Cyber Security & Digital Forensics

Cybercrime is evolving fast. Learn how to uncover threats, investigate attacks, and protect vital systems with cyber security and digital forensic techniques.

In an increasingly connected world, cyber-attacks are becoming more advanced and harder to detect. As digital crime evolves, organisations need professionals with the skills to investigate threats and defend against them.

On this cyber security and digital forensics degree, you’ll develop the technical expertise to analyse digital evidence, uncover cyber incidents, and protect systems from attack. By combining two complementary subjects into one degree, you'll gain a solid understanding of how digital threats emerge, how investigators trace digital activity, and how organisations respond to attacks.

You'll learn in dedicated facilities, through hands-on workshops, simulations, and practical lab-based learning using industry-standard forensic and security tools like EnCase, Cellebrite, Autopsy, and FTK Imager. This approach helps you build the practical experience needed to prepare for a career in cyber security and digital forensics.

As part of this cyber security degree, you'll:
• Investigate digital devices and analyse forensic evidence



• Explore ethical hacking, penetration testing, and systems security using industry-standard techniques



• Learn how organisations defend networks, systems, and data from cyber threats



• Use our bespoke Hacktivity system to simulate real business systems, cyber threats, and attacks



• Develop transferable analytical, technical, communication, and problem-solving skills



By graduation, you'll be ready to pursue careers across cyber security, digital forensics, investigations, and the wider technology industry.

ACCREDITATIONS
This course is accredited by the British Computer Society

Find out more
Learn by doing
Cyber security and digital forensics are practical, fast-moving fields – and this course reflects that. You'll learn through hands-on workshops, labs, simulations, and real-world scenarios designed to build the technical skills employers look for.

Choose the degree that fits your future
You could extend your learning and earn a master's qualification by choosing the four-year MEng Cyber Security & Digital Forensics course. Or, if you'd prefer to focus solely on cyber security, you could study our BSc (Hons) Cyber Security degree.

Gain a specialised skill set
From ethical hacking and network security to mobile forensics and incident investigation, you'll explore the techniques used to investigate threats and defend digital systems. You'll also examine how cyberattacks happen, how organisations respond, and how digital evidence is recovered and analysed.

Learn from industry-connected experts
Your teaching team works closely with organisations, including West Yorkshire Police via the Cybercrime and Security Innovation Centre, helping connect your learning to current industry challenges and investigative practice.

Build real experience
You'll have the opportunity to complete a paid placement year between your second and third year, helping you gain valuable industry experience, strengthen your CV, and prepare for graduate roles.

Why study the BSc Cyber Security & Digital Forensics degree at Leeds Beckett University?
• Combine cyber security with digital forensics to build specialist expertise across two fast-growing areas of computing



• Learn practical investigative, ethical hacking, penetration testing, and systems security techniques



- 92% of students on BSc (Hons) Cyber Security & Digital Forensics were positive about the availability of specialist facilities*


• Learn from industry-connected staff working with organisations, including West Yorkshire Police via the Cybercrime and Security Innovation Centre



• Build hands-on experience through practical labs, simulations, and a paid placement year opportunity



*National Student Survey 2026

Curiosity needs thinkers, makers, and dreamers. It needs you!

Leeds Beckett believes that when unlike minds come together, incredible things happen. That’s why they don’t just teach; they collaborate, challenge and inspire.

Their courses are meticulously designed, combining practical experience through work placements with a vibrant location at the heart of one of the UK’s largest student communities. Boasting a top 10 UK ranking for both course quality and student life (Unicompare 2026) and a prestigious five-star QS rating, LBU sets the standard for excellence.

The university prioritises student wellbeing and stands among just seven universities nationwide to earn the University Mental Health Charter Award - proof of their unwavering commitment to advancing mental health and wellbeing.

All of this is why 98% of Leeds Beckett students and graduates would recommend studying at the university to a friend (Unicompare, 2024 reviews).