Announcements:
May 7: The review session room was just confirmed. We'll be in the linux lab next Monday at 10:30am.
April 29: I've been informed by several students about DETER going down today off and on. If you are having trouble logging in, you may submit this lab tomorrow instead of tonight.
April 28: The review sheet of questions which may be helpful for the final exam is now available.
April 28: A final note on due dates: The lab is due by tomorrow (Monday the 29th) at midnight. The final essay is due by midnight next Tuesday (which is reading day), although you are welcome to submit it any time.
April 27: For the final essay, I'd like you to put yourself in the mindset of a security expert evaluating different systems or protocols. To this end, select one paper from the following list: collaborative DDoS defenses, Tor (the onion router mentioned in class), and Secure BGP. Each of these dives more deeply into a protocol or system that is essentially designed to secure some aspect of internet communication. I'd like this final essay to contain a brief summary of what it is protecting and how, along with your opinion on if it works (or will work if newer or not currently implemented). Please be sure to summarize relevant strenths and weaknesses, and feel free to gather data on how implementation has proceeded if it is an older protocol.
April 23: We will have a guest lecture from industry in class on this Thursday. (Please come prepared to take notes, since the topics he covers will be covered on the final exam.)
April 23: Office hours tomorrow (Wednesday) will be from 1-2pm, rather than the usual 2-3pm time slot.
April 12: Lab 7 is available. Note that you may work with a partner. Part 1 is required, and you must complete either part 2 or part 3 (but you may choose which one). If you choose to do all three, I will grade based on the highest two grades. The lab is due Thursday, April 25.
April 2: For your next essay, you may choose between an article on crime, Defining the boundaries of computer crime, and one on computer ethics, An analysis of Ethics as Foundation of Information Security in Distributed Systems. In either case, please address the question of whether you agree with the authors conclusion. Include arguments for and/or against their position, and feel free to use other sources that address these issues (properly cited and documented). This essay will be due next Thursday, April 11.
March 27: My son is home sick today, so I'll need to move my office hours again. I'll be in from 11-12; if you have any questions but can't make that time, please send me an email and we'll reschedule.
March 25: I need to cancel my office hours altogether today, since neither of my kids has school due to the snow. Please email me or see me in class tomorrow to set up a time to meet if you were hoping to catch me today; I'll be around the test of this week and am happy to reschedule.
March 21: Lab 6 is available. It will be due Wednesday, April 3. Note that you must complete this lab individually.
March 19: If you are having trouble mounting the second image from lab 5, please try the following command:
workbench% sudo mount -t ext2 /dev/loop0 sda1
Apparantly the image is a bit older, so some of the images are requiring you to specify the filesystem type. Apologies for any difficulties!Feb. 17: The next lab assignment is available. It will be due on Thursday, March 21, by 11:59pm. You are welcome to work with a partner on this one as well. Please note I expect you to need two weeks for this one (which is why you have 2 weeks plus the week of break). I'd advise at least loading and starting before break, because I am giving plenty of time for you to get started and detect any issues with it WELL before the due date.
Feb. 27: The next essay will be over Lessons Learned in Implementing and Deploying Crypto Software, by Peter Gutmann. Please review/summarize this paper, with a clear thesis summarizing points that you agree and disagree with from his work; please feel free to review the rubric from last time, as well as to use any additional relevant sources that you would like to cite.
Feb. 19: To clarify, you are allowed to work with a partner on lab 4. If you do, please submit a single writeup, and include information documenting the partnership - what each of you was responsible for and how you arranged the work (regular meetings, separate work time with check-ins, etc.). Please keep in mind that both of you are responsible for learning and understanding the material, which may well appear on exams.
Feb. 19: The midterm exam will be next week, on Thursday, Feb. 25. We will have a review in class on Tuesday before the exam. If you need to schedule accomadations with the testing center, please bring the forms to me ASAP so we can get everything set up.
Feb. 13: Lab 4 is available; it will be due next Thursday, Feb. 21, by 11:59pm.
Jan. 31: Lab 3 is available; it will be due Tuesday, Feb. 12.
Jan. 22: Homework 2 (covering cryptography) is available; it will be due on Tuesday, Feb. 5, by the start of class.
Jan. 22: We will not have class this Thursday, Jan. 24, since I will be out of town. Instead, please read the article on No Tech Hacking. Please write a 1-2 page essay addressing the issue of no tech hacking: is it easier or more important than more "technical" approaches to hacking? Which do you think is the more difficult or essential challenge if you are a computer security expert assignment to keep systems safe? This essay will be due next Tuesday, Jan. 29, at the start of class.
Jan. 18: Lab 1 will be due via email next Wednesday at 11:59pm via email. The next homework will be posted here shortly, so stay tuned.
Jan. 15: In the lab 1 writeup, I mention a "getting started with DETER" handout, which I did not actually hand out today. Here's a pdf version of the handout, so that you can go over how to acces the system.
Jan. 12: Please keep an eye out for an email from a site called DETER, which will be the main resource we use for assignments. It will contain login and password information for the system, so don't delete the email. You can check out homework 1 to read about the system and get started once the email arrives.
Welcome to CS443! Please be sure to read course policies carefully, and check this page daily for updates or announcements.