Course Grade Received: A
Introduction to Cybersecurity
This course provided a comprehensive overview of cybersecurity principles, including threat landscapes, risk management strategies, and defensive security frameworks. Students analyzed vulnerabilities, explored cryptographic foundations, and developed an understanding of how security is implemented across systems and networks.
🔍 Applied Knowledge & Analysis
- Analyzed real-world cyber threats and mapped them to security controls
- Evaluated vulnerabilities using risk-based thinking (likelihood vs impact)
- Applied the CIA triad to system design and decision-making
- Interpreted basic cryptographic concepts and their real-world use cases
- Explored governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) principles
🔐 Core Frameworks & Principles
- CIA Triad
- Risk Management Framework (RMF basics)
- Defense-in-Depth
- Least Privilege
- Threat Modeling Basics
🧠 Security Mindset Development
This course helped transition my thinking from general IT knowledge to a security-focused mindset, where systems are evaluated not just for functionality, but for resilience against threats, misuse, and adversarial behavior.
🔗 Independent Exploration
To reinforce foundational concepts from CYSE 300, I am revisiting core cybersecurity topics through independent lab work and research, including:
- Building a basic threat model for a web application
- Mapping vulnerabilities to mitigation strategies
- Practicing risk assessment using real-world scenarios
- Reviewing cryptographic implementations in modern systems
Course Topics & Lab Coverage
- Prioritized information assets and assessed associated risks
- Identified and evaluated threats using structured risk analysis
- Developed foundational security strategies and architectures
- Planned and responded to simulated intrusion scenarios
- Analyzed legal and public relations implications of security incidents
- Designed a disaster recovery and business continuity approach
The cybersecurity laboratories include the following:
- Conducted reconnaissance and probing using industry-standard tools
- Performed vulnerability assessments and risk evaluations
- Configured Active Directory and implemented access controls
- Applied Group Policy and security baselines for system hardening
- Analyzed network traffic using packet capture tools
- Implemented encryption to protect confidentiality and integrity
- Simulated web and database attacks to understand exploitation techniques
- Applied layered security strategies to mitigate threats
Key Skills & Topics
- Risk management & threat modeling
- Cryptography fundamentals
- Security architecture & design
- Vulnerability analysis
- CIA triad & security controls
- Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC)
- Incident response basics