Illustrative: packages on a board with routed traces carrying clocked signals, or a data hall of racks and their status lights

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Technology and Digital Systems

Cyber, Digital and Space Systems

Cybersecurity and digital resilience

Cybersecurity and digital resilience, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Cybersecurity and digital resilience: foundations and practice

This area covers the security and continuity of digital systems and the services that depend on them, against attack, failure and dependence on few providers.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

Updates the evidence on threat actors, vectors and targeted sectors used to prioritise controls and scenarios. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), ENISA Threat Landscape 2026, 22 September 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define threat, vulnerability and impact and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain cyber threat landscape and cyber risk management frameworks with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against identity and data security, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Cyber threat landscape
    • Cyber threat landscape
    • Cyber risk management frameworks
    • Identity and data security
  2. Cloud and third-party risk
    • Cloud and third-party risk
    • Incident response and recovery
    • Critical service cyber resilience
  3. Post-quantum migration
    • Post-quantum migration
    • Software supply-chain security
    • Cyber risk quantification
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • A CVSS score measures technical severity under worst-case assumptions, not likelihood; most high and critical vulnerabilities are never exploited, so a queue built on severity alone outgrows any patch capacity, while a queue filtered by exploitation probability and confirmed exploitation can be cleared.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X6 Cyber and digital security risk
  • NRS-T8 Software and supply-chain integrity risk
  • NRS-H51 Hazard family: Malicious compromise
  • NRS-H52 Hazard family: Information-integrity attacks
  • NRS-H53 Hazard family: Cyber-physical disruption
  • NRS-H93 Hazard family: Identity, trust and cryptographic failure
  • NRS-H94 Hazard family: Systemic cyber events
  • NRS-M19 Method fabric: Cyber, AI and frontier technology

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

Open now in this discipline

References

  1. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), ENISA Threat Landscape 2026, 22 September 2026
  2. Jacobs, Romanosky, Edwards, Adjerid and Roytman, Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), 2021
  3. Allodi and Massacci, Comparing Vulnerability Severity and Exploits Using Case-Control Studies, 2014
  4. NIST, The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, 2024
02Live map

Connected activity in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Night-time lights and population density, the footprint of electrified, connected activity, over the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Connected activity

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Connected activity, framed on the United Kingdom and Ireland.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Optional layers (3 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

Frontier course · L3 advanced, programme courses and standards

Cybersecurity and digital resilience: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed cybersecurity and digital resilience between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Cybersecurity and digital resilience: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

Updates the evidence on threat actors, vectors and targeted sectors used to prioritise controls and scenarios. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), ENISA Threat Landscape 2026, 22 September 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in cybersecurity and digital resilience since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce ENISA Threat Landscape 2026 highlights dependency and supply-chain attacks on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. ENISA Threat Landscape 2026 highlights dependency and supply-chain attacks
    • Covering 2025 incidents, ENISA reports DDoS as the most common incident type, public administration as the top target, phishing as the leading social engineering vector and large impacts from attacks on cyber dependencies.
    • Updates the evidence on threat actors, vectors and targeted sectors used to prioritise controls and scenarios.
    • European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), 22 September 2026
  2. Cyber Resilience Act reporting duties start with single platform
    • From 11 September 2026, manufacturers must report actively exploited vulnerabilities and severe incidents in products with digital elements through ENISA's Single Reporting Platform; main CRA security requirements apply from December 2027.
    • Creates binding vulnerability disclosure timelines for product makers and new incident data for supply-chain risk.
    • European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), 11 September 2026
  3. Incident response guidance is revised around the updated cybersecurity framework
    • NIST finalised SP 800-61 Revision 3, replacing its incident handling guide with recommendations organised by the six Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 functions and integrating incident response into wider risk management.
    • Aligns incident preparation, detection, response and recovery with the governance language most organisations already use.
    • National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1 April 2025
  4. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X6 Cyber and digital security risk
  • NRS-T8 Software and supply-chain integrity risk
  • NRS-H51 Hazard family: Malicious compromise
  • NRS-H52 Hazard family: Information-integrity attacks
  • NRS-H53 Hazard family: Cyber-physical disruption
  • NRS-H93 Hazard family: Identity, trust and cryptographic failure
  • NRS-H94 Hazard family: Systemic cyber events
  • NRS-M19 Method fabric: Cyber, AI and frontier technology

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

Open now in this discipline

References

  1. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), ENISA Threat Landscape 2026, 22 September 2026
  2. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), The CRA Single Reporting Platform is launched, 11 September 2026
  3. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Incident Response Recommendations and Considerations for Cybersecurity Risk Management: A CSF 2.0 Community Profile (SP 800-61 Rev. 3), 1 April 2025
  4. Jacobs, Romanosky, Edwards, Adjerid and Roytman, Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), 2021
  5. Allodi and Massacci, Comparing Vulnerability Severity and Exploits Using Case-Control Studies, 2014
  6. NIST, The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, 2024
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Threat, vulnerability and impact

The three elements that combine into cyber risk: who may attack, what weakness they exploit and what harm follows.

Term

Ransomware

Malware that encrypts or steals data and demands payment.

Term

Zero trust

A security model that verifies every request instead of trusting a network location.

Term

Recovery time objective

The target time to restore a system or service after an incident.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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