SCSSE

School of Computer Science & Software Engineering

Faculty of Informatics

                                                                                                                                                              

ITCS922 Computer Security Subject Outline

Autumn Session 2007

                                                                                                                                                              

Head of School –Professor Philip Ogunbona, Student Resource Centre, Tel: (02) 4221 3606

 

General Information

 

Dr Luke McAven

Telephone Number:

4221 4879

Email:

lukemc@uow.edu.au

Location:

39.213

 

Dr McAven’s Consultation Times During Session


Day

Time

Tuesday

Friday

10:30-12:30

13:30-15:30


 

Subject Organisation

Session:

Autumn Session, Wollongong

Credit Points

6

Contact hours per week:

3 hours lectures, 1 hour lecture/tutorial

Lecture Times & Location:

Lecture A

Fri

09:30

11:30

20.3

 

Lecture B

Wed

17:30

18:30

67.303

 

Lecture\Tutorial

Tue

16:30

17:30

35.G45

Tutorial Day, Time and Location can be found at:

http://www.uow.edu.au/student/sols/timetables/index.html

 


 

Week #

Week starts:

Lecture Topic

   Assessment

One      

 February 26

Introduction, classical cryptography.

A1 out.

Two       

March 5

Secret-key cryptography, modern secret-key cryptography.

 

Three  

 March 12

Modern secret-key cryptography, block ciphers.

 

Four        

 March 19

Block ciphers, modes, AES, stream ciphers, message integrity.

A1 due. A2 out

Five       

 March 26

Public key cryptography.

 

Six      

 April 2

Public key cryptography, digital signatures.

 

Recess  

 April 9

 

A2 due. A3 out.

Seven

 April 16

Digital signatures, hashing.

 

Eight  

 April 23

Key management, public key infrastructures

 

Nine     

April 30

Identification protocols, E-mail security.

A3 due. A4 out.

 Ten        

 May 7

Secure E-payment, E-commerce.

 

Eleven

May 14

Secret sharing, E-voting.

 

Twelve   

May 21

Fair exchange, privacy preserving systems

 

Thirteen

May 28

Revision

A4 due.

 


Students should check the subject’s web site regularly as important information, including details of unavoidable changes in assessment requirements will be posted from time to time.  Any information posted to the web site is deemed to have been notified to all students.

 

 
 
Content

ITCS922 develops the knowledge and skills necessary to identify the security problems that may occur in a distributed computer environment, and then to devise means for countering the threats. Covers: Identification: passwords, challenge-response protocols. Private Key Cryptography: classical ciphers, Feistel cryptosystems. Public Key Cryptography: RSA, Merkle-Hellman, El-Gamal, Elliptic-Curve cryptosystems. Hashing: Birthday paradox, serial and parallel hashing, MD family, keyed hashing. Digital Signatures: generic, RSA, El-Gamal, blind, undeniable, fail-stop. Key Establishment Protocols: classical key transport, DH agreement, Kerberos, SPX, STS protocol, BAN logic. Access Control: MAC, DAC, RBAC, implementations of access control, security kernel, Multics, UNIX, capabilities, access control lists. Network Security: IPsec, viruses, web security, copyright protection.

 

Objectives

A student who successfully completes this subject should be able to:
(i) identify the threats to computing resources in a distributed computer environment,
(ii) classify cryptographic algorithms in terms of their cryptographic characteristics and services provided,
(iii) describe two generic key establishment protocols and explain how to assess their performance,
(iv) categorise different access control models and their relation to access control policies,
(v) explain how protection of information is implemented in a distributed computer environment,
(vi) define what is the virus, worm and Trojan horse,
(vii) identify which security services can be implemented using IPsec protocols,
(viii) describe security aspects of Web technology and their significance for Electronic Commerce

 


 

Attendance Requirements

It is the responsibility of students to attend all lectures/tutorials/labs/seminars/practical work for subjects for which you are enrolled.

 

It should be noted that according to Course Rule 003{Interpretation Point 2 (t)} each credit point for a single session subject has the value of about two hours per week including class attendance.  Therefore, the amount of time spent on each 6 credit point subject should be at least 12 hours per week, which includes lectures/tutorials/labs etc


 


Satisfactory attendance is deemed to be attendance at approximately 80%* of the allocated contact hours. Attendance rolls may be kept for lectures, and tutorials. If you are present for less than 80%* you need to apply for special consideration, otherwise a fail grade may be recorded.

 


Method of Presentation

The subject has lectures and a tutorial/lecture, which will generally run as a tutorial for the whole class. Lecture materials and assignments will be available via WebCT.

Information about the subject can be found at: http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/current/subject_outlines/ and via WebCT.

 


 

Subject Materials

 


Reference BOOKS

- Cryptography and Network Security, W. Stallings, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall, 2006

- Introduction to Computer Security, J. Seberry, J. Pieprzyk and T. Hardjono, Springer-Verlag, 2003 

- Security in Computing, C. P. Pfleeger and S. L. Pfleeger, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 2003

- Cryptography: Theory and Practice, D. Stinson, Second Edition, CRC Press, 2002


These readings/references are recommended only and are not intended to be an exhaustive list.  Students are encouraged to use the library catalogue and databases to locate additional readings

 
 
 
 
 
Assessment

This subject has the following assessment components.

Assessment Items & Format

Percentage of Final Mark

Due Date


Assessment 1:

8%

Released Week 1, due Week 4.

Assessment 2

12%

Released Week 4, due Recess

Assessment 3

8%

Released Recess, due Week 9.

Assessment 4

12%

Released Week 9, due Week 13

Final Exam

60%

Examination Period


 


 

Notes on Assessment

 

o        The due dates are tentative. They are subject to change.

o        Assignments are to be submitted electronically via SUBMIT before the scheduled time. Submission via email is not acceptable.

o        Electronically submitted assignments will not be returned to students. Students will receive their result by email.

o        Assignments may be scanned with a plagiarism detector.

o        An extension of time for the completion of an assignment may be granted under certain circumstances. A request for an extension must be made to the Subject Coordinator before the due date (via SOLS and via email to the Subject coordinator). Supporting documentation must accompany the request for extension.  The Subject Coordinator has the right to determine whether the request will be granted or not.

o        Late assignments without granted extension will be marked but the mark awarded will be reduced by 25% for each day late. Assignments will not be accepted more than four days late unless special consideration has been applied for or an extension has been granted.

 

Assignments

(a)                 Unless otherwise specified, assignments are to be submitted electronically via SUBMIT before the scheduled time. Receipts for submitted work are e-mailed to the student and should be kept by the student as evidence of submission. The receipt may contain compilation messages. It is the student's responsibility to ensure that any errors reported are corrected. Assignments must work on the Sun Solaris machine banshee. Assignments submitted via email will not generally be accepted.

(b)                It is the student’s responsibility to keep a backup of his/her work. In general, an extension will not be granted due to any circumstance related to the failure of  the students’ own equipment.

Students who copy an assignment may receive zero for that assignment. This also covers assignments which may be the product of community effort by several students. Working together is acceptable, but the final coding should be the work of the individual student, as assessment is a measure of your ability. All students involved in plagiarism will have zero marks for that assessment task.

 


Scaling

Final results in this subject may be scaled. The scaling method that will be used in this subject is as follows:

If E is the student exam mark out of 60, and A is the total assignment mark out of 40, the final mark will be determined as follows:

 

if E >= 24 (i.e. 40% of the exam mark): then the students final mark is E + A;

if 21 <= E < 24 (between 35% and 40%): then the students final mark is the minimum of E+A and 47;

 


 

Additional Information

 

Students must refer to the Faculty Handbook or online references which contains a range of policies on educational issues and student matters.


 

Supplementary Exams

 

While the School normally grants supplementary exams when the student does not sit the standard exam for an acceptable reason, each case will be assessed on its own merit and there is no guarantee a supplementary exam will be granted. If a supplementary exam is granted the date will be determined by the University via ARD.  You will be notified via SOLS Mail the time and date of this supplementary exam. You must follow the instructions given in the email message.

 

Please note that if this is your last session and you are granted a supplementary exam, be aware that your results will not be processed in time to meet the graduation deadline.

 

Plagiarism

 

When you submit an assessment task, you are declaring the following

1.        It is your own work and you did not collaborate with or copy from others.

2.        You have read and understand your responsibilities under the University of Wollongong's policy on plagiarism.

3.        You have not plagiarised from published work (including the internet). Where you have used the work from others, you have referenced it in the text and provided a reference list at the end ot the assignment.

4.        Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

5.        Students are responsible for submitting original work for assessment, without plagiarising or cheating, abiding by the University’s policies on Plagiarism as set out in the Calendar under University Policies, and in Faculty handbooks and subject guides. Plagiarism has led to the expulsion from the University.

 

This outline should be read in conjunction with the following documents:

 

Code of Practice - Teaching and Assessment

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/teaching_code.html

Key Dates

http://www.uow.edu.au/student/dates.html

Code of Practice - Students

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/cop_students.html

Information Literacies Introduction Program

http://www.library.uow.edu.au/helptraining/workshops/ilip/

Acknowledgement Practice Plagiarism will not be tolerated

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/courserules/plagiarism.html

Student Academic Grievance Policy

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/cop_supervision.html#8

Special Consideration Policy

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/courserules/specialconsideration.html

Code of Practice-Honours

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/honourscode.html

Non-Discriminatory Language Practice and Presentation

http://staff.uow.edu.au/eeo/nondiscrimlanguage.html

Intellectual Property Policy

http://www.uow.edu.au/research/researchmanagement/1998IP.html

Occupational Health and Safety

http://staff.uow.edu.au/ohs/commitment/OHS039-ohspolicy.pdf

SCSSE Internet Access & Student Resource Centre

http://www.sitacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/internet_access_and_resource.shtml

SCSSE Computer Usage Rules

http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/support/labs/rules.shtml

SCSSE Style Guide for Footnotes, Documentation, Essay and Report Writing

http://www.sitacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/styleguide.pdf

SCSSE Student Guide

http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/regulations.shtml

Informatics Faculty Librarian, Ms Annette Meldrum, phone: 4221 4637,ameldrum@uow.edu.au

SCSSE Subject Outlines

http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/subject_outlines/