Security Controls, Testing, and Awareness

This unit focuses on implementing and assessing defensive controls across people, processes, and technology—covering least privilege, zero trust, identity and authentication, data protection, and continuity. Students will plan and perform controlled assessments (network mapping, social engineering, ethical hacking), design awareness and compliance programs, and recommend resilience and budgeting strategies to prepare for advanced remediation and incident response in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze enterprise environments to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities across network, cloud, physical, and human factors using reconnaissance and mapping techniques
• Apply least privilege and zero trust principles to design access controls and authentication strategies for cloud and on-premises systems, including account protections and password considerations
• Demonstrate controlled security assessment skills—conducting network mapping, reconnaissance, and social engineering tests—while following approval, compliance, and ethical guidelines
• Evaluate and propose data protection, continuity, and security awareness solutions (backups, disaster recovery, HSM considerations, training programs, and budgeting) to improve organizational resilience