A42 has developed a hands-on laboratory curriculum for the Master’s degree program at Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics (NURE). Integrated into the "Vulnerability Analysis Systems and Ethical Hacking" course, the program is designed to teach students how to combine offensive and defensive cybersecurity practices with artificial intelligence technologies.
Built on real-world industry practices, the curriculum mirrors workflows within dedicated security units. Throughout the semester, students take on three core roles:
- Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Analyst: conducting passive and active reconnaissance using open and closed sources.
- Ethical Hacker (Penetration Tester): identifying vulnerabilities, executing controlled exploits, and simulating adversary post-exploitation behavior within a compromised environment.
- Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst: transitioning to defensive operations, incident response, AI system security auditing, and information security management workflows.
Alongside using established public solutions, students will learn step-by-step how to develop their own autonomous agents tailored to specific cybersecurity tasks.
The educational framework relies on a human-in-the-loop approach. While artificial intelligence serves as an assistant to automate routine operations, critical decision-making, data validation, attack vector analysis, and ultimate accountability remain strictly with the human specialist.
All offensive exercises are conducted in full compliance with legal and educational boundaries, hosted within an isolated lab environment deployed by the A42 team.
This initiative marks the next milestone in the strategic partnership between A42 and NURE, aimed at training professionals capable of countering next-generation cyber threats in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.
