You may well feel quite excited or even a little anxious about the big step you are about to take. University is a place where many different people come together from very diverse backgrounds to change their lives. You may feel very different to others, when in fact you may find yourself sitting next to someone who becomes a lifelong friend. You are joining a fantastic team dedicated to making you feel at home and who will help you transition into your shiny new university life. With a degree, you will have the potential to make a huge difference to your own future and those of others. I am looking forward to meeting you and learning about your aspirations for your future. 

Computer Forensics and Security is an interesting, dynamic and growing area of computing. As cyber-crime continues to rise, so too does the need for computing professionals to lead the fight against it. The UK Government has identified cyber-security as one of the four major threats to the UK in their National Security Strategy. Hence, there is a shortage of skills to protect computer systems from malicious attacks, human error, and exploitation of vulnerabilities. Such skills include utilising an ethical hacking approach to highlight security vulnerabilities so that they can be fixed or mitigated.

Computer Forensics involves recovering intelligence and evidence from digital devices for the purposes of remediation, litigation and/or prosecution. The aim of the Computer Forensics and Security Course is to equip you with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to enter these exciting areas of Computing.

You may wish to keep track of what we are doing in the Department by following us on our Faculty Instagram and X.

Your degree in Computer Forensics and Security is aimed to lead you to being able to be a fully-fledged forensics and security professional with the knowledge, skills and attributes required to work in the area. Your degree takes place over 3 years and each year is split into two semesters.

The first semester runs from September to January and a second from late January to May.

Each semester you will study three different modules covering different areas of Computer Forensics and Security.

During the first semester of your first year, you will study some elementary computer programming in the C# language. Don’t worry if you have never coded before, as we assume zero prior knowledge for this. The computer forensics and security field is an exciting and evolving field, touching many aspects of the world. The ability to code will enhance your computer forensic skills (covered in the following semester) to empower you to interact with various systems new and old in your career.

To support your understanding of systems and devices, the first semester will also introduce you to the fundamentals of computer systems. You will be interacting with Arduinos and/or Raspberry Pi systems, as well as understanding how computer systems work in terms of their hardware and processors.

Year 1 Core Modules:

Semester 1

• Programming Design and Development
• Ethics & Employability
• Computational Thinking

Semester 2

• Programming Design and Development
• Math for Computer Science
• Fundamentals Of Computer Systems

You will largely be assessed through assignments (course work), and there will be some presentations and class tests to match tasks that are undertaken in industry.

You will need to attend University or take part in online classes at least three days a week (typically, but this may vary). We will be able to provide you with a full timetable once it has been finalised over the summer. There may also be times when you need to work with others on other days either face-to-face or remotely via technology.

Other information

We recommend you don’t buy any particular software as much of the software you will need over your degree will be available to you for free or a much-reduced price once you start.

You will find having your own computer exceedingly useful. This will help you to do your assessments in your own time and attend any classes that are online. If you are looking to buy a computer then we would suggest that you look at reviews of different computers online as we find it hard to recommend a particular product.

As a computing student you will find that you will need a computer with an above minimum specification for the chosen operating system (look at what is required for Windows 10). We would suggest that you look at the recommended specification for Visual Studio Professional as an absolute minimum specification. Higher specifications will help safeguard you against future increases in minimum requirements, and higher processor speeds will help run multiple programmes at once. For hard disk space higher is required to fit on other software as well, and a minimum suggested size would be 256GB – particularly important if you plan to use solid state drives.

You should note that we use the Windows environment predominantly in the Department of Computing, so if you buy an Apple system then it would benefit from being dual boot Windows and MacOS. If you buy a Linux only system then you may find you will need to install a Windows operating system at a later date, and this is generally more expensive than buying a computer with Windows already installed on it. You may find that if you are doing a lot of studying on your computer, having a web-cam, headphones and possibly even a second monitor really useful. If you use a laptop, do consider a mouse and full-size keyboard may help. We have found that students who are trying to study at home appreciate having a good, stable internet connection, and you want to note that changing provider at the moment is taking longer than it has done previously.

Your welcome and induction will be w/c 16th September 2024 - we look forward to meeting you then.

Community

On the social side, the Student Union (CCSU) has a huge range of clubs and societies – all of which have unique social calendars of their own and offer endless opportunities to make lifelong friends and discover new hobbies. And you can always create your own society and cultivate your own community!

CCSU will be hosting their Welcome Fayre on Wednesday 18th September 2024. Make sure you keep checking the CCSU website for further details and how to get involved.

We understand that you may be nervous about your first few weeks on campus but rest assured - you'll be joining a nurturing and supportive environment where diversity, equality and individuality are part of everything we do.

You can find out more about our welcoming community and making friends here.

If you are an International Student joining us then please see our International Student Support pages for further information and guidance.

There is no particular reading we want you to do before you arrive, but it may be worth looking at the Technology pages of online news sources to see the common areas that are being talked about in the field of computing and business. We suggest the following sites:

• BBC News - Technology
• BBC News - Business
• The Guardian - Technology
• The Telegraph -Technology

In particular, we also recommend following the posts/news on the ForensicFocus website