Skip to main content

The standard programme consists of the courses marked with *** and **.

Cultural & Socio-economic Introduction to Belgium (marked with ***) is mandatory. The other courses, marked with **, can only be replaced by elective courses from the Bachelor in Cyber Security or Bachelor in Applied Computer Science - major Cyber Security, with approval after a screening of the desired prerequisites. In case of doubt, an online interview will be organised.

In our experience, the elective courses are quite difficult for some exchange students, and we want to make sure you have the required prior knowledge. Mind that you are responsible for selecting the right courses at your level. No intake interview is needed if you apply for the standard programme.

Find the course unit descriptions for this programme (course catalogue)

Courses

Cultural & socio-economic introduction to Belgium (3ECTS) ***

You will learn about Belgian and Flemish culture (history, architecture, literature, music, ...), political structure and socio-economic data, all in comparison to the socioeconomic data of your home country. This course includes a survival course Dutch, a cultural and historical walk through Bruges, and if possible, also a visit to the Parlamentarium and the European Parliament in Brussels and an additional visit specifically linked to the English-taught semester you follow.

  • History of Flanders & Belgium
  • Political system in Belgium & Europe
  • Belgian Economy
  • Health & Wellfare system in Belgium
  • Crash course Dutch

Computer Architectures & Operating Systems (6ECTS) **

This course is all about the hardware of the computer, the operating system on the computer and working with IT software from a point of view of a poweruser to execute different kind of tasks. The power user has administrator or root privileges on the OS and has only that pc.

  • Hardware:
    • Introduction to number systems, computer parts, bios, troubleshooting, ...
    • Different types of computers
    • Electronic components and logic functions in a circuit
  • OS:
    • Introduction to operating systems and virtualisation
    • Basic administration- and automatisation tasks in Windows & Linux
    • Use the systemtasks in the CLI & GUI

Programming Fundamentals (6ECTS) **

  • Control structures: sequencing, selection and iteration
  • Variables and data types
  • Algorithms and data structures: 1 and 2 dimensional lists
  • Functions: arguments, parameters and return values, complexity
  • Software Design: decomposition, divide and conquer
  • Algorithms and data structures: binary and linear search in a list
  • Testing: make use of unit testing
  • Basic version control

Web Frontend (6ECTS) **

Creating web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript

PART 1: HTML & CSS

  • Developing websites with semantic and valid HTML5
  • A plethora of tags, such as the semantic containers, lists, navigation elements, forms, tables and many others are taught in order to translate text to a logical HTML structure.
  • Modern CSS techniques that will effortlessly translate into responsible design, most notably by deep knowledge of box model. All CSS properties required to design and develop a contemporary web application
  • Leveraging CSS selectors (novice, intermediate and advanced) for efficient coding
  • Flex

Integrating automated tools to validate the end result and emphasising code quality

PART 2: JavaScript

Scripting for web applications following the latest ECMA script standards

Application of:

  • variables and scope
  • if, switch, while, for
  • Functions And Arrays
  • Objects and JSON
  • DOM selection
  • Event handling ( binding, this )
  • Higher order functions
  • Handling user input
  • Local / session storage
  • Arrow functions
  • Timers and intervals
  • in practice, simulated in real world cases.

GENERAL (applies to all course components):

  • Code is developed with cross browser & cross device equivalent behaviour in mind.
  • Code quality is a large part of the course. Several best practices as well as "Don't"s will be handled by means of examples.
  • Working with git is an integral part of this course, for completing exercises and handing in assignments

Databases Fundamentals (3ECTS) **

  • Introduction: database, database system, relational database system, SQL
  • SQL: read, insert, update and delete data
  • Making a relational data model using normalization
  • SQL: implementation of the relational data model

Cyber Security Essentials (6ECTS)

Cybersecurity Introduction and Overview
Cybersecurity Concepts
Security Architecture Principles
Security of Networks, Systems, Applications and Data
Incident Response
Security Implications and Adoption of Evolving Technology

Operating Systems Concepts (3ECTS)

  • General Operating Systems Concepts
    • Introduction to different operating systems
    • Process Management & Scheduling
    • Memory management
    • Network Management
    • User management
    • File manager
    • Functionality management (Packages/Features)
    • OS-level Virtualization (with intro Docker)
    • ...
  • Conceptual differences between Unix/Linux & Windows
    • Computer history
    • Examples and implementation of the various general concepts
    • Introduction to the Linux/Unix philosophy
    • Introduction to Windows server (Active Directory) concepts
    • ...

Information Modeling & Exchange (3ECTS)

You create the appropriate documents using the correct methodology for the analysis of a company request or need. Design of an information model for data based on the application and structure of data. Designs of the technical interfaces and communication channels for communication between a technical person an an IT system or between IT systems and components.

Object Oriented Architectures and Secure Development (6ECTS)

  • Object oriented programming: SOLID
  • Secure Development (Oracle's Secure Coding Standards)
  • High-quality development: design patterns and unit testing
  • Software architectures: 3-layered model, multi-layered model, client-server
  • Java-application with GUI
  • Java-application with persistency (file and database)
  • Java-application with sockets communication (network)
  • Capita selecta of advanced topics

Data Analytics (3ECTS)

Statistics

  • Descriptive statistics
  • Probability
  • Probability distributions

Data Mining / Machine Learning

  • Regression
  • Classification
  • Clustering

Web Technology, Security and Honeypot (6ECTS)

  • Working with different types webservers (Apache, NGINX, IIS)
  • Setup of a webserver: request & response model
  • HTTPS
  • Authentication
  • Use of modern server side scripting technologies
  • Security aspects of a webserver
  • Security aspects of a modern web application
  • Advanced web techniques
  • Security OWASP top 10

Datacenter Virtualization (3ECTS)

  • SAN / NAS
  • Windows storage management
  • Server Virtualisation (ESXi)
  • Hyper-V
  • KVM
  • Datacenter Deployment

Windows and Linux Server Security (3ECTS)

  • Linux
    • Different Linux distros and shells
    • Network configuration / firewalling (eg iptables, ...)
    • Authentication (eg NSS, PAM, ... )
    • Other security techniques (eg SELinux, ...)
  • Windows
    • Windows Server
    • Auditing and Logging (eg audit GPOs, ...)
    • Update management (eg WSUS, ...)
    • Security (eg Bitlocker, ...)
    • Mixed Linux/Windows environments (eg Powershell on Linux, Linux in AD, ...)

Network Infrastructure Security (3ECTS)

Knowledge of possible security problems (incl. data privacy) related to an IT solution or system in an organisation will be indetified.

  • actors, stakeholders and external systems that will integrate with the to-be developed IT system.
  • exceptional situations (necessity of a monitoring system) of an IT-solution/system.
  • necessary IT components and solutions in an IT system.

IT component

  • adaptive design
  • installation / configuration

Security Management, Threat and Risk Assesment (3ECTS)

  • Requirements and risk management
    • System model
    • Security objectives
    • Risk assessment
  • Threats: attacker model
    • Attack patterns: CAPEC, MAEC, ...
    • Threat modeling: STRIDE-LM, LINDDUN, DREAD, ...
    • Threat intelligence: Pyramid of pain, Lockheed Martin Kill chain, Diamond, ATT&CK (incl ICS), CAR, CAPEC, CWE, CVE, OWASP, ...
  • Mitigations: Defense model
    • Security controls
    • Security and data protection by design
    • Incident response
  • Compliance and governance
    • Frameworks: ISO 27K, COBIT, COBIT Risk, COBIT Information Security, NIST SP 800.53, NIST CSF, CMMI, CIS, PCI DSS, ...
    • Legal: GDPR, LED, NIS, EIDAS, E-privacy, EU cybersecurity act, PSD2, PNR, ...
    • Security organisation and conclusions
  • Case study
  • Threat identification (information security and data protection)
  • Threat risk assessment
  • Controls

Cryptography and Blockchain (5ECTS)

  • Cryptography algorithms
    • Theory: Galois, prime numbers, Fermat, Euclidean
    • Symmetric block ciphers : Feistel, DES , AES , ...
    • Symmetric ciphers mode of operation: ECB, CBC, CFB, OFB, XTS-AES, GCM, CCM, KW
    • Hashing: SHA2, SHA3, perceptual hashing, ...
    • Random numbers: TRNG, PRNG, ANSI X 9.17
    • Stream ciphers: RC4, others, ...
    • Asymmetric cyphers : RSA , Diffie-Helman , El-Gamal, ECC , ...
    • Data integrity algorithms : Hash functions , MAC , DSA, ECDSA, RSA-PSS, ...
    • Mutual trust : Distribution of keys , X.509, PKI , ...
  • Applying crypto
    • Cryptography protocols
    • Cryptography applications: files, messages, databases, disks, e-id
    • Achieving privacy in a distributed network
    • Use of crypto in bitcoin and blockchain
    • Modern crypto / blockchain / distributed: secret sharing, secure multiparty, post quantum, homomorphic, attribute based / identity based encryption, electronic voting, light-weight crypto, zero-knowledge proof, oblivious RAM, blockchain
    • Differential privacy and other privacy preserving methods: PPDM, PPDP, PPML, federated learning
  • Cryptanalysis
  • Crypto libraries
  • Crypto guidelines
  • Using Python modules to apply these concepts

IT Governance (3ECTS)

Mission, Vision & Strategy
Cobit 2019 : a practical approach
The do's and don't of Frameworks
PMI, Prince2
Agile & Scrum
Design Thinking
ITIL

Emergent Security Techniques (3ECTS)

In this course, we’ll look at a number of innovative and emergent subjects within the security domain:

  • Industrial security
    • Introduction to industrial control systems
    • Introduction to PLC programming
    • Industrial fieldbus protocols
    • Security and auditing techniques for industrial installations
  • Cyber artificial intelligence
    • The history of AI
    • Basic concepts
    • Practical methods
    • Applications in intrusion detection
  • Software Defined Radio
    • Introduction to radio communication
    • Analog data radio communication
    • Digital data radio communication
  • Near-Field Communication (NFC)
    • Introduction to NFC
    • Security risks of NFC

Cybercrime (3ECTS)

The course covers the following topics:

  • General law in Belgium
  • Judicial organisation
  • Police forces in Belgium
  • Criminal law and criminal proceedings
  • International computer crime
  • Relevant legislation
    • Cybercrime law
    • Law of the electronic economy
    • E-privacy Directive
    • KSZ
    • Cybersquatting
  • Typical forms of cybercrime
    • Cyberbullying
    • Child pornography
    • Internet fraud