Applied Cybersecurity (Cert.) (30 credits)
Offered by: Technology & Innovation
Program credit weight: 30
Program Description
This online program focuses on the foundational skills and competencies necessary for cybersecurity personnel. The program includes both theoretical and practical experiences in IT networking and secure network infrastructures designed to anticipate and project against cyber threats, fraud, data breaches and other vulnerabilities.
Please click here for information on additional requirements for students pursuing this online program:
https://www.mcgill.ca/study/2024-2025/university_regulations_and_resources/undergraduate/gi_online_distance_programs
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (30 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CCCS 300 | Programming Techniques 1. | 3 |
Programming Techniques 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Fundamental programming techniques, concepts, and data structures, including modularization and maintainability. Emphasis on facilitating communication and understanding between systems analysts and programmers to support decision-making. | ||
| CCCS 321 | Operating Systems Administration. | 3 |
Operating Systems Administration. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Operating systems such as Windows and LINUX/UNIX environments, administration of computer servers, usage of script languages in various operating systems, back up procedures and remote access, communication protocol used among different systems, managing information and system security. | ||
| CCCS 431 | Networking Fundamentals. | 3 |
Networking Fundamentals. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Fundamental concepts and practices of network principles, technical and managerial aspects of data communications, overview of local area and wide-area networks, network topology, network protocols, Internet/intranets, client/server communication, and file sharing. | ||
| CCCS 450 | Access Control and Defence Methods. | 3 |
Access Control and Defence Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Covers different authentication methods, identifies management, access controls implementation, attackers’ tactics and strategies, anomalous traffic detection, various types of hacking tools and prevention systems against attacks. | ||
| CCCS 451 | Communication and Network Security. | 3 |
Communication and Network Security. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Introduction to modern wireless communication and networking technology, including different approaches to secure the wireless networks, with necessary tools to adapt to the revolutionary change in mobile communications and networking. | ||
| CCCS 452 | Security Program Architecture and Engineering. | 3 |
Security Program Architecture and Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Information security concepts of security models, engineering processes using secure design principles, assessing and mitigating vulnerabilities in systems, designing and implementing physical security. | ||
| CCCS 453 | Security Risk Management and Governance. | 3 |
Security Risk Management and Governance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Ethical, legal and regulatory issues surrounding cyber security so as to design networks and policies for security and compliance, including cyber security risks, threats, opportunities and vulnerabilities at the strategic and operational levels. | ||
| CCCS 454 | Security Incident Response and Recovery. | 3 |
Security Incident Response and Recovery. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The incident lifecycle, incident management plans, business continuity plans, disaster recovery plans that are in place to identify, analyze and respond to attacks and threats. | ||
| CCCS 455 | Intrusion Testing and Security Assessment. | 3 |
Intrusion Testing and Security Assessment. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The fundamentals and tool set needed to discover and exploit system vulnerabilities, penetrate organization infrastructure; tools and hacking techniques used in cyber-attacks, and planning intrusion tests. | ||
| CMIS 422 | Information System Security. | 3 |
Information System Security. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Fundamental concepts relating to the design of secure information systems. Identification and assessment of security risks at the application, network, and physical levels. Use of cryptography and other techniques to provide necessary level of security. | ||