CS 426 General Information

List of topics

 ... and the book chapter for each.  You can also find useful material in most textbooks
on information security (looking up a keyword in a textbook's index tells you where 
it is covered in the book).  An online search often comes up with surprisingly useful 
online information on a topic, as does the use of wikipedia, etc.  

Course standards and policies

Lectures are Tues and Thur 4:30-5:45pm in HAAS G066

Instructor Office Hours: At the end of the class (walk up to the instructor at the end of the lecture)

... or by appointment.

TA web site (for messages from TA and project info)

News Items:

* On letter-grade assignment after the final exam

* Examples of past exam questions (PDF)

* When sending me email please include "CS426" in the subject ...

 ... to guarantee priority processing of your email; I am flooded with non-spam email every day,
most of which is slow-processed unless it includes something that makes me treat it with priority
(like "CS426" in the subject, or email from someone with whom I collaborate, etc).
I generally prefer to answer questions about the class in person, either during my office
hours or in the classroom, because the communication bandwidth is better than email.

* Homeworks (PDF):

Hwk 1

Hwk 1 solution

Hwk 2

Hwk 2 solution

Hwk 3

Hwk 3 solution

Hwk 4

Hwk 4 solution

Hwk 5

Hwk 5 solution

* Copies of slides used in lectures (PDF):

Note that some slides contain suggestions for further reading (in addition to the book)

Module 1 - Course overview and basic definitions

Module 2 - Cryptography: Terminology, classic ciphers

Module 3 - Cryptography: Block ciphers and encryption modes (modified 1/14/2013)

Module 4 - Cryptography: Hash functions

Module 5 - Cryptography: Public-key cryptography, examples of protocol failures

Module 6 - Program security

Modules 7 and 8 - Malicious programs

Module 9 - Browser security

Module 10 - Browser and web app security

Module 11 and 12 - OS overview + Authentication

Module 13 - Access control

Module 14 - Access control in Unix

Modules 15 and 16 - MLS and Bell-La Padula

Module 17 - Integrity protection

Modules 18 and 19 - TCB, orange book, common criteria

Modules 20 and 21 - Network protocols

Module 22 - Wireless communication

Module 23 - Network attacks

Module 24 - Intrusion detection and audit

Module 25 - Online anonymity

Email question received: "is traffic between 2 successive Tor relays encrypted on top of the 
Tor client's encryption?" to which the answer is yes, TLS encryption is used for all such links

Module 26 - Legal issues

Module 27 - E-policy

Module 28 - Information hiding

Module 29 - Zero-knowledge proofs

* Additional reading assignments:

... on topics dicussed in class but that are not in the above slides

Anonymous communication in a group

Chaffing and winnowing

Use of salt in passwords

Risk Analysis

Fault tree analysis