COMS W4181: Security 1 (Fall 2024) 


Lecture Details

Instructor: Suman Jana
Office: Mudd 412
Office hours: Wednesday (2:30-3:30 pm)
TA Office hours: TBD
Classroom: Mudd 1127
Class hours: Monday and Wednesday (1:10-2:25 pm)

Description

This class will teach you different fundamental aspects of computer security including basics of cryptography, network security, host security, software and hardware security. The goal of this class is to explore different security problems that affect real-world systems and different techniques that can prevent/mitigate such issues.

Late policy: You have 2 late days in total that you can use on your 2 homework assignments as you please (the minimum unit you can use is 1 day). You will get 0 points if you submit late after using up these two late days.

Prerequisite

COMS W3157 Advanced programming. In general, you should be generally comfortable to deal with complex large source code (> 1000 lines of C/C++ code) and have basic knowledge of testing/debugging tools like gdb, gcov, etc. 

Grading 


Book: Berkeley security book
Optional: Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, Thinking Security: Stopping Next Year's Hackers. 

Schedule

Date

Topics

Lecture slides & Reading

Sep 4 

Introduction & Threat models 

intro.pptx, intro.pdf 

Sep 9 

Crypto I - basics, ciphers 

crypto.ppt, crypto.pdf, optional reading: Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World 2nd ed. by Kaufman et al. (Chapters 5.1-2, 5.6-7, 2.1-6, 4.2, and 6.1-6) 

Sep 11 

Crypto II - public key, hash functions 


Sep 18 

Crypto (cntd.) 


Sep 20 

Crypto (cntd.) 


Sep 25 

Crypto (cntd.) 


Sept 27 

Crypto (cntd.) 


Oct 7 

Network Security: SSL/TLS, HTTPS 

ssl.ppt, ssl.pdf 

Oct 9 

Network Security: SSL/TLS, HTTPS (cntd.) 


Oct 14 

Midterm (in-class, open notes/books, no internet) 


Oct 16 

 Network Security: SSL/TLS, HTTPS (cntd.)



Oct 21


Web Security


web_sec.pptx, web_sec.pdf



Nov 11


Internet Security: TCP/IP, DNS, BGP


tcp-dns.pptx, tcp-dns.pdf



Network defense: Firewalls, VPNs, and Intrusion Detection


network-defense.pptx, network-defense.pdf