Information Security

Course Description

This is a hands-on introductory security course for for upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students. Students will learn the basics of cryptography and methods for protecting systems from attack. We will cover malicious software and other attacks that occur over the network, as well as the perimeter defenses used to stop these attacks. Students will then learn about program vulnerabilities that lead to most of the security problems in computing today. We will conclude with the other administrative issues that security professionals must consider in their jobs.

Course Objectives

• Use cryptographic primitives directly in order to understand their respective uses and how they work together to provide security.
• Understand malware mechanism such as hooking and how hooking can be subverted for malicious purposes.
• Set up and use defensive and security testing technologies in the network and operating system in order to see how they defend against attacks.
• Exploit software vulnerabilities in order to understand how they work and how defenses could stop them.
• Study a range of concepts to gain a broad understanding of the field of cyber security.

Prerequisites

• This course will explore low-level aspects of operating systems and compilers. Prior programming experience in these areas is helpful, but the course is self-contained.

📙 Required Textbooks