 2025Module/Topic
Cybersecurity Contingency Planning
Chapter
Chapter 10
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 9
Begin Date: 15 Sep 2025Module/Topic
Managing Cybersecurity in Cloud
Computing
Chapter
Online resources supplied
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 10
Begin Date: 22 Sep 2025Module/Topic
Cybersecurity Technical Measures
Chapter
Online resources supplied
Events and Submissions/Topic
Weekly Portfolio
Week 11
Begin Date: 29 Sep 2025Module/Topic
SME Cybersecurity Guidelines
Chapter
Online resources supplied
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 12
Begin Date: 06 Oct 2025Module/Topic
Ethical Challenges for
Cybersecurity
Chapter
Online resources supplied
Events and Submissions/Topic
Exam Week
Begin Date: 20 Oct 2025Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
For any term-specific information, please contact your unit coordinator email.
Unit Coordinator: Dr Anwaar Ulhaq, Senior Lecturer (ICT)
E-mail: a.anwaarulhaq@cqu.edu.au
Textbook:
Management of Information Security
Edition: 6th ed. (2018)
Authors: Whitman, M
Cengage Learning
Florence, KY, USA
ISBN: 9781337405713
Binding: Paperback
1 Written Assessment
This is an individual assessment. During your weekly workshops, you will conduct Cybersecurity management activities for given case studies, such as developing policies and preparing plans. You must maintain your responses from the workshop activities in an online portfolio. This assessment has two submission parts to be submitted separately.
Part 1 is due in Week 5.
Part 2 is due in Week 9
AI COLLABORATION You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use. Al may be used to help complete the task, including idea generation, drafting, feedback, and refinement. You should critically evaluate and modify the Al-suggested outputs, demonstrating your achievement of Learning Outcomes. You may use AI tools to rewrite/edit to clarify or refine your ideas or edit text captured with automatic speech recognition (e.g., verbally recorded drafts). In a multimodal context (for example, presentation video or slides), AI-assisted editing tools could be used alongside documentation of the process. If AI is used to edit/refine your final submission, you must acknowledge the use of AI tools, and the original work must be provided for comparison. While you can use AI to improve the clarity or quality of the work, no new content can be created using AI unless specifically allowed in the assessment.
Part1 Is due in Week5 and Part 2 is due in Week9.
Within 2 weeks of submission
All marked workshop exercises will contribute equally to the final 40% mark. The marking for each individual workshop exercise will be based on: class discussion, relevance, clarity/effort and frequency. Details of the marking criteria will be available on the Moodle unit website.
- Discuss the best practice principles, processes and standards in cyber security
- Compare the role of management, operational and technical controls in delivering cyber security
- Conduct an organisational cyber security risk analysis
- Prepare plans for auditing security controls and recovering from security attacks
- Explain techniques for managing people to ensure secure IT systems.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
2 Portfolio
This assessment can be undertaken in a group with 3 to 4 students.
In this assessment, you are to prepare an Issue Specific Security Policy (ISSP) for a given case study. Your group will be allocated 15 minutes in class to present the ISSP. Distance students will have the option to submit a recording of the presentation in lieu of doing it live in class. Other students may discuss taking this option with the unit coordinator. Details of the marking criteria will be available on the Moodle unit website.
AI COLLABORATION You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use. Al may be used to help complete the task, including idea generation, drafting, feedback, and refinement. You should critically evaluate and modify the Al-suggested outputs, demonstrating your achievement of Learning Outcomes. You may use AI tools to rewrite/edit to clarify or refine your ideas or edit text captured with automatic speech recognition (e.g., verbally recorded drafts). In a multimodal context (for example, presentation video or slides), AI-assisted editing tools could be used alongside documentation of the process. If AI is used to edit/refine your final submission, you must acknowledge the use of AI tools, and the original work must be provided for comparison. While you can use AI to improve the clarity or quality of the work, no new content can be created using AI unless specifically allowed in the assessment.
Week 7 Friday (5 Sept 2025) 12:00 am AEST
Week 9 Friday (19 Sept 2025)
In this assessment, you will be judged on your ability to explain the Cybersecurity risks your group have identified and your abilities to develop an ISSP.
You will be marked based on both the quality and accuracy of the ISSP you present, as well as your ability to present the ISSP in a clear and professional manner.
- Discuss the best practice principles, processes and standards in cyber security
- Compare the role of management, operational and technical controls in delivering cyber security
- Conduct an organisational cyber security risk analysis
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
3 Presentation
This assessment can be undertaken in a group of 3 to 4 students.
You will conduct a comprehensive cybersecurity risk management analysis for a given case study. You are free to either use the risk management framework discussed in the book or the NIST cybersecurity framework. The output will be a written report.
AI COLLABORATION You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use. Al may be used to help complete the task, including idea generation, drafting, feedback, and refinement. You should critically evaluate and modify the Al-suggested outputs, demonstrating your achievement of Learning Outcomes. You may use AI tools to rewrite/edit to clarify or refine your ideas or edit text captured with automatic speech recognition (e.g., verbally recorded drafts). In a multimodal context (for example, presentation video or slides), AI-assisted editing tools could be used alongside documentation of the process. If AI is used to edit/refine your final submission, you must acknowledge the use of AI tools, and the original work must be provided for comparison. While you can use AI to improve the clarity or quality of the work, no new content can be created using AI unless specifically allowed in the assessment.
Week 11 Friday (3 Oct 2025) 12:00 am AEST
Submit via Moodle
Results and feedback will be returned through Moodle on the Certification of Grades Day
Submissions are assessed on your ability to analyse the given scenario and develop a comprehensive cybersecurity risk management report.
The marking criteria include conducting a comprehensive risk analysis, writing a risk mitigation plan and a business continuity plan.
Please refer to the unit websiteSubmissions are for more specific marking criteria.
- Prepare plans for auditing security controls and recovering from security attacks
- Explain techniques for managing people to ensure secure IT systems.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
