Computer Security course at UNH Durham
I am scheduled to teach IT666 - Computer Security on the UNH Durham campus this upcoming spring semester. I will update this page when the room and times are officially set, but for now here is some basic information.
Course Description: Provides students with the skills required to recognize and diagnose potential security issues in computer and network systems. Through readings, case studies, exercises, research papers, exams and personal experience, students will discuss and debate security policies and legislation, system procedures, security tools and techniques and the patterns that attackers use to foil security systems. Other topics include types of attacks, viruses, intrusion detection and tracking, firewalls, trust relationships and authentication, secure connections, and cryptography. At the conclusion of the course, student will have a heightened sense of security in the actions they take when using and maintaining computer systems. Pre-requisites: CS 402 or IT 520 or permission of the instructor. No credit if credit earned for CIS 615.
Course Goals: The IT666 Computer Security course will offer the IT student the skills required to understand system security from the perspective of the information technologist and system administrator. By the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to understand: • What computer security is; • How computer systems fail; • How system risks can be evaluated; • How well a computer security system may mitigate the risks to a system; • How the costs and trade-offs of a security solution may be balanced; • When and how cryptography can be used securely; • How viruses and worms propagate and how they can be stopped; • What the essential problems and solutions are in network security; and • How intrusions can be detected and investigated to determine the nature of an attack and the attacker. Students will be exposed to a variety of contemporary operating systems, network systems, programming environments and tools as a result of this course. Further, students will be cognizant of ethical, professional and social issues surrounding computing and the current issues facing the profession.