The CCNA subject covers networking fundamentals, IP services, security fundamentals, automation and programmability. Designed for agility and versatility, CCNA validates that you have the skills required to manage and optimize today’s most advanced networks. CCNA skills give you the foundation to take your career in any direction.

On completion of this subject students should have a practical working knowledge of:

• Internetworking
• Ethernet Networking and Data Encapsulation
• Introduction to TCP/IP
• Subnetting
• Cisco’s Internetworking Operating System (IOS)
• Managing a Cisco Internetwork
• IP Routing and routing protocols
• Layer 2 Switching and Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
• Virtual LANs (VLANs)
• Security
• Network Address Translation (NAT)
• IP Services
• Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
• Wide Area Networks

The subject covers the hands-on operation and administration of stateful firewalls with a focus on perimeter firewalls. Students should learn how to design and configure firewall security policies and create DMZ’s. Students will explore and implement a layered defence strategy. The subject involves extensive lab work with enterprise grade firewalls.  Topics include:

• Security Zones
• Security Policies
• Firewall User Authentication
• Network Address Translation
• IPsec VPNs
• Introduction to Intrusion Detection and Prevention
• High Availability Clustering
• The threat environment
• Attack Vectors and Countermeasures

This subject provides foundational level knowledge on security, compliance, and identity concepts and related cloud-based Microsoft solutions. The fundamentals of security, compliance, and identity (SCI) across cloud-based and related Microsoft services are discussed and explored. On successful completion students should be able to:

• Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and Identity
• Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), part of Microsoft Entra
• Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions
• Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions

Azure Security Technologies covers implementing, managing, and monitoring cyber security in the Azure environment.

The subject examines security for resources in Azure, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.  Students will implement recommended security components and configurations to protect identity & access, data, applications, and networks. Students will gain practical skills in administration of Microsoft Azure and hybrid environments, including compute, network, and storage in Azure, as well as Azure AD.

On completion students should be capable of managing security posture, identifying and remediating vulnerabilities, performing threat modelling, and implementing threat protection. They may also participate in responding to security incidents, and work with architects, administrators, and developers to plan and implement solutions that meet security and compliance requirements.

Students should learn how security operations analysts secure information technology systems for organizations by reducing organizational risk, rapidly remediating active attacks, advising on improvements to threat protection practices, and referring violations to appropriate stakeholders.

The subject covers threat management, monitoring, and response using a variety of security solutions across the organizational environment. The content covers investigating, responding to, and hunting for threats using Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft 365 Defender, and third-party security products, including the configuration and deployment of these technologies. On successful completion students should be able to:

• Mitigate threats using Microsoft 365 Defender
• Mitigate threats using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Mitigate threats using Microsoft Sentinel

The subject covers gathering the client’s business and security requirements, selecting appropriate security capabilities, and translating the requirements into architectural specifications that minimize risk, meet compliance and privacy requirements, adhere to best practices, and ensure appropriate levels of confidentiality, integrity, availability, and safety for critical business assets. The focus is on ensuring successful deployments and the ongoing technical viability of solutions through assessments and reviews of the security posture.
On successful completion students should be able to:

• Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities
• Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities
• Design security solutions for infrastructure
• Design security solutions for applications and data
• Use AI to optimize Security Operations Centres (SOC)
• Augment and automate SOC workflows
• Identify AI threats to Cyber Security