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The goal of this course is to provide an understanding computer security.
At the end of this course you will understand:
- entity and message origin authentication and have notions of the cryptographic techniques that can be used to achieve them;
- data/message confidentiality and/or integrity and have notions of the cryptographic techniques that can be used to achieve them;
- the differences between symmetric cryptography and public-key cryptography;
- what cryptographic signatures achieve and how they work cryptographically;
- how secret keys can be established over a public channel;
- the importance of authenticating public keys and different ways to realize it;
- how some of the real-world authentication protocols work;
- the difference between authentication and authorization;
- one of the most important types of generic attacks - privilege escalation and its many forms;
- and recognize and discover in practice basic forms of buffer overflow attacks, session hijacks, race conditions etc.;
- different types of malicious software, how they infect, spread and harm the computer systems;
- the basic principles of side channel attacks (SCA) and will be able to recognize some common types of SCA and how to protect from them;
- what network security is all about;
- the layers in the most widespread protocol stacks and their relevance for network security;
- different types of network attacks and votnets;
- difference between privacy and anonymity;
- the basic functionality of the Tor Browser;
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Security deals with questions such as: Who are you? and: Should you be doing that? and is basically about regulating access to assets. Authentication of entities and information, protection of confidentiality and privacy, access control and authorization are basic aspects of security. It is a very important aspect of modern information technology: personal devices, public/industrial infrastructure and the networks, operating systems, software, databases and hardware they run on.
This bachelor course introduces the basics of computer security. It is the first semester course for the computer science curriculum, but the course can be followed by students from other disciplines (artifical intelligence, mathematics, physics, economics, psychology etc) as well, when they have some basic knowledge and interest in computer science.
It provides an introduction to cryptography, network security and software and operating systems security.
Cryptography provides a mathematical toolset for realising key security goals in the form of protocols for encryption, authentication and signatures. It requires the distribution and management of secret, private and public keys and cryptography provides also protocols for key establishment and authentication. The course treats the following aspects of user authentication and cryptography:
- user authentication by means of passwords, biometrics and cryptographic protocols, both symmetric and public-key;
- the protection of communication and messages: confidentiality by encryption and authentication by message authentication codes and cryptographic signatures;
- the establishment of symmetric keys over a public channel;
- the authentication of public keys: non-institutionalized methods and public key infrastructure (PKI);
The course explains the different cryptographic operations using a limited number of components: extendable output functions (XOF) and discrete-log based cryptography.
Software and operating system security are essential as all IT systems make use of them. The course treats the following aspects of software and operating system security:
- real-world authentication protocols and the distinction between authentication vs authorization;
- privilege escalation attacks including buffer overflows, session hijacks, race conditions etc.;
- malware - different types and how it works;
- basic principles of side channel attacks including timing and TEMPEST attacks;
Network security is relevant for many different devices, technologies, and processes. It helps to protect communication networks from attacks that can disable services, access sensitive information, or manipulate traffic. The course treats the following aspects of network security:
- what is network security?
- the protocol stacks OSI and TCP/IP and their relation and relevance for network security;
- application-layer attacks and resource-efficient attacks and countermeasures;
- botnets;
- difference between privacy and anonymity;
- anonymity tool: the Tor Browser, its benefits and limitations
Instructional Modes
- Lecture
- Tutorial
- Self-study
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| Basic knowledge of computer science and discrete mathematics. |
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Final grade is 0.1 times the grades of the homework plus 0.9 times the grade of the final exam
Resit grade is 0.1 times the grades of the homework plus 0.9 times the grade of the resit exam
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| The lectures for the course will be in English, the course material and the exercises will also be in English. |
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