The CYBERUS Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Cybersecurity

Why Cyberus?

In a world that is increasingly digital, ransomware, malware, phishing, web-based and web application attacks, distributed denial of service (DDoS), identity theft, data breaches, botnets, cyberespionage, to name only a few of the main types of cyberattacks, have become more and more sophisticated. And they are sometimes combined to carry out crime, sabotage, espionage and destabilisation. Their actors may be individuals defending a cause (so-called ‘hacktivists’) but more often criminal groups working indifferently for mafias or rogue governments anywhere in the world. They are also on the rise and costly.

In 2020, for the first time, there were more connections of IoT objects and equipment (connected cars, smart home automation devices, connected industrial systems, etc.) than of non-IoT terminals. With the deployment of 5G and more and more billions of potentially hackable connected devices in our everyday lives, protecting them has become urgent. Modern computing systems are also vulnerable both from computational and from storage perspectives and most of the performance optimisations in IoT and software systems can potentially expose them to attacks and leak critical information. These existing vulnerabilities lead to information leakage in many different ways from physical to microarchitectural and software information. New leakage channels keep appearing too and the real attack surface is still unknown, both at software and hardware levels. As most top threats rely on software and hardware vulnerabilities, it is essential that future designers master these threats and existing countermeasures.

The CYBERUS Erasmus Mundus Master in Cybersecurity, or CYBERUS, is the joint response by Université Bretagne Sud - UBS (Lorient, France), Université du Luxembourg - UL (Luxembourg) and Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB (Brussels, Belgium), in conjunction with Tallinn University of Technology - TalTech (Tallinn, Estonia) and some 50 universities, research centres, state agencies, companies and business clusters worldwide to address these types of cybersecurity threats. It offers two tracks – IoT cybersecurity and Sofware Cybersecurity – and it includes compulsory international mobility.

CYBERUS has been selected for funding by the EU to be an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD). An EMJMD is a prestigious, integrated, international study programme, jointly delivered by an international consortium of higher education institutions. It aims to enhance the attractiveness and excellence of European higher education in the world and attract talent to Europe, through a combination of:

• Institutional academic cooperation to showcase European excellence in higher education,
• And individual mobility for all students taking part in the EMJM, with EU-funded scholarships for the best students applying.

Overview

The CYBERUS Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in cybersecurity, or CYBERUS, is a highly integrated two-year full-time master programme. It is taught in English. It offers 2 specialisation tracks leading to double master’s degrees:

• IoT Cybersecurity (between UBS and ULB): security of digital objects/equipment, of their design and of their connections,
• Software Cybersecurity (between UBS and UL): security of applications, systems and programming.

Students enrolled in the IoT Cybersecurity track receive a double master’s degree from UBS and ULB while those registered in the Software Cybersecurity track receive a double master’s degree from UBS and UL. A balance is targeted in the number of students in either specialisation.

Technological modules

The vast majority of taught modules are technological (over 70%). Some are common to all students: Secure Advanced Programming, Cryptology, Network and Operating Systems Security, Statistical Foundations for Cybersecurity, Risk Analysis and Introduction to Security by Design, and Pentesting.

Student in the IoT Cybersecurity track will additionally study: Hardware Security and Side Channel Attacks; Protocols, Cryptanalysis and Mathematical Cryptology; AI + Machine Learning for Security; Security of Mobile, Wireless and IoT Networks; and, optionally, Frameworks for the Management of Security or Quantum Computation and Cryptography or Forensics or Advanced Digital Architectures.

Student in the Software Cybersecurity track will additionally study: Compiler Construction; Security of Databases and Blockchain Software; AI and Cybersecurity; Static and Dynamic Software Security Analysis; and, optionally, Resilient Computing or Software Defined Network Security.

Mobility

International mobility is compulsory. Students must be present at the date specified in the admission letter. Where a student is from France, Belgium or Luxembourg, the 5-month internship will take place in a different country from their own:

• All students spend the first two semesters at UBS (Lorient, France) in order to acquire a set of common major cybersecurity competences and transversal skills and to prespecialise.
  • Semester 1 starts with an orientation week starting on 5 September 2023.
  • In semester 1, as students come various backgrounds in computer science and computer engineering throughout the world, strong common cybersecurity foundations are provided (5 modules, one of which at Taltech in the Winter School). They discover a new learning and cultural environment, learn French or another EU language if they already speak it, are introduced to entrepreneurship and develop group spirit.
  • In semester 2, students continue developing group spirit, integrating into their learning and cultural environment and strengthening their common cybersecurity skills (3 modules). They begin some measure of differentiation in 2 modules through pre-specialisation and start acquiring hands-on experience in the form of a student project , a student challenge (possibly with students in year 2) or a 6-week internship.
• Between semester 1 and semester 2, students move to Tallinn University of Technology - TalTech (Tallinn, Estonia) for a Winter School dedicated to ‘Cyberthreats to the EU and Cyberactors’.
• In semester 3, students move to the selected joint programme partner to specialise: ULB (Brussels, Belgium) for IoT Cybersecurity or UL (Luxembourg) for Software Cybersecurity. Differentiation is also targeted as, in one module, students are allowed to take cybersecurity electives from a defined list to continue building their own pathways and, in another, to choose between an entrepreneurship project, a student project or a student challenge (possibly with students in year 1). Research and innovation forms a dedicated module.
• In semester 4, the most specialised and differentiated of all, students conduct a compulsory 5-month internship at an approved institution anywhere in the world. They are required to write a master’s thesis jointly supervised by UBS and ULB researchers or UBS and UL researchers depending on their specialisations and their mobility track.

At the end of semester 2 and semester 4, CYBERUS students and alumni are strongly invited to attend an optional uncredited one-week Summer School and Scientific Workshop at UBS (France). This workshop will bring together top researchers and professionals at the cutting edge of cybersecurity to discuss topical cybersecurity issues and to provide complementary insights from other related fields.