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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 · Technology and Digital Systems

Department of Cyber, Digital and Space Systems

Some systems cascade through every sector when they fail: the networks and services attackers target, the identity and payment infrastructure that delivers public services at scale, and the satellites and ground segment that provide positioning, navigation, timing and communication.

See the disciplines Map Cyber, Digital and Space Systems on a real place
01Map

How its disciplines connect

The map

DepartmentDisciplineNexus Standard taught here

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02Disciplines

Disciplines of the department

A filled mark is one open course in the discipline.

03Maps

Build a twin of any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow department of Cyber, Digital and Space Systems on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.

West Cornwall: Goonhilly and the Porthcurno cable landings: a flat plan of the faculty twin. Terrain 0 to 245 m; 4 satellite dishes; 74 communication masts and towers; 12 telephone exchanges; 7 data centres and cable landing stations; 12 aerodromes; 1 telecom offices; Communication line 161 km; 729 known exploited vulnerabilities since 2023-10-17; Night-time lights, VIIRS day-night band: read live when the 3D twin opens. Contours every 25 metres from the elevation grid; communication cables by class; ground infrastructure as marks.
West Cornwall: Goonhilly and the Porthcurno cable landings, United Kingdom. Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the mapped ground infrastructure by kind, the mapped cables and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.
  • Terrain 0 to 245 m
  • 4 satellite dishes
  • 74 communication masts and towers
  • 12 telephone exchanges
  • 7 data centres and cable landing stations
  • 12 aerodromes
  • 1 telecom offices
  • Communication line 161 km
  • 729 known exploited vulnerabilities since 2023-10-17
  • Night-time lights, VIIRS day-night band: read live when the 3D twin opens
Credits and dates per layer are listed under the stage. Relief in the twin is exaggerated ×1.5 for legibility.

Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and – zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.

Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the mapped ground infrastructure by kind, the mapped cables and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.

The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).

04Live map

Earth observation in the Sahel

True-colour imagery, land cover, vegetation, snow and sea ice, over the Sahel.

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

Layers 1

Earth observation

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.

Earth observation, framed on the Sahel.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 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
  • MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC); 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.
  • Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • 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).
  • Past year, daily temperature and sunshine (NASA POWER): These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program..
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (10 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

  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
  • Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Snow cover: VIIRS NOAA-20 NDSI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Sea ice concentration: GHRSST MUR, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026

05Console

How the Cyber, Digital and Space Systems department teaches, as a process you can run

Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.

06Standards and evidence

Standards and evidence, research and evidence, learning, practice and connections

Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on

The Nexus Standards the department teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.

Nexus Standards at the AcademyThe Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for public review.

07Take part

Take part in Technology and Digital Systems

Start from who you are.

08Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is study here 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 department's courses?
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

Cybersecurity and digital resilience

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.

Term

Digital public infrastructure and digital identity

This area covers the shared digital systems, such as identity, payments and data exchange, that deliver services at societal scale, and their governance, safeguards and resilience.

Term

Space systems, space weather and navigation

This area covers the satellites, ground segments and services that provide positioning, navigation, timing and communication, and the risks to those space assets from space weather, debris, interference and attack.

Term

Operational technology and cyber-physical security

This area covers the security of systems that control physical processes: industrial control systems, SCADA, building and medical devices, vehicles and the industrial internet of things.

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.

Risk Academy
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Around the Department of Cyber, Digital and Space Systems

Department of Cyber, Digital and Space Systems

Choose a discipline

Each discipline page sets out its scope, courses, labs, technology and key terms.

Open Cybersecurity and digital resilience Browse the course catalogue