An applied Swiss-inspired curriculum combining algorithmic rigour, systems architecture, digital trust and practical engineering capability for modern technology leaders.
The MSc in Digital Forensics at Brookfield School of Computing is engineered to provide deep competency across core computer science, systems design, and targeted domain applications. Students develop fluency in software craftsmanship, distributed architectures, algorithm optimization, and data governance.
Instruction balances rigorous theoretical foundations with practical code repositories, laboratory simulations, and ethical technology review aligned with modern international computing standards.
| Code | Module Title | Type | Discipline & Learning Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFR711 | Advanced Cryptographic Protocols & Applied Cryptanalysis in Digital Forensics | Theory | Evaluate post-quantum lattice cryptography, elliptic curve pairings, zero-knowledge proofs and timing attacks. |
| DFR712 | Advanced Penetration Testing & Binary Exploitation Lab | Practical | Execute return-oriented programming (ROP), heap exploitation, format string bugs and bypass ASLR/NX defenses. |
| DFR713 | Adversary Modeling, MITRE ATT&CK & Cyber Threat Intelligence | Theory | Model advanced persistent threat (APT) actor playbooks, diamond model campaign analysis and TTP taxonomy. |
| DFR714 | Kernel Internals, Rootkit Analysis & Memory Defense Lab | Practical | Inspect Windows/Linux kernel data structures, hook system calls and analyze ring-0 kernel driver vulnerabilities. |
| DFR715 | Zero-Trust Architecture & Identity Federation Engineering | Theory | Architect enterprise zero-trust perimeters, SPIFFE/SPIRE workload identities and passwordless FIDO2/WebAuthn. |
| DFR716 | Enterprise Network Defense, Zeek & Threat Hunting Lab | Practical | Deploy Zeek protocol analysis, Suricata IDS clusters and hunt for covert adversary command-and-control channels. |
| DFR717 | Empirical Research Methods in Information Assurance & Cyber Security | Theory | Design empirical honeypot telemetry experiments, vulnerability measurement studies and statistical incident models. |
| DFR718 | DevSecOps Pipeline Security & Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Hardening | Practical | Automate Terraform security linting (tfsec), container runtime defense (Falco) and secrets scanning in CI/CD. |
| DFR719 | Swiss & Global Cyber Law, Privacy Regulations & Critical Infrastructure | Theory | Analyze Swiss NIS guidelines, critical infrastructure protection mandates, GDPR compliance and cyber fraud law. |
| Code | Module Title | Type | Discipline & Learning Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFR721 | Cloud-Native Security Architecture & Microservices Hardening | Theory | Analyze Kubernetes attack surfaces, container escapes, IAM privilege escalation vectors and service mesh security. |
| DFR722 | Cloud Security Posture Management & Red Teaming Workshop | Practical | Simulate AWS/Azure multi-cloud compromise scenarios, exploit misconfigured S3/IAM and remediate posture drift. |
| DFR723 | Advanced Digital Forensics & Incident Response (DFIR) Lifecycles | Theory | Coordinate enterprise breach investigations, volatile memory acquisition, timeline reconstruction and anti-forensics triage. |
| DFR724 | Volatile Memory Forensics & Enterprise Triage Studio (Volatility) | Practical | Analyze large enterprise memory dumps to detect code injection, reflective DLL loading and rootkit persistence. |
| DFR725 | Malware Reverse Engineering & Dynamic Behavioral Analysis | Theory | Deconstruct modern malware evasion techniques, API hashing, anti-debugging tricks and dynamic unpacking. |
| DFR726 | Ghidra Reverse Engineering & Malware Disassembly Workshop | Practical | Reverse engineer obfuscated ransomware binaries in Ghidra, decrypt config payloads and extract IOC indicators. |
| DFR727 | Enterprise Cyber Risk Quantification & Security Economics (FAIR) | Theory | Apply Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) models, Monte Carlo loss calculations and security ROI metrics. |
| DFR728 | SOC Engineering, SIEM Analytics & SOAR Automation Lab | Practical | Develop automated incident response playbooks in SOAR tools (Cortex/Shuffle) triggered by SIEM alerts. |
| DFR729 | Collaborative Enterprise Red-Team vs Blue-Team Simulation | Practical | Participate in live enterprise attack-and-defense cyber range simulations defending critical infrastructure in Digital Forensics. |
| Code | Module Title | Type | Discipline & Learning Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFR731 | Frontiers in Cyber Defense: AI-Driven Security & Post-Quantum Cryptography | Theory | Critically assess neural network malware evasion, automated vulnerability discovery and NIST post-quantum standards. |
| DFR732 | Post-Quantum Cryptographic Implementation & Migration Lab | Practical | Implement CRYSTALS-Kyber and Dilithium algorithms and migrate legacy TLS infrastructure to post-quantum suites. |
| DFR733 | Strategic CISO Leadership, Governance & Crisis Management | Theory | Prepare board-level cyber risk presentations, crisis communication protocols and regulatory breach notifications. |
| DFR734 | Automated Vulnerability Research & Fuzz Testing Lab (AFL++) | Practical | Construct coverage-guided fuzzing campaigns using AFL++ to uncover zero-day memory corruption bugs. |
| DFR735 | Industrial Control Systems (ICS/SCADA) & IoT Security Architecture | Theory | Analyze Modbus, DNP3, OPC-UA protocol security, Purdue model boundaries and physical process cyber attacks. |
| DFR736 | MSc Digital Forensics Thesis Proposal Colloquium & Defense | Practical | Formulate and defend a formal scientific master's research proposal specifying empirical security testbeds. |
| DFR737 | Commercialization of Security Products, Bug Bounties & Venture Capital | Theory | Examine commercial cybersecurity startup ecosystems, responsible disclosure coordination and venture funding. |
| DFR738 | Pre-Thesis Security Artifact Prototype & Testbed Lab | Practical | Build the initial defensive security prototype or automated analysis engine supporting the master's dissertation. |
| DFR739 | Real-World Penetration Testing & Threat Assessment Practicum | Practical | Conduct an authorized comprehensive security assessment of production-grade systems in Digital Forensics. |
| Code | Module Title | Type | Discipline & Learning Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFR741 | MSc Digital Forensics Dissertation: Research Methodology & Threat Modeling | Practical | Formulate the formal adversary model, experimental cyber range setup and baseline metrics in Digital Forensics. |
| DFR742 | MSc Digital Forensics Dissertation: Security Artifact Engineering & Defense Design | Practical | Engineer the complete security platform, automated defense mechanism or analysis system in Digital Forensics. |
| DFR743 | MSc Digital Forensics Dissertation: Empirical Verification & Adversarial Stress Testing | Practical | Execute rigorous penetration benchmarks, red-team attacks and statistical efficacy evaluations. |
| DFR744 | Critical Literature Synthesis & State-of-the-Art Analysis in Digital Forensics | Theory | Synthesize academic publications from IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, ACM CCS and NDSS conferences. |
| DFR745 | Scalability Benchmarking, Telemetry Hardening & Audit Lab | Practical | Subject the dissertation artifact to large-scale network traffic loads and automated security audits. |
| DFR746 | Scientific Manuscript Preparation & Peer Review in Digital Forensics | Theory | Author a conference-ready scientific manuscript conforming to top-tier cyber security symposium standards. |
| DFR747 | Strategic Technology Leadership & Executive Advisory in Digital Forensics | Theory | Translate technical cybersecurity research findings into executive risk mitigation strategies for leadership. |
| DFR748 | Comprehensive Security Portfolio & Reproducible Testbed Delivery | Practical | Package reproducible virtual cyber range environments, exploit proof-of-concepts and mitigation scripts in Digital Forensics. |
| DFR749 | MSc Digital Forensics Thesis Oral Defense & Public Academic Examination | Practical | Defend the novel scientific thesis and defensive security prototype before an academic examination committee. |
Recognized Bachelor Degree in computing, engineering, mathematics, quantitative discipline or relevant technical equivalence. English proficiency IELTS 6.5+ or equivalent.
Brookfield School of Computing is an independent private education institution in formation. Academic programmes, entry requirements, fees and awards are subject to institutional review and applicable Swiss legal regulations.