.

CSC 7700 (Section 4):  Cyber Security

(Subject to change without notice)

(Last Updated: 12/8/2010, 12:30PM)

 

Instructor: Professor Peter Chen,  Office #1 and Research Lab: 140 Coates Hall;   Office #2: 257 Coates Hall            

E-mail address: pchen at lsu.edu

Office Hours: 12Noon – 12:30PM, and 4:00 – 5:30 Fridays (No matter you plan to see Dr. Chen during office hours or not, please set up an appointment first via e-mails.)

Time & Classroom: Fridays 9:10AM -12 noon, 235 Lockett Hall

(Please note that some of the class meetings may be re-scheduled to another date and time -- most likely to weekends, or the evenings of other weekdays.   You should take these into consideration when you decide to take this course for credit. Course announcements will be made via e-mails and via the course web page at: http://www.csc.lsu.edu/~chen/7700.htm ).

Description:

The World Wide Web (WWW) is changing our ways of storing, accessing, and distributing information. Cybersecurity becomes a very important area; it is concerned with how to detect and trace the cyber-attacks.  It is also concerned with how to protect information and privacy of individuals and organizations.

We will start with an overview of the historical events and market forces of the Internet. Then, we will discuss the concepts, techniques & tools for cyber security.

Some of the topics will be technically oriented, and adequate Internet and DB knowledge is a pre-requisite for this course. Also, homework assignments and term projects will be assigned.

We plan to cover some (not all) of the following topics:

(A)    Technical, Managerial, Legal, and Social Issues:

·         Cyber threats, Identity Theft

·         Viruses, SPAM, eavesdropping, hackers, spyware, cyber terrorists,

·         Conventional vs. Info Warfare

·         Internet, Web, Search engines, online dictionaries, TC/PIP, Firewalls,

·         Denial of Services

·         Hijacking: identity, e-mails, website,

·         Intrusion Detection framework & Techniques

·         Damage assessment

·         Software Engineering Issues

·         Program, Data, Operating System, and Network Security

·         Better Software Development/Engineering Practices

·         Security Policy specification, merging, and inconsistency detection

·         Cryptography (Public Key, Private Key)

·         Web monitoring and home/homeland security

·         Information Assurance Metrics and Evaluation

·         How to ensure personal and organizational cyber security

·         Security/Password system design and management; User Acceptance

·         Legal Issues and related Technologies

·         Privacy and protection mechanism

·         Digital Signature

·         Copyright, Digital Right, and Digital Right Management

 

(B)    LSU Activities

·         Cyber-forensics techniques and tools  (One or more projects were funded by the Air Force)

·         Credibility and validity of the Data/Information (we had a research project funded by the Air Force and the Navy)

·         New Software/system Architecture (we had a research project funded by the Air Force)

·         Profiling techniques and tools (we had a very large research grant, $1.8 million dollars, from NSF to study this problem, which may have significant impacts on many aspects of daily lives such as cyber security, law enforcement, and airport security)

o    Mathematical Models and efficient algorithms

o    Maximizing the capture of bad guys/transactions and minimizing the costs of good guys

o    What are the 3 most important attributes of 200 attributes?

o    Data Mining of large amount of data

·         We are a part of the team of LSU and Louisiana Tech University in the “Security Cyber Center” Project with approximately funding of a total of $8 million dollars ($3.6 million dollars from the State of Louisiana and approximately $4.4 million dollars matching funds from two universities).

·         Dr. Chen was a member of the AF Scientific Advisory Board.

·         U.S. Air Force has made “Cyberspace” as one of the major missions of the AF.  The Barksdale AFB (in Shreveport, LA) was the headquarters of the Provisional Cyber Command for the U.S.A.F.  The local communities of Shreveport were planning a “Cyber Innovation Center” near the Barksdale AFB.  LSU, Louisiana Tech, and other organizations had tried to assist in this “Cyber Innovation Center” effort.

1)       Many governments including the U.S. government have invested heavily in cyber security. LSU is actively participating in these efforts.

Please note that we don’t have sufficient time to cover all these topics; only some of these topics will be covered.

 Pre-requisites:

Graduate students at LSU with strong interest/knowledge in Computer/Web technology.

Syllabus: (Subject to change)

1st Week, 8/27 (Friday)

Topic: Administrative Issues and Overview of the Course

 

8/28 (Saturday), 3-5PM, 109 Coates Hall

Topics:

(1)   Administrative Issues and Overview of the Course

(2)   Important Issues of the Internet and the Web; Take a look at the streaming video of the ACM Turing Lecture (8/22/05) by the co-winners, Dr. Robert Kahn and Dr. Vint Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet.  In the past few years, we invited both of them to visit LSU and gave lectures as a part of the IT Eminent Lecture Series (ITELS) sponsored by LSU-CCT and the CS department.  Please watch this whole streaming video again in your own place.  The mid-term exam (and, possibly, the final quiz) may have questions on the issues discussed in this video (and other videos mentioned in the syllabus, if any).

(3)   Cyber Crimes and Cyber Terrorisms Serious Threats to Our Society (The slides will be mailed out.)

Readings: News article: McCain/Obama campaigns’ computers were hacked

2nd Week, 9/3

Topics:

(1)   Cyber Security-An Introduction

(2)   Identity Theft

Homework Assignment 1A (Probing information about a specific chosen celebrity);

3rd Week, 9/10

Basic Cryptography (The slide file will be mailed out.)

4th Week, 9/17

Database Security (The slide file will be mailed out.)

Homework Assignment 1B (A specific cipher technique)

 

(Selected students will be asked to present their answers to the class.)

5th Week, 9/24

Program Security (slides will be sent out.) Student presentation of HW1A.

6th Week, 10/1

Cyber Forensics (The slide file will be mailed out.). Homework Assignment 1B: Due date/time: (to be specified). Some students will be asked to present their slides to the class. 

7th Week, 10/8

Tracing of IP addresses; Data Mining for Cyber Security and Anti-Terrorism (The slide file will be mailed.); Student presentation of HW1B. You are required to present your own slides.

Homework Assignment 2A: Due date/time: (to be specified).

8th Week, 10/15

OS Security (slides will be mailed.)

Presentation of HW2A by students. You are required to present your own slides.

Discussions of Term Paper Topics and Requirements

9th Week, 10/22 (Fall Holiday, but we may have class to substitute for another regular class date)

Biometrics (The slide file will be mailed out)

Discussions of Mid-term Exam/1st-Quiz and examples of student term projects

10th Week, 10/29 (A possible date for mid-term exam/1st-Quiz) (The scopes and rules for the mid-term exam)

 

11th Week, 11/5

Computer Passwords (The slide file will be mailed out.)

Student project presentation of preliminary results

 

12th Week, 11/12

Student project presentation of preliminary results

 

13th Week, 11/19

Student project presentation of more advanced results

14th Week, 11/26 (Thanksgivings Holiday)

15th week, 12/3

Project Presentation (for those who want to present the projects in person) and the final oral quiz (for those who choose to have the final oral quiz).  The scopes of the final oral quiz will include all the materials covered in the course, but at least 50% of the questions will be based on the materials after the mid-term.   For those who decide not to come to the campus, it is possible to present the projects via SKYPE on 12/3 or 12/4. 

16th Week, 12/10 (Final Exam Week)                       

Final version of the Term Paper/Slides (including source codes, object codes, data sets, and instructions, etc.).  Due at 11 AM CST on 12/12 (Sun), penalties will be imposed for late submissions based on the number of minutes/hours/days passing the deadline).  For those who plans to be out of town before 12/12, please send your most recent version of your slides/term-paper before you leave town. 

12/10 (Friday) -12/13 (Monday) (Presentation of Final Version of Term Papers/Projects)

Students should be prepared to present the final version of the term papers/projects via SKYPE with high-speed Internet connection (no matter where the students will be).  Selected students will be chosen to conduct such presentations. After you submit your final version and make your final presentation, you may still need to be reachable to answer questions if the materials submitted by you are not clear or your computer programs do not work.

Course Work and Grading Policy:

There will be homework assignments, a written mid-term exam, a term paper/project, and an oral quiz. Students should actively participate in class discussions and class presentations.  Your final grades will be calculated based on the following formula:

                                                                             

Homework:                           20%              

            Mid-TermExam/1st-Quiz:30%

            TermPaper/Project&Presentation:20%-40%

            Final(Oral) Quiz, 0%-20% 

Students can have three options:

Option #1:  Term project 20%, Final oral quiz 20%

Option #2:  Term project 30%, Final oral quiz 10%

Option #3:  Term project 40%, no final oral quiz

                  Class Discussions10%

Recommended Readings (not in Union Bookstore):

Mandia, Kevin & Prosise, Chris, Incident Response, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, (the most recent edition)

Software Pioneers: Their Contributions to Software Engineering, Springer-Verlag, 2002.