• Queen's University Belfast

Network Security for Industry Professionals

Explore different methods to defend, deter and detect attacks on your business’s systems, with this free network security course.

2,521 enrolled on this course

World map showing network diagram and padlocks
  • Duration

    3 weeks
  • Weekly study

    2 hours

Network security is of growing concern for businesses, with daily attacks occurring on internal systems. Increasingly, staff need to be more aware of network security issues, and how to protect themselves and their businesses from attack.

Understand network security attacks and protect your systems

This short, free online course will help professionals understand the first steps of network security techniques. We will focus on software vulnerabilities that can be used to attack a system, before exploring potential defence strategies to either deter or mitigate such attacks.

Over three weeks, you will:

  • identify different types of network security attack;
  • analyse how businesses and individuals can identify an attack on their networks;
  • compare different defend, deter and detect methods for protecting systems; and explore the tools used to detect attacks.
  • Learn with network security experts from CSIT Belfast

Network Security for Businesses and Professionals has been developed by The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast.

CSIT has an international reputation for its research, consultancy and continuing professional development (CPD) courses in the field of network security.

CSIT has an international reputation for its research, consultancy and continuing professional development (CPD) courses in the field of network security.

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What topics will you cover?

  • Architectural view of networks
  • Packets, ports and protocols
  • Well known threats and attacks
  • Denial of Service
  • Network scanning
  • Getting Started with Wireshark
  • Using Wireshark

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Investigate network attacks and defense
  • Explore how computers communicate with each other
  • Use systems to detect threats

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for professionals who are working online within any business. If you are an individual, you can take it to boost your own network security skills. If you are a business, you can offer it to all of your staff, to increase their awareness of network security issues.

Who will you learn with?

Dr Kieran McLaughlin is a Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), and is Director of the MSc Applied Cyber Security at QUB.

Who developed the course?

Queen's University Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast is a member of the Russell Group of 24 leading UK research-intensive universities.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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