Syllabus
The syllabus below is the current official syllabus for CS427 in Kuwait University. This page was last updated on Jan 24, 2022.
Catalog Course Description
This course introduces the students to the principles of computer security, techniques and models. The course includes classical attack scenarios, defensive resources and techniques, and models for protecting systems and networks.
Prerequisite
The official prerequisites all CS321 and CS331. You are expected to have fully grasped the basic ideas in operating systems and computer networks. The course touches upon many fundamental concepts in the two courses and also briefly requires an understanding of the computability theory.
Textbook
The official textbook is
Introduction to Computer Security. 1st ed. by Goodrich, Michael, and Roberto Tamassia. Pearson, 2011. ISBN-10: 9780321512949.
There will be other resources such as papers and handouts that we will use in addition to the book. There are also supplementary notes in this website.
Major Topics Covered in the Course
| Topic | Hours |
|---|---|
| 1. Fundamental concepts: confidentiality, integrity, availability, basic symmetric and asymmetric encryption functions, Saltzer and Schroeder principles | 6 |
| 2. Authentication and Authorization: basic authentication systems, cryptographic protocols, authentication systems such as Kerberos, basic access control models. | 6 |
| 3. Malware: taxonomy, historical attacks, countermeasures | 3 |
| Operating system security: security of kernel, process security, address space randomization, application program integrity, sandboxing, secure coding practices, example systems (such as SELinux) | 6 |
| 4. Cryptography: Basic encryption and cipher algorithms, strongcryptographic keys, symmetric and asymmetric encryption/decryption algorithms, hashing properties and functions, public key infrastructure, digital signature, key exchange protocol attacks on cryptographic primitives. | 6 |
| 5. Network security: fundamentals, protocols, denial of service, DNSSEC, firewalls, intrusion detection, wireless security | 9 |
| 6. Security of the Web: attacks, defenses, and secure programming methods for the Web | 3 |
Grading
Midterms 50% Lab work 10% Final 40%
Learning Outcomes
- Understand and analyze security concepts, attacks, defenses, and secure protocols.
- Analyze security problems.
- Develop security solutions.