Managing Risk in IT and Cyber Security, MSc. (Summer University) (Spring 2025)

Abstract

This course provides an introduction to Information Security Risk Management. The course enables students to lead risk assessments, and reflect on the applicability of different techniques for risk assessment and management.

Description

More and more businesses are relying heavily on Information and Communication Technology and services to operate and innovate. With reliance comes risk. In recent years, major organizations have been brought to a standstill due to failure of critical ICT systems, due to error or malicious interference. It is the job of information security- and IT-risk specialists to identify, analyze, evaluate and communicate these risks across the organization, ensuring that the business can take informed decisions on their risk exposure and opportunities.

This course provides an introduction to the components of effective Information Security Risk Management, covering the organization of IT risk management and cybersecurity efforts as well as the identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment of Information Security risks. Through dialogue and exercises, the course encourages reflection on current and future challenges of Information Security risk management.

At the end of the course, students will be able to conduct Information Security Risk Assessments in various settings, and evaluate from a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques the pros and cons of using them to understand risk.

Formal prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites for this course. A basic understanding of IT-enabled business processes and some IT literacy is recommended.

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

• Describe the basic elements of data governance and cybersecurity for risk mitigation based on organizational (culture and processes), people and technical facets and measures.
• Conduct a systematic identification, analysis and evaluation of Information Risk scenarios and exposures for IT Security Assurance in Global Organizations.
• Analyze through qualitative and quantitative methods threats and vulnerabilities across local- and cloud-based IT-systems as well as potential impacts from threats materializing.
• Communicate IT-security, User privacy and Data Governance risks and solutions to organizational stakeholders.
• Evaluate bias and suitability of different risk analysis and -communication techniques.
• Reflect on, evaluate, and propose actions to address future challenges and opportunities for the field of Information Security Risk Management.

Ordinary exam