Cybersecurity
The joint cybersecurity M.Sc. programme of Reykjavik University (RU) and University of Iceland (UoI)
The general idea of this collaboration is that students enroll in the Computer Science M.Sc. programme at the university of their choice and take the “normal” M.Sc. Computer Science courses at their home university. Students who are enrolled in the Cybersecurity specialisation/emphasis at their university can then take courses specific to Cybersecurity at both universities.
You can enroll at University of Iceland (international students) / (Icelandic students) or enroll at Rekjavik University.
Note that you can at any time change into the cybersecurity specialisation: just contact student service. Be aware that for graduating you need to have covered all mandatory courses.
If you take as an UoI student a course at RU, then you can ask to get it added to your transcript of records at UoI; however, it will there only show up as course taken at another university and without a grade. (The universities are currently working on improving their IT systems in order to change that.) If you want a record of the name and the grade, you need to contact RU's Nemendaskrá / Registry nemendaskra@ru.is and ask for a PDF with a record for that course.
Spring 2025
Info event
- UoI and RU: Monday, 13. January 2025, 17:00 at RU -- detailed room number to be announced later
Autumn 2024
Info event
- UoI: Tuesday, 20. August 2024, 16:00, room Ada, Computer Science department, 3rd floor, Gróska.
Slides from presentation at UoI (20.8.2024)
NEW:
It is now also possible to take in the University of Iceland Software Engineering M.Sc. programme the specialisation in Cybersecurity: it has more focus on Software Engineering and less on Computer Networks.
For details, see the course catalogue entry for the Software Engineering Master's programme / mastersnám í hugbúnaðarverkfræði at University of Iceland. See also a further blog post.
Spring 2024
Info event
There is a plan to have an information event for Spring 2024, just as we had it in Autumn 2023 (see slides and video below to get an idea of the joint programme):
- UoI: Monday, 8.1.2024, 16:00, room Ada, Computer Science department, 3rd floor, Gróska.
Slides from presentation at UoI (8.1.2024). - RU: Another information event event is planned to be hold a week later at Reykjavik University: stay tuned for details.
Teaching calendars
Note that RU has in the last three weeks an intensive course where students are busy all day with that course. These three weeks are typically in parallel to the exam period at UoI, but for UoI students it should be possible to take the three week intensive course at RU if they tell the teacher of that course at RU that they have to leave at certain days for exams at UoI.
Course catalogues
Check the course catalogues of both universities for relevant cybersecurity courses, e.g.:
- UoI course catalogue, notable courses (6 ECTS unless otherwise stated) are, e.g.:
- TÖL605M Fundamentals of Ethical Hacking (new elective 4 ECTS course, good to combine with the 2 ECTS seminar)
- TÖL213M Applied Cryptography (now mandatory at UoI)
- TÖL212F Governance of the Internet (new course, mandatory at UoI)
- TÖL113F Quantum cryptography (new course: a reading course in spring 2024, but might be added in autumn as a full course at UoI)
- RAF617M Foundations of the Internet: this voluntary electrical engineering course is taught in Icelandic
- HBV204M Software Quality management not taught in Spring 2024, but will be taught in Autumn 2024 (and HBV205M Software Testing in Spring 2025).
- TÖL204F Seminar (2 ECTS) has been changed into TÖL606M Seminar (i.e. together with B.Sc. students: do not register for the "F" seminar in the course catalogue: change on your own to the "M" seminar or wait for administration to move you into the "M" course): mandatory at UoI: take care to select a topic related to CySec
- LÖG283F Privacy and Data Protection Law: this voluntary law course is taught in Icelandic
- TÖL022F Internship in Cybersecurity: will be first offered in autumn 2024 -- we currently (i.e. spring 2024) do not offer any positions for this internship as we expect that students took as preparation at least one year of course related to cybersecurity
- RU course catalogue (choose Department of Computer Science, then MSc in Computer Science), notable courses are
- T-742-CSDA Computer Security: Defence Against the Dark Arts (8 ECTS)
- In addition to the above course that runs over the full semester, very likely, some intensive, all day 6 ECTS course on CySec will be offered in the last three weeks of the Reykjavik University semester (i.e. in parallel to the University of Iceland exam period)
The UoI course catalogue should be stable now, i.e. we do not expect any new courses to be added or changes with respect to elective vs. mandatory courses.
Take the non-cybersecurity courses from your home university. Contact Jacky Mallet for info on courses at RU, contact Helmut Neukirchen for courses at UoI. Grades that you got from the other university do not automatically show up in the systems of your home university. Contact your home university (Helmut or Jacky) to get grades from the other university accounted.
Tentative addition of Cybersecurity to the Software Engineering Master's programmes
Note that we at UoI intend to add the cybersecurity specialisation also in the Software Engineering Master's programme (starting from autumn 2024): If you are currently already enrolled in UoI's Software Engineering Master's programme and want later to change into this specialisation, it is strongly recommended that you take already now those courses that are mandatory for the Computer Science cybersecurity specialisation at UoI, because you can expect that in the Software Engineering cybersecurity specialisation, the same courses as in the Computer Science cybersecurity specialisation will be mandatory (plus those that are currently mandatory for Software Engineering, such as SW Testing, SW Quality Management, SW Maintenance).
Autumn 2023
Slides from presentation for interested students (25.8.2023).
Video recording of the meeting.
In case of questions, it is best to talk to one of the persons listed on slide 2 of the above presentation.
Course catalogues
Check in the course catalogues of both universities for relevant cybersecurity courses.
Except for the above cybersecurity courses, take the non-cybersecurity courses rather from your home university.
Teaching offered from NTNU (Norway, Gjøvik campus) -- Contact Jacky how to join these courses:
- Critical Infrastructure Security (15 week course, autumn 2023, distance teaching)
- Malware Analysis (3 week course: November 21st - December 9th 2023, taught locally at RU)
Any student can take courses from their home university. To take courses at the other Icelandic university (i.e. UoI student taking RU courses and vice versa), you need to be enrolled in the cybersecurity specialisation/emphasis.
As long as student numbers are low, also students who are not in the specialisation/emphasis take the courses from NTNU. Contact Jacky from RU for the NTNU courses.
The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation is funding University of Iceland and Reykjavik University in order to start the joint study Masters's programme and research in Cybersecurity. In addition, the European Union is co-funding our cybersecurity research and education via the Digital Europe Programme projects Eyvör NCC-IS and Defend Iceland. The funding allows us to hire professors, further staff, hardware to do teaching and research, and to host events related to cybersecurity.
