Course Description
This is an advanced course on computer and network security. The course will mainly focus on reading and analyzing recent top- tier research publications in the field of computer security and privacy and on the research and development of systems that can enforce security and privacy in the real world.
Athena Title
NET ATTACK AND DEF
Prerequisite
CSCI 4760/6760 or CSCI 4250/6250 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course focuses on analyzing advanced computer network attacks and defense systems. At the beginning of the course, several attacks will be analyzed and divided in classes. For each class of attacks, the course will introduce defense systems that can counter those attacks. Particular attention will be given to identifying the advantages and limitations of all the analyzed attacks and defense systems. The main objective is to learn how to think as an attacker so that the attacker's next moves can be anticipated and more robust defense systems can be designed and developed. At the end of the course, the students will be able to analyze a defense system under a specific threat model, identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system, and devise approaches that can improve on the security properties of the system. Also, students will be able to generalize from a specific threat model and identify how strengths and weaknesses of a defense system change when certain assumptions regarding the threats are relaxed. Furthermore, the course will provide students with hands-on experience in designing and implementing systems that can defend a computer network from sophisticated attacks.
Topical Outline
* Introduction to security * Fundamental components of computer and network security * Malicious software (a.k.a., malware) and what damage it can do to a system or network * How Botnets operate: the role of the Command and Control (C&C) channel * Advanced system-level malware detection techniques * Modeling and detecting the network behavior of malware * Intrusion detection systems and approaches: Misuse-based vs. Anomaly-based intrusion detection Host-based vs. Network-based intrusion detection * Security in social networks: spam, phishing, and malware in the Facebook/Twitter era * Data privacy: recovering private information from anonymized public datasets * Applications of cryptography and self-destructing data