Security Operations and Incident Resilience

This unit advances foundational cybersecurity concepts into practical defenses, incident response, and resilience strategies. Students will focus on mitigating threats (malware, supply chain, insider risk), securing endpoints and accounts, and implementing, testing, and documenting backup and recovery procedures while addressing privacy and regulatory obligations.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze common threat vectors (malware, supply chain compromise, insider actions, social engineering, and mobile/physical vulnerabilities) and prioritize mitigations based on assessed likelihood and impact
• Apply authentication, privacy, and device-security best practices (including zero trust concepts, secure mobile configuration, travel routers, Tor use, and detection of fake social connections) to reduce exposure in simulated scenarios
• Demonstrate implementation and validation of backup and recovery strategies (full and incremental backups, app-level restores, cryptocurrency and third-party recovery, and recovery drills) by restoring data and systems to meet defined recovery time and recovery point objectives
• Evaluate regulatory, compliance, and post-breach actions (breach notification, password resets, incident reporting, cyber insurance considerations, and third-party compromise response) and produce an incident response and continuity plan aligned with applicable standards