Cyber and Information Security for Public Administration Professionals
The second course is aimed at IT managers, IT specialists, security personnel, and other professionals involved in protecting information systems and infrastructure in the public sector. It assumes technical education or equivalent experience in IT systems administration.
Participants will gain an up-to-date overview of risks and threats in cybersecurity, focusing on the specific features and challenges of the public sector. The course covers practical aspects of securing network devices, the use of models for authentication, authorisation, and accounting (AAA), IDS and IPS technologies, VPN configuration, and the protection of local area networks, including Cisco ASA solutions. There is also an introduction to cryptography as a fundamental pillar of data protection. A significant part of the course is a thorough familiarisation with penetration testing – from its planning and scoping in the context of public administration, through the creation of a testing environment, to the application of methodologies and compliance with legislative regulations. Participants will learn how to work with passive reconnaissance tools (OSINT, SpiderFoot, Recon-ng) and active reconnaissance tools (Nmap), vulnerability scanning (GVM), and social engineering techniques (SET, BeEF). The course further includes the identification and exploitation of vulnerabilities in computer and wireless networks, as well as the application layer (OWASP Top 10, SQL injection), authentication, and authorisation (XSS, CSRF, API attacks). Special attention is paid to the security of cloud, mobile, and IoT solutions, as well as tools such as Metasploit, Netcat, and Steghide. The end of the course is dedicated to creating professional reports using the Dradis tool, documentation, and scripting basics. The entire programme concludes with solving model scenarios with an emphasis on public administration needs.
Teaching format: online, semester model with weekly periodicity, maximum of six months.
Course structure: seven thematic modules.
Topics and Schedule of the Training
| Current risks and trends in cybersecurity from a public administration perspective. / Network device protection, AAA models, IDS/IPS technologies, introduction to cryptography, LAN security, VPN configuration, Cisco ASA. |
| Penetration testing methodologies, environment creation, regulations, limitations, planning and scoping of the penetration testing process, requirement definition with regard to public administration. / Passive reconnaissance techniques (OSINT, SpiderFoot, Recon-ng) and active reconnaissance techniques (Nmap). |
| Vulnerability scanning and social engineering (GVM, SET, BeEF). / Vulnerabilities in PC networks (enum4linux, Ettercap, Yersinia), vulnerabilities in wireless networks. |
| Application layer vulnerability exploitation, OWASP Top 10, Injection attacks (SQL). / Exploitation of authentication (John, RainbowCrack, Hashcat) and authorisation process vulnerabilities, XSS, CSRF, API attacks. |
| Cloud, mobile, and IoT security, post-exploitation processes, vulnerability exploitation (Netcat, Metasploit, Steghide). / Report and documentation generation (Dradis), basics of scripting and software development. |
| Summary of penetration testing tools (Kali Linux tools). |
| Solving selected problems taking into account the specifics of public administration. |
