Master of Science (Technology) in Information Security, Computing Sciences and Electrical Engineering

Study contents

All students will take the core courses designed to give a comprehensive introduction to this specialist field by covering the fundamentals of information security and privacy – especially why the latter is so difficult to achieve in practice. Subsequently, students will have the opportunity to take several courses related to cryptography, network security, software security, and access and identity management. During these courses, students will not only learn how to protect a system from certain attacks but also how to find new ones – analyze the security of a system. Hence, by the end of the program, students will learn to think in both rational and irrational ways – a fundamental property in the area of information security.

Our program offers leading-edge studying and research facilities. Cyber Labs – our education and research laboratory – contains network devices such as switches, routers, and next-generation firewalls, which are the basic building block for network security research. In addition, Cyber Labs contains virtualization platforms, SDN capability, a traffic generator tool, and a network monitoring tool. The background lab network consists of a full 3 Tier network that allows behavioral experimentation in a simulated Internet.

Teaching methods include lab-based sessions, student-led tutorials, seminars, and lectures by internal staff and guest speakers from industry and academia. Our courses are offered by highly experienced, friendly staff, and benefit from the diverse specialist knowledge and skills within the Faculty. Assessments are carried out mostly through practical or research-based coursework.

Structure of studies

The program is comprised of 120 ECTS. Courses are worth 90 ECTS and the remaining 30 ECTS are awarded for successfully completing a master's thesis. Each ECTS is equal to an average workload of 27 hours, including lectures, exercises, assignments, independent study, and an examination. The duration of the program is two years. Students spend three semesters completing courses and one semester preparing the final project (master's thesis). They start their studies in late August, and the academic year ends in late May.

Information security professionals work in every size company and industry to protect organizations from data breaches and attacks. By studying our program, students get the necessary skills allowing them to follow a wide range of career paths such as:

• Researcher in Applied Cryptography;
• Researcher in Network / Computer Security;
• IT Security Engineer / Operations Specialist;
• Product Security Engineer;
• Penetration Tester / White Hat Hacker / Ethical Hacker;
• Source Code Auditor;
• Vulnerability Assessor;
• Computer Security Incident Responder;
• Information Security Analyst / Consultant / Assurance Officer / Assurance Analyst / Risk Officer;
• Cyber Security Manager;
• Security Officer;
• Computer Forensics Analyst;
• Anti-Piracy / Content Protection Analyst.

Our staff is a key contact point for companies of all sizes – from startups to industry giants, both domestic and international – for critical staffing needs in the area of security. The need for formally educated security engineers is tremendous and still growing!

Co-operation with other parties

Tampere University actively promotes connecting with leading scholars in the field of security and privacy. To this end, our academic staff has established collaboration with leading organizations, research institutes, and Universities through international projects and research activities. In this program, the students will have the opportunity – during thesis work – to be actively involved in tasks related to research projects and thus establish or extend their international professional network.