Spring EE693F Syllabus: Computer and Network Security, 3 credits

Course Description: We will study basic security theory, current practices, and emerging research issues in this class. The course consists of two parts. The first part covers the fundamentals of computer and network security, and the second part focuses on research projects on the state-of-art computer and network security issues and challenges.

Prerequisites: Please talk to the instructor. Basic understanding of computer systems and programming languages.

Class Format: Lectures are combined with discussions and, if applicable, student presentations and discussions of advanced topics. Students are expected to be active participants, by studying the relevant chapters and/or research papers, and participating at in-class discussions.

Class Time and Location:

MWF 1230-0120p at Holmes Hall 389.

Instructor: Yingfei Dong

Contacts: edu or 956-3448 by phone. Your comments are welcome.

Office Hours: Holmes Hall 442, one hour after the class, or by email appointment.

Textbook: (required) Cryptography and Network Security, 5th Edition, William Stallings, ISBN: 0136097049, Prentice Hall, Copyright: Jan. 2010.

Handouts/Notes and Supplemental Text: will be available on-line or distributed in classes.

Supplemental Text

Introduction to Computer Security, Matt Bishop, ISBN: 0-321-24744-2, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2008.
Network Security with OpenSSL, John Viega, Matt Messier, Pravir Chandra, O'Reilly Media, ISBN: 059600270X.
OpenSSL Org., http://www.openssl.org/
Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone, , Handbook of Applied Cryptography, CRC Press, ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7, October 1996, http://www.cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/

Announcements

Please check the class web site frequently at

http://www.ee.hawaii.edu/~dong/EE693F/Announcements.htm

Main Topics

Part.1 Fundamentals: (1) Basics of cryptography: symmetric and public-key encryption, certificates, cryptographic hash functions. (2) Authentication and key establishment. (3) Current Security Protocols and Applications: IP security (IPsec), Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS), openssl.

Part.2 State-of-Art Research Projects: (1) Host Vulnerability (2) Denial of service attacks, (3) Malware: Internet worms, viruses, (4) Botnets, (5) Spam. (6) Firewalls and intrusion detection systems.

Grading:

Homework (work in pairs), Quizzes	20%
Paper Survey and Presentation	30%
Participation (contribution in discussions and questions)	5%
Project (work in teams)	45%

Assignments Guidelines:

Unless otherwise specified, all assignments and projects are individual work.
Assignments and Late Penalty: Assignments and projects will be posted at the class web site. Assignments & projects are due before the beginning of the class on the due day. See Topics and Notes for the due dates. Points will be deducted from late assignments: 50% for the first 24 hours after the due time, 100% after that. No extension will be granted except for documented emergency.
Start to work on the assignments as early as possible.
Identification page: All assignments must have your name, and course number at the top of the first page.
Please staple all the pages together at the top-left corner.
Please arrange the solutions following the sequence of the questions.
Word processing: It is required that you type your reports. Use a word processor and appropriate typesetting and drawing tools to do the assignments. Spell-checking the whole document before printing it. You may loose points due to spelling or grammatical errors.

Policies:

Make-up exams will generally not be given. Missing a quiz or exam will result in a score of zero unless extreme extenuating circumstances are discussed with the professor ahead of time or verifiable proof is presented
Attendance Policy: You are expected to attend all classes. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get hold of whatever may have been discussed in the class.
If you think you have lost some points due to grading errors, make sure you approach the instructor within a week after the assignment, project, or test is returned to you.
To get the most out of this class, you need to read the textbooks and spend time using computers regularly. Be prepared for a class by preview the material to be covered in that class and participate in discussions and problem-solving exercises, if applicable, in the class.
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in any form. The integrity of our program depends on the integrity of the work done by each student. The University expects a student to maintain a high standard of individual honor in his/her scholastic work. Please refer to UH Student Conduct Code at http://www.catalog.hawaii.edu/reference/appendix02.htm for Academic Honesty, Cheating, Plagiarism, Disciplinary Action, etc.

Paper Reading on distributed architecture and systems

http://www.ee.hawaii.edu/~dong/EE693F/PaperReadingList.htm

Projects (work in teams of 1 or 2 students): A list of project suggestions is provided. Each team creates a Web page presenting the progress and the results of their projects. A team will give a presentation of their projects. Projects are subject to approval by the end of Oct. More details will be provided later on the class web site. You can propose your own project subject to approval. Sample Projects: 1) TPM remote attestation; 2) synchronized network; 3) host security evaluation; etc. We will determine the projects based on students background.

Advice on Professional Presentation:

Mark Hill, “Oral Presentation Advice”, http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html
Charles Van Loan, “The Short Talk,” http://www.ee.hawaii.edu/~dong/GoodAdvice/ShortTalk.html
John Farrell, “What to Say in a Good Research Talk,”
http://www.ee.hawaii.edu/~dong/GoodAdvice/ResearchTalk.JohnFarrell.html
Mark Leone's Collection, http://www.ee.hawaii.edu/~dong/GoodAdvice/CollectionOfAdvice.html

Homework: will be available on-line or distributed in classes. Please choose homework partner(s). You are encouraged to discuss your homework with your partner, but you must write your answer alone.

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in any form. The integrity of our program depends on the integrity of the work done by each student. The University expects a student to maintain a high standard of individual honor in his/her scholastic work. Please refer to UH Student Conduct Code at http://www.catalog.hawaii.edu/reference/appendix02.htm for Academic Honesty, Cheating, Plagiarism, Disciplinary Action, etc.

Specifically, you must do your homework and examinations yourself, on your own, unless specifically stated otherwise in the assignment. You may discuss the homework with anyone, and use any reference material, provided you do not copy any other person's work, either in whole or in part. You may discuss assignments in general terms, but you are not allowed to share any details of actual algorithms or of program code. You may help someone else debug their program as long as you do not substitute in your own code when there are problems. Turning in a copy of someone else's program, even a copy with extensive changes made to it, is a very serious offense in this course. Penalties will be severe and automatic. (Minimum penalty: F grade for the course.)

What is plagiarism? "In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from another." W. S. Achtert and J. Gibaldi, The MLA Style Manual, New York, Modern Language Association of America, 1985, p. 4.

You are a class of diverse talents, diverse backgrounds, and diverse learning styles. Because not all students learn the same way, the instructor will try a variety of teaching styles to present the material. Some you will like, others you will not. Please be aware, what works for you may not necessarily work for others in the class and vice versa. Therefore, you are expected to actively participate in your own education to make the best of all situations whether you like them or not. Please contact me directly if you have any comments about the class.