ICS 355: Security and Trust I

Catalog description: Security and trust in computers, networks, and society. Security models. Access and authorization. Availability and Denial-of-Service. Trust processes and network interactions.

About the Security Science (SecSci) focus area: As computation and information are spreading through ever wider networks, supporting ever more complex and more important applications, security is becoming a central problem of Information and Computer Sciences. The tasks of protecting security and privacy also offer an increasing range of employment and business opportunities for the ICS graduates. The BA and BS in ICS with the focus area of Security Science (SecSci) provides the technical capabilities and the conceptual background needed for entry into this exciting and expanding area.

Although computation begins with programming, modern applications often involve physical and social interactions that cannot be programmed or engineered. The processes of security, privacy, and trust therefore offer a glimpse beyond the engineering aspects of computation, and into Computer Science as a genuine science.

About ICS 355: The SecSci focus area is built around the courses “Security and Trust I, II and III”, which go under the respective course codes ICS 355, 455 and 655. The core course of the whole SecSci focus area is ICS 355, introducing the basic concepts of security, privacy and trust, and enabling students to understand, design and manage a broad range of resource security tasks, such as access control.

ICS 455 provides an introduction into information security, including cryptographic protocols. (This material is complemented by the courses ICS 423 and ICS 623 on Data Security and Cryptography. ICS 623 is a graduate course.)

ICS 655 is a graduate course about the economic aspects of security. The undergraduate students are not expected to take graduate courses, but students with genuine interest and motivation, graduate or undergraduate, are always welcome.

Textbook(s):

There are no required textbooks for ICS 355, but students might find the following titles to be of interest.

Instructor(s): This review site is based upon materials developed by Dusko Pavlovic.

About this site: Go to the Modules page for a list of topics; click on any topic to see details.

Additional pages collect together all of the learning outcomes, readings (i.e. “passive” learning involving review of textbook sections, web pages, screencasts, etc.), and experiences (i.e. “active” learning, where you must actually demonstrate a capability).

The site for this semester’s instance of the ICS 355 is here.

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