Program Overview

Terrorism – and how to deal with it – has become one of the biggest security challenges of our time.

This is the first course of its kind in Australia. It has been designed to build the expertise in criminology and security you need to help tackle today’s global concerns.

In our Bachelor of Criminology you can specialise in Criminal Behaviour, Legal Studies or Crime Science. Learn what causes growing crime rates, what goes on behind criminal minds and behaviours, and discover how the legal system shapes our society.

Our Bachelor of Global Security allows you to specialise in Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies. Delve into the history and causes of terrorism, how it affects society and what can be done about it.

Major: Cyberspace, Policy and Security

Cybersecurity is the practice of deploying people, policies, processes and technologies to protect systems and information.

In a world that increasingly relies on information technology, cybercrimes have emerged as a major global security threat – costing around $1 trillion a year.

The Cyberspace, Policy and Security Major provides you with critical understandings of contemporary challenges to security, particularly how transnational crime, terrorist organisations and state actors seek to exploit our reliance on information technology.

This major combines technical, security and criminology units to provide students with highly-relevant professional skills in security, intelligence, policy, governance, investigation and law enforcement.  You'll gain understandings of the architecture, operation and protection of IT systems, consider critical issues in the governance and implementation of cyber security, explore the roles of government and industry in ensuring cybersecurity, and identify the processes by which cybercrime is investigated and prosecuted.

3 reasons to study Cyberspace, Policy & Security at Murdoch

• In Australia, cybersecurity is recognised as one of the country’s principal security risks – a concern that escalated during the Covid pandemic due to our increased dependence on the internet, meaning there are many employment opportunities.
• Students at Murdoch are able to explore work integrated learning opportunities to work alongside industry partners and gain practical experience.
• Murdoch students get a competitive advantage in their career as they explore national and international security issues, particularly in relation to the Middle East, Southeast and South Asia, where our teaching staff have special expertise.

What you’ll learn

• Cyber security and its challenges in policy, governance, technical, and enforcement contexts.
• Competing strategies, theoretical understandings, and sources of knowledge that inform approaches to cyber security.
• How to apply technical skills, investigative strategies and theoretical approaches in order to solve real-world problems and design cyber security solutions.
• How to design and manage projects of increasing sophistication, involving ethical inquiry, while working independently and with others.