HNC Digital Technologies for England - Cyber Security and Cloud Networking

This unit provides a foundation for good practice in a variety of contexts and provides an opportunity for you to examine the evolution and impact of digital technologies on work environments. You will explore the importance of professional development for career success and the benefits of working towards goals for career success. In addition, problem solving extends the need to demonstrate transferable and communication skills. Finally, working with others is an integral part of everyday life and the ability to give and receive feedback is a necessary skill to support professional development planning. Therefore, understanding role responsibilities and how to work with peers and colleagues will ensure that there is a better understanding and awareness to support own professional development. 

Many businesses manage to remain competitive by using their ability to adapt strategies and re-think their old operating models in response to fundamental changes in the market. Technology gives these organisations the opportunity to evolve and to increase their value to their customers; modern services are increasingly moving online – making digital transformation a necessity. In 2019, the global spending on digital transformation technologies and services grew around 18%. This unit aims to give students a comprehensive understanding of digital transformation. 

Digital transformation constitutes the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business to maximise the Return on Investment (ROI) meaning that there will be fundamental changes to business operations and culture. In this unit, you will look at a number of tools and techniques that organisations use to transform and become more innovative in their approach. These include frameworks and related elements such as operational agility, culture, leadership, customer experience, and integration of digital technology. 

Digital technologies provide an opportunity for malicious hackers and cyberterrorists to exploit individuals, government, institutions and large organisations. Defending against cyber-attacks, including insider threats, is a priority within the digital technologies sector. Cybercrime techniques and attack vectors are fast growing, taking advantage of the speed, anonymity and convenience of the internet as a facilitator for malicious and criminal activity.  

This unit has been designed to develop your knowledge and understanding in relation to cyber threats and vulnerabilities, cyber defence techniques and incident response. You will explore fundamental principles as well as leading-edge concepts, terminologies, models and hardening methods. You will assess the types of malicious activity and potential targets, and the role everyone has in maintaining cyber resilience. 

On successful completion of the unit, you will have explored the nature of cybercrime and cyber threat actors, looked into the roles and responsibilities in relation to information assurance, assessed the threats to, and vulnerabilities in, ICT infrastructure and investigated strategic responses to cyber security threats. 

Programming involves describing processes and procedures that are derived from algorithms. The ability to programme is what sets apart a developer from an end user. Typically, the role of the developer is to instruct a device (such as a computer) to carry out instructions; the instructions are known as source code and are written in a language that is converted into something the device can understand. The device executes the instructions it is given. 

Algorithms help to describe the solution to a problem or task by identifying the data and the process needed to represent the problem or task and the set of steps needed to produce the desired result. Programming languages typically provide the representation of both the data and the process; they provide control constructs and data types (which can be numbers, words and objects, and be constant or variable). The control constructs are used to represent the steps of an algorithm in a convenient yet unambiguous fashion. Algorithms require constructs that can perform sequential processing, selection for decision making and iteration for repetitive control. Any programming language that provides these basic features can be used for algorithm representation. 

This unit introduces you to the core concepts of programming, along with an introduction to algorithms and the characteristics of programming paradigms. Among the topics included in this unit are: introduction to algorithms, procedural, object orientated and event-driven programming, security considerations, the integrated development environment and the debugging process. 

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to design and implement algorithms in a chosen language in a suitable Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This IDE will be used to develop and help track any issues with the code. As a result, students will develop skills such as communication literacy, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning and interpretation, which are crucial for gaining employment and developing academic competence.

Exploring and analysing big data translates information into insight. The purposeful, systematic exploitation of big data, coupled with analytics, reveals opportunities for improved decision making and better business outcomes. All this data is useful when processed but requires visualisation to bring to life. Data visualisation makes big data easier for the human brain to understand and detect patterns, trends and meaning in complicated data sets. With such rapid advancement in this area, there have been considerable challenges for data specialists to develop the skills, experience and growth required to maintain innovation in the sector. Similarly, the public and private sectors have struggled to keep up with progress, meaning that the introduction of legislation and community norms have been retrospective and, at times, reactive.  

As data continues to be the fuel for the digital economy, this area remains a constant topic of conversation for organisations and governments, and the public who share an interest in its growing commercial use, manipulation and presentation. This unit introduces you to the concepts of big data and visualisation and how this is used for decision making. You will explore the industry software solutions available for investigating and presenting data, before assessing the role and responsibility of data specialists in the current environment. You will examine topics including data-driven decision making, manipulating data and automation, and building ethics into a data-driven culture. You will demonstrate your use of tools and software to manipulate and prepare a visual presentation for a given data set. You will also assess how data specialists are responsible for adhering to legislation and ensuring data compliance.  

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to investigate the value of data for decision making to both end-users and organisations; compare how different industry leading tools and software solutions are used to analyse and visualise data; carry out queries to summarise and group a given data set, and analyse the challenges faced when building ethics into a data-driven culture. You will have the opportunity to progress to a range of roles in the digital sector and will develop industry-led skills, analysis, and interpretation, which are crucial for developing practical experiences with big data and for gaining employment.

Complex computer networking has connected the world via groups of smaller, linked networks to support global communications. These can be situated within ‘the cloud’, at home, with your employer or elsewhere. As a cloud computing professional, a question that must always be asked is ‘What remote and local networking infrastructure is supporting our cloud communication?’. The evolution of cloud computing is driven by all forms of network infrastructure allowing users to access data, hardware and services regardless of location. Being knowledgeable about the underlying principles of networking is of vital importance to all cloud professionals, whether they work in cloud support roles, cyber security or cloud software development.

The aim of this unit is to give you a wider background knowledge of cloud networking principles, operational principles, protocols, standards, security considerations and the systems associated with a range of networking technologies. This unit gives you the underpinning knowledge of the principles of networks and supports a range of other units in the qualification. You will explore a range of cloud solutions and will configure them to gain knowledge of networking systems. A range of networking technologies will be explored so that you can gain a fundamental knowledge of Local Area Networking (LAN), Wide Area Networking (WAN) and their evolution, to form scalable systems.  

On successful completion of this unit, students will have gained knowledge and skills to be able to successfully implement, operate and improve a cloud network and the operation of cloud-based data networks, including router, switching technologies, IP routing technologies, IP services and basic troubleshooting. Students will develop skills such as communication literacy, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning and interpretation, all of which are crucial for gaining employment and developing academic competence 

Security is one of the most important challenges modern organisations face. It is about protecting organisational assets, including personnel, data, equipment and networks, from attack through the use of prevention techniques in the form of vulnerability testing/security policies and detection techniques, exposing breaches in security and implementing effective responses. 

The aim of this unit is to give you knowledge of security, the associated risks and how it has an impact on business continuity. You will examine security measures involving access authorisation and regulation of use. You will implement contingency plans and devise security policies and procedures. The unit also introduces you to detection of threats and vulnerabilities in physical and IT security, and how to manage risks relating to organisational security. 

This unit includes network security design and operational topics, including address translation, DMZ, VPN, firewalls, AV and intrusion detection systems. Remote access will be covered, as will the need for frequent vulnerability testing as part of organisational and security audit compliance. As a result, you will develop skills such as communication literacy, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning and interpretation, which are crucial for gaining employment and developing academic competence.

Computer networks are the driving force behind the evolution of computer systems and allow users to access data, hardware, and services regardless of their location. Being knowledgeable about the underlying principles of networking is of vital importance to all IT professionals. Networking is an environment that is increasingly complex and under continuous development. 

Complex computer networking has connected the world by groups of small networks through internet links to support global communications. It supports access to digital information any time, anywhere, using many applications like email, audio and video transmission, including the World Wide Web, and this has opened the floodgates to availability of information. 

The aim of this unit is to give you a wider background knowledge of computer networking essentials, how they operate, protocols, standards, security considerations and the prototypes associated with a range of networking technologies. You will explore a range of hardware, with related software, and will configure and install these to gain knowledge of networking systems. A range of networking technologies will be explored to deliver a fundamental knowledge of Local Area Networking (LAN), Wide Area Networking (WAN) and their evolution to form large-scale networks.  

You will also explore the protocol methodologies related to IP data networks. 

On successful completion of this unit, students will have gained the knowledge and skills needed to successfully install, operate and troubleshoot a small network; and the operation of IP data networks, router, switching technologies, IP routing technologies, IP services and basic troubleshooting. Supporting a range of units in the Higher National suite, this unit underpins the principles of networks for all and enables students to work towards their studies in vendor units, if applicable. Students will develop skills such as communication literacy, critical thinking, analysis, reasoning  

and interpretation, which are crucial for gaining employment and developing academic competence