This is a self-paced course that provides a continuation of information security and cybersecurity topics. Among the topics covered are Introduction to Cryptography, Authentication, Access Control, and Containerization. Students learn about both symmetric and asymmetric encryption and their uses. We also take a look at one-way hashing and how it differs from encryption. We drill into ways that encryption is used in PKI and Digital Certificates. Next, we tackle authentication. Authentication is relevant to multiple fields. In art, antiques, and anthropology, a common problem verifies that a given artifact was produced by a particular person or a specific place or period of history. In computer science, verifying a user’s identity is often required to allow access to confidential data or systems. Next, we move on to different access control mechanisms. We then drill into the implementation details of access control in several other operating systems. We follow up with a deep dive into compatibility based access control mechanisms. Finally, we look at access control in virtual machines (VM), virtualization, and containerization. We look into how the operating system achieves access control, and whether these methods are sufficient.
An excellent online course offered by edX: how it works
edX courses consist of weekly learning sequences. Each learning sequence is composed of short videos interspersed with interactive learning exercises, where students can immediately practise the concepts from the videos. The courses often include tutorial videos that are similar to small on-campus discussion groups, an online textbook, and an online discussion forum where students can post and review questions and comments to each other and teaching assistants. Where applicable, online laboratories are incorporated into the course.
edX offers certificates of successful completion and some courses are credit-eligible. Whether or not a college or university offers credit for an online course is within the sole discretion of the school. edX offers a variety of ways to take courses, including verified courses where students have the option to audit the course (no cost) or to work toward an edX Verified Certificate (fees vary by course). edX also offers XSeries Certificates for completion of a bundled set of two to seven verified courses in a single subject (cost varies depending on the courses).
An edX learning programme under Other Experiences