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

Instructors: David Farber (office hour on request) and Adrian Perrig (office hour Tuesdays 2-3pm in Hamerschlag Hall B204).
TAs: Scott Garriss (office hour Monday 5-6pm in Hamerschlag Hall D-level conference room (HH D-210) and Asad Samar (office hour Tuesday 3-4pm in Hamerschlag Hall D-level conference room).
We will meet Tuesday and Thursday in Porter Hall A18A 11:30am-12:50pm.
Email should be sent only to 18630-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 (all are optional):
Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems by Ross Anderson.
Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World by Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, Mike Speciner.
Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice by William Stallings.

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 in-class and closed-book.