BU593D: DATABASES AND CYBERSECURITY FOR BIG DATA (2023-2024)

The concepts of a database and database management in which we address traditional SQL Relational Database development. Illustrations. Entity-Relationship model. Database design: logical design and the relational model. Normalisation; different normal forms. Physical design; file organisation and access; indexing. Database administration. Query by Example and SQL. Query optimisation. All of which will illustrate how these systems work. We also address modern NoSQL database systems, which are non-relational databases, illustrating how they are not table based, but instead utilise four different categories of database, namely key-value pairs, documents, graph databases or wide-column stores. 

Practical examples using MySQL for an SQL relational database, and MongoDb for a NoSQL database will be used to contrast the two different approached and how they are likely to behave at scale.

The course is structured as follows:
There will be 10 recorded lectures;
There will be 10 x 3 hour practical sessions, split between discussion sessions and practical tutorial sessions as required.

Lecture 1: Introduction
Database types, what happens when data becomes big data, performance issues to consider, choosing the right database type for your needs, cybersecurity issues with big data.

Tutorial 1: Environment setup session
Install and setup a virtual LAMP server, configure networking.

Lecture 2: Traditional database types
Relational databases, analytical databases, structured query language, pros and cons, dealing with data at scale, performance, cybersecurity issues, suitability for big data.

Tutorial 2: Using a traditional database
Creating a database, database structure, data input, importing data, querying data.

Lecture 3: Non traditional database types
Key-value pair data, column-oriented data, graph-based data, document-oriented data, query language, pros and cons, dealing with data at scale, performance, cybersecurity issues, suitability for big data.

Tutorial 3: Using a non traditional database
Creating a database, database structure, data input, importing data, querying data.

Lecture 4: The server environment
Creating a typical server environment, how databases fit into the mix, what big data means for this environment, cybersecurity issues.

Tutorial 4: Using a typical server environment
Configuring a typical linux server running Apache 2, with databases and PHP

Lecture 5: Database cybersecurity issues
Cyber security approach; people, process and technology; confidentiality, integrity and availability; configuration weaknesses; mitigation strategies.

Tutorial 5: Securing your data server
Identifying weaknesses, developing mitigation strategies, testing.

Lecture 6: Penetration testing
What is it, why should we do it, how do we do it and what benefits will we get from it?

Tutorial 6: Penetration testing
Here, we will carry out a penetration test on our server to establish just how secure it might be.

Lecture 7: Securing our system
Dealing with our people, checking our processes, resolving our technology issues.

Tutorial 7: Securing our system
Based on the results of the penetration test, we will mitigate all the weaknesses to secure our systems.

Lecture 8: Data warehouses vs data lakes vs big data
What are they? Are they not all the same? Which should we use, and why?

Tutorial 8: Attacking our system
Test attack the system to ensure it is properly secure.

Lecture 9: Cloud computing
What is cloud computing? Why should we use it? What are the pros and cons? How secure is it?

Tutorial 9: Cloud computing
How to install and setup a cloud server.

Lecture 10: The future of big data
What have we learned about big data? Where is it going from here?

Tutorial 10: Competition
Knockout competition for attackers and defenders.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

More Information about Week Numbers

There are no assessments for this course.