18-630 / 19-631 / 95-830: Introduction to Security and Policy

Instructors:
Adrian Perrig (office hour Monday 3-4pm in CIC 2110) and Dave Farber.
TAs: Ting-Fang Yen (office hour Tuesday 4-5pm in CIC 2214) and Mark Luk (office hour Fridays 2:30-3:30pm in CIC 2206).
We will meet Monday and Wednesday in Wean Hall 5403 10:30am-11:50am.
Email should be sent only to 18630-f06-instructors (at) lists.andrew.cmu.edu

Course Description:
The growing importance of networks and distributed systems, and their use to support safety-critical applications, has made computer and communications security a central issue for systems today. This course will introduce students to the technical and policy foundations of computer and communications security. These foundations will be illustrated using deployed systems as case studies. The course will assume a basic working knowledge of computers and networks, but will not assume any prior exposure to topics in computer or communications security. Graduate standing or permission of the instructor is required.

Syllabus

Suggested Textbooks (optional):
Introduction to Cryptography with Coding Theory by Trappe and Washington, 2nd revision.
Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice by William Stallings, 4th revision (3rd revision ok).
Security Engineering by Ross Anderson.

Great software tool to learn more about cryptographic algorithms: CrypTool.

Late Policy:
The deadline for any assignment can be extended with a 10% penalty per day. No deadline can be extended by more than two days. so assignments will NOT be accepted 48 hours after the due date.

Collaboration Policy:
Students are encouraged to talk to each other, to the TAs, to the instructor, or to anyone else about any of the assignments. Any assistance, though, must be limited to discussion of the problem and sketching general approaches to a solution. Each student must write out his or her own solutions to the homeworks. Consulting another student's or group's solution is prohibited, and submitted solutions may not be copied from any source. These and any other form of collaboration on assignments constitute cheating. If you have any question about whether some activity would constitute cheating, please feel free to ask.

Grading:
Your final grade for the course will be based on the following weights for the individual assignments: The Midterm and Final Exams will be closed-book.