CISC878 Cybersecurity, Data Analytics and Policing: Fall 2022

Course content

Cybersecurity is usually understood to be about network and information security, but if we unpack it as "security in cyberspace" then it's clear that it has a much wider application.

In this course, we will be considering the impact of cyberspace on criminals and law enforcement (not just police, but also intelligence, customs, and financial regulators). The existence of cyberspace has enabled brand new crimes and has changed the way in which many conventional crimes are done. This has been a challenge to law enforcement. However, one side-effect of cyberspace is that it make data collection easier, and so law enforcement have been able to leverage data analytics to fight back.

For both criminals and law enforcement, cyberspace has been an enabler of communication. This works in different ways for the two sides: criminals can communicate easily and covertly, while law enforcement are often siloed.

Classes

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Analyse the role of cyberspace in enabling criminality;
• Model crimes from data and find usable opportunities for law enforcement to impact fighting crime;

This course is an application token for the PhD.

Course material

The material will be available through OnQ. Register early to make sure that you can start at the beginning of term.

Assessment

Assessment will be based on:

• Participation in discussions of course material;
• 10-minute presentations on specific topics;
• A data analytic project using a crime-related dataset;
• An essay on a topic relevant to the course.