Academics

EECS 588: Computer and Network Security

Instructor: 
Professor J. Alex Halderman

Course Homepage:
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/courses/eecs588/

Coverage
This course covers foundational work and current topics in computer systems security. We will read research papers and discuss attacks and defenses against operating systems, client-side software, web applications, and IP networks. Students will be prepared for research in computer security and for security-related research in other subfields, and they will gain hands-on experience designing and evaluating secure systems.

Syllabus

• Part 1: Building Blocks
  • The security mindset, thinking like an attacker, reasoning about risk, research ethics
  • Symmetric ciphers, hash functions, message authentication codes, pseudorandom generators
  • Key exchange, public-key cryptography, key management, the SSL protocol
• Part 2: Software Security
  • Exploitable bugs: buffer overflows and other common vulnerabilities, attacks and defenses
  • Malware: viruses, spyware, rootkits, operation and detection
  • Automated security testing and tools for writing secure code
  • Virtualization, sandboxing, and OS-level defenses
• Part 3: Web Security
  • The browser security model
  • Web site attacks and defenses: cross-site scripting, SQL injection, cross-site reference forgery
  • Internet crime: spam, phishing, botnets, technical and nontechnical responses
• Part 4: Network Security
  • Network protocols security: TCP and DNS, attacks and defenses
  • Policing packets: Firewalls, VPNs, intrusion detection
  • Denial of service attacks and defenses
  • Wireless and mobile device security
  • Data privacy, anonymity, censorship, surveillance
• Part 5: Advanced Topics
  • Hardware security, attacks and defenses
  • Trusted computing and digital rights management
  • Electronic voting , vulnerabilities, cryptographic voting protocols
  • Physical security , locks and safes