Sept 5 - This course will be
taught again in Winter 2009. Note that the course number will change to CS 858.
Course Description
Our increasingly networked world and the upcoming of new technologies,
such as RFID, trusted computing, or electronic voting, raise many
security
challenges. The goal of this course is to make students aware of these
challenges and to introduce them to current research in computer and
communications security. Students will also learn basic principles in
security and cryptography. The course assumes a basic knowledge of
computers, networks, and distributed systems, but does not assume any
prior knowledge of security or cryptography.
Lectures
The instructor will give several introductory lectures devoted to basic
principles of
security and cryptography. In the following lectures, two students will
each
present a research paper and lead a short discussion on the paper. The
presentation should be conference-style and take about 25 minutes,
which will leave about 20 minutes for discussion. See the schedule for a list of the discussed topics and presenters. Each presenter should submit his/her slides before the lecture to the instructor.
All students should read the two assigned papers prior to a lecture and
submit a short review
for one of them.
The reviews are before class
on the day of the presentation of a paper. The (anonymized) reviews
will be accessible by the other students.
Giving oral presentations is an important skill that grad students
should train during graduate school. Feedback is essential for this
training. Therefore, after every lecture, all students should submit a review for both
presentations. The reviews are due at
5pm the day after a presentation. A presenter will
have access to her/his (anonymized) reviews.
Project
Students will work in groups of two on a project in which
they will undertake novel privacy or security research. Possible ideas for projects will be mentioned
in class. Students will have to submit a proposal, present their work
in class at the end of the term, and write a workshop-quality report.
Grading
Paper presentations
25%
Paper reviews
15%
Class participation (including presentation feedback)