Overview

This unit of study aims to cover the skills and knowledge required to plan, design and integrate a cyber physical system to create a secure cloud-based network for a smart factory. The student will learn to research and use communication protocols, cyber security principles and mitigation strategies to safely and competently carry out the tasks of design and integration of a secure cloud-based network system.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
03-August-2026
01-November-2026
Last self-enrolment date
16-August-2026
Census date
01-September-2026
Last withdraw without fail date
22-September-2026
Results released date
08-December-2026

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  1. Analyse and apply cyber security principles to an existing cyber physical system
  2. Identify security vulnerabilities in a control system and apply mitigation strategies
  3. Design and collaboratively develop networked industrial systems using emerging technologies and Cloud services.
  4. Research network communication protocols and demonstrate connectivity from a cyber-physical systems to a cloud service.

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Class		10.00 10 weeks 100
Placement
Placement		5.00 6 weeks 30
Online Contact (Phasing out)
Online Learning Activities		0.83 12 weeks 10
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Independent Learning		0.83 12 weeks 10
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Case StudiesIndividual 10 - 20% 1,2,4 
PortfolioGroup 10 - 20% 1,2,3,4 
ProjectGroup 40 - 60% 1,2,3,4 
TestIndividual 20 - 30% 1 

Content

Communication protocols:          

  • SOAP
  • MQTT
  • XML
  • OPC-UA
     

Security:                     

  • Network Principles and Protocols
  • Cyber Security Principles
  • Security Technologies
  • An understanding of the difference between IT and control system architectures
  • A comprehension of the security vulnerabilities, and mitigation strategies unique to control systems including how attacks are launched and potential mitigations
  • Defence of SCADA and Industrial Control Systems
  • Data  Security, Policies and Procedures
  • Cloud services for data collection and analysis  

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.