The Security & Privacy Track
We are constantly increasing our reliance on computers for managing information from tasks both great and small. In scenarios ranging from our personal lives to our nation's critical infrastructure, the security and privacy of information is a fundamental challenge in computer science.
The Department of Computer Science offers to its B.S. students the chance to complete a concentration in Security & Privacy. The S&P concentration requires no additional courses within the major. Our courses are taught by faculty doing cutting-edge research in security and privacy, including Kevin Fu, Brian Levine, and Gerome Miklau. We encourage students to not only take our classes, but to get involved in undergraduate research with these professors. Our students have graduated to positions in industry and graduate school.
Requirements
- Three required courses:
- 311 Algorithms
- 377 Operating Systems
- 460 Intro to Security
- Any one course from the following:
- 445 Information Systems
- 453 Computer Networks
- Any two courses from the following:
- 365 Digital Forensics
- 466 Appl. Crypto
- 691CC Adv. Security
- Two CS electives numbered 300 or above (not including 305).
In Spring 2010, Prof. Wayne Burleson is offering ECE 697AB Security Engineering, and the course can serve as a substitute for CS691CC for students in the Security & Privacy track.
Some descriptions of these classes follow.
- CS 460: Intro to Computer and Network Security. Next offered Fall 2009 (Misra).
Topics include ethics; fundamental defs; basic crypto tools, hardening linux systems;
Risk assessment; CVE; policy; secure programming; TCP/IP
vulnerabilities; Firewalls; securing DNS; anonymous routing; malware;
monitoring; IDS; incident handling; system recovery;
symmetric/asymmetric crypto; hashes; key management; sigs; kerberos;
PKI/SSL/VPN; kerberos implementations; DOS/DDOS; wireless security.
- CS 466: Applied Crypto. Next offered Spring 2009 (Fu).
Topic typically include the foundations of modern cryptography and
the humility of building practical cryptographic systems. Topics
include fundamentals of cryptography, applications, attacks, and
theory. The class draws on material from public key cryptography, hash
functions, symmetric cryptography, and other timely topics -- primarily
from number theoretic, performance, and definitional perspectives
- CS 365: Digital Forensics. Next offered Spring 2009 (Levine).
The course is a broad introduction to forensic investigation of digital information. We cover the acquisition, preservation, harvesting, analysis, and courtroom presentation of information from
file systems, operating systems, networks, database systems, applications, media files, and embedded systems. The primary goal of the class is to understand why and from where information is recoverable in these systems. We also review important case law and legal concepts.
- CS 453: Computer Networking. Next offered Fall 2009 (Kurose/Venkataramani). Security topics covered typically include principles of cryptography; authentication;
integrity; key distribution and certification; firewalls; attacks and
countermeasures; case studies.
- CS 454: Databases. Next offered Fall 2009. (Diao/Miklau)
- CS 691cc: Advanced Information Assurance. This course will not be offered again until after Spring 2010. Please plan accordingly. (Fu/Levine)
- You are also welcome to complete CS 496 (Independent study) and 499Y/499T (Honors research or honors thesis) using a security & privacy related topic. Talk first to your professors about completing this option and the UPD to receive permissions for counting 496/499 towards this track.
