La Trobe to offer postgrad cybersecurity degree

Melbourne's La Trobe University has launched an industry-led postgraduate Master of Cybersecurity degree to meet rising demand for infosec experts in Australia and overseas.

The university said it has partnered with Optus, HP Enterprise, Australia Post, Atlassian, Cisco, and Cloudera as well the Department of Defence and the Victorian government's cyber security centre for the infosec course.

Industry experts would teach the new course using real-life case studies, La Trobe University's School of Engineering mathematical sciences professor Wenny Rahayu aid.

Three streams are available for the Master of Cybersecurity. The computer science stream focuses on advanced skills in cryptography; network security, and digital forensics.

A business operations stream teaches students how to use analytics and management processes so as to be a bridge between technical and managerial aspects of cybercrime prevention.

And a law stream aims to provide knowledge of legal and ethical contexts for professionals with an interest in governance of the digital space.

The university expects its cyber masters graduates to be well positioned for roles like security architects and analysts, compliance assurance managers, and risk management specialists, among others.

The course will start next year from semester one in February. It takes two years to complete.

Applicants for the Master of Cybersecurity course must hold at least an Australian bachelor degree or approved international equivalent, although the university said prior learning through relevant work experience or professional accreditation could be considered for the entry requirements.

Annual tuition fees for the course are set at $27,500 for 2017 (120 points) with international students to be charged $32,000 per year.

La Trobe will run the course at its City Campus on Collins Street, Melbourne.

Late last year the University of NSW teamed up with the Commonwealth Bank to create a new Bachelor of Computer Science (Security Engineering) in a similar attempt to bridge the gap between demand and supply of IT security professionals.