CS 698 - Fall 2011 - Special Topics: Security and Privacy in Computer Systems

The final exam is scheduled on December 15, 2011 (Thursday) between 6:00 - 8:30pm in FMH 313.
The final exam covers all the material (lecture 1 - 13) and will be closed books and closed notes.

Class schedule: Thursday 6:00 - 9:00 pm

Instructor: Reza Curtmola ; Email: ; Office: GITC 4301
Office hours (GITC 4301): M 1-2pm, W 4-5pm, and by appointment.

Important dates
(note that dates for the written assignments are tentative and may change)

Date	Event
09/29/11	Assignment 1 out
10/13/11	Assignment 1 due
10/20/11	Midterm exam
11/03/11	Assignment 2 out
11/17/11	Assignment 2 due
11/17/11	Assignment 3 out
12/08/11	Assignment 3 due
12/15/11	Final exam

Overview
The course covers fundamental principles of building secure systems and techniques to protect data privacy. Topics include access control mechanisms, operating systems security, malicious code threats and software security, trusted computing, content protection, and database security. The course will also study existing technical approaches to protecting privacy, including Web anonymizers and anti-censorship tools, as well as policy and legal aspects of privacy.

A tentative list of topics includes:

• Introduction (security goals, overview of course topics, overview of attacks)
• Crypto crash course
• Access control mechanisms
• Operating systems security
• Software security, Secure Programming
• Malicious code, Malware, Rootkits
• Trusted computing
• Introduction to security of networked systems
• Privacy and anonymity on the Web
• Content protection, Software obfuscation, Digital rights management
• Database security
• Security of electronic voting
• Computer crime - laws and ethics, Security & privacy policy (Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA)
• Miscellaneous topics: side-channel attacks, gaming security, information assurance (common criteria), risk analysis

Who should take this course
Graduate students interested in understanding the fundamental principles of building secure systems and techniques to protect data privacy.
The course is also an excellent starting point for finding research topics for M.S. and Ph.D. theses.

Prerequisites
There are no specific course prerequisites for the course, but students are expected to enter this course with a basic knowledge of operating systems, networking, algorithms, and data structures.
Also, students should be able to program in either Java or C/C++.

Textbook:
"Introduction to Computer Security", by M. Goodrich and R. Tamassia,
Addison Wesley, 2010, ISBN: 0321512944

Grading policy:

Course assignments (2)	30%
Course project	20%
Midterm exam	20%
Final exam	30%
Class participation	up to 10%

Academic integrity

The NJIT Honor Code will be upheld, and any violations will be brought to the immediate attention of the Dean of Students.

The syllabus may be modified at the discretion of the instructor or in the event of extenuating circumstances.
Students will be notified in class of any changes to the syllabus.