AUT - Master of Forensic Information Technology
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Master of Forensic Information Technology
The rapid growth of IT has resulted in many organisations and companies being at risk from unauthorised external access to, or malicious internal corruption of, information and other business/financial assets. Forensic IT uses computing techniques to analyse IT systems that have been penetrated and serves as the basis for legal prosecutions and better systems protection in the future.
The Master of Forensic IT covers the critical aspects of forensic information technology: seizing and securing IT equipment used for criminal activity; interpreting and analysing the content of hard disks and other electronic media to build an understanding of the processes underpinning possible criminal activity; gathering evidence from electronic media and other sources of potential criminal activity in a systematic and rigorous way; presenting such evidence in a court of law in a way that is intelligible to non-experts; and recreating e-laundering trails to allow for seizure and forfeit of criminal proceeds if required by a court of law.
Quick facts
Programme Code: AK1310
Level: 9
Points: 240
Duration: Two years full time
Venue: City Campus
Start date: 16 July 2012 and 4 March 2013
AUT encourages early application. There are limited places available. Late applications will be accepted if the programme is not full. Applicants will normally be selected on the basis of their level of academic achievement and may be required to attend a selection interview.
This programme will remain open until all places have been filled.
Entry requirements
- Guidelines to entry
- References
- Police check
Structure
You will study eight papers in the first year of the Master of Forensic IT, and upon successful completion will undertake a thesis in the second year. The teaching strategy will be heavily practical, with lectures being supported extensively by workshop sessions in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences’ Network Laboratory, where dedicated and specialist hardware and software facilities will be provided for forensic computing.
Papers
A student must complete:
408217 Information Security (15)
408221 Research Methods 2 (15)
409311 Cryptography and Cryptanalysis (15)
409312 Digital Forensics Tools and Techniques (15)
409313 Cybercrime and IT-Governance (15)
409314 Network Security and Forensics (15)
AND ONE OF THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS:
OPTION ONE
409102 Thesis (120)
Elective Papers (30 points)
OPTION TWO
409105 Thesis (90)
Elective Papers (60 points)
Elective Papers (30 points):
408203 Net-centric Computing (15)
408207 Ubiquitous Computing (15)
408216 Data Mining and Knowledge Engineering (15)
409315 Readings (15)
409316 Special Topic (30)
Or any other postgraduate paper with the approval of the programme leader
Enrolment in papers is subject to meeting all requirements and availability of papers (not all papers listed above will be open for enrolment in a given year).
Please contact the Programme Administrator, Ann Wu for programme information and availability of papers.
Career opportunities
This degree is designed for graduates wanting to follow a career in the growing forensic computing and digital forensics sectors, and to develop their understanding and application of security issues. The degree is designed to appeal to recent graduates as well as professionals wishing to enhance their skills as:
- Computer forensic and security specialist
- Computer forensic technician
- Corporate and business IT forensic and security personnel
- Forensic analyst
- Forensic technology investigator
- Forensic computer examiner
- Forensic computing specialist
- Electronic forensic investigator
- Independent IT forensic consultants
- Information security specialist
- Information system auditors
- Members of computer emergency response teams
- Members of high technology police units
- Network and IT system administrators
- Software developers and architects