As a society, we are now almost always connected to the internet and rely on it for many different day-to-day activities. However, this dependency on the internet can make us vulnerable to attacks.

Once a connected device is compromised, it is not only that particular device that is affected – it can also be used as a springboard to attack other devices in the same network and in others.

In this connected world, it is also inevitable that personal information is stored in large-scale government and commercial databases. Unfortunately, breaches of these large-scale databases happen fairly frequently and, when they do, personal information can be leaked which will make you, and millions of others affected, vulnerable to scams and other identity crimes.

This course analyses several cyber security incidents and looks at what lessons can be learned.

Learning from major cyber security incidents

Introduction

Many computing devices can be connected to the internet almost anywhere and at any time. As a result protecting against attacks and preventing the leak of private and confidential information has become ever more important.

On top of this, the reasons behind attacks are becoming more diverse – ranging from financial gains and retaliations through to influencing political campaigns and disabling infrastructure. Anyone can be a victim of cyber-attacks.

In this course, you’ll look at cyber security from the perspective of a computer user. Through a set of case studies you’ll analyse various types of attack, look at what lessons can be learnt from major incidents and consider what security measures you should apply to protect yourself. To help you to follow the case studies, the same framework has been adopted to analyse and explain each attack. Each case study will answer the questions:

1. What was the attack?
2. How did it work?
3. Who were the attackers?
4. What lessons can be learnt?