COSC421-17S1 (C) Semester One 2017

Advanced Topics in Security

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 20 February 2017
End Date: Sunday, 25 June 2017
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 3 March 2017
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 19 May 2017

Description

This course will cover the wide-ranging issues on advanced topics in computer, network, and systems security. Students will learn from security fundamentals to advanced topics in security.

This course is intended for honours and graduate students, researchers, and practitioners interested in the wide-ranging issues on advanced topics in cyber security. The course covers emerging cyber security issues in general, from computer and network security fundamentals to advanced security and privacy issues, which are mostly not covered in the COSC362. The course introduces new security and privacy threats to diverse systems and their countermeasures.

The topics (which are subject to change while the course progresses) studied in this course will include:
· Introduction to security fundamentals
· Security for Wireless Sensor Networks/Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID)/Internet of Things (IoT)
· Security for Cloud computing
· Advanced Security Modelling and Analysis
· Security for Critical Infrastructures (including Smart Grid, Industrial Control Systems)
· Security issues in other emerging areas.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
·  understand and explain the concept of security fundamentals.
·  summarize and describe the security and privacy issues for the above listed topics.
·  derive and enumerate best practices in those areas.
·  apply the existing security techniques to emerging systems and networks.
·  critique and evaluate related recent research papers.
·  create mathematical models to evaluate security techniques.
·  generate new ideas on security schemes/protocols/design/implementation and write a scientific report.

Prerequisites

(1) COSC362 and (2) subject to approval by the Head of Department

Course Coordinator

For further information see Computer Science and Software Engineering Head of Department

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Group Research Project 50%
Research Papers Reviews 10%
Final Exam 40%

Textbooks / Resources

There is no official course text, but the following are useful sources.
1)   Stallings, W and Brown, L., Computer Security: principles and practice, 3rd edition, 2014
2)   Selected readings will be posted on Learn during the course.
3)   Lecture notes will be available on the learn system (http://www.learn.canterbury.ac.nz).

Additional Course Outline Information

Grade moderation

The Computer Science department's grading policy states that in order to pass a course you must meet two requirements:
1. You must achieve an average grade of at least 50% over all assessment items.
2. You must achieve an average mark of at least 45% on invigilated assessment items.
If you satisfy both these criteria, your grade will be determined by the following University- wide scale for converting marks to grades: an average mark of 50% is sufficient for a C- grade, an average mark of 55% earns a C grade, 60% earns a B- grade and so forth. However if you do not satisfy both the passing criteria you will be given either a D or E grade depending on marks. Marks are sometimes scaled to achieve consistency between courses from year to year.

Students may apply for special consideration if their performance in an assessment is affected by extenuating circumstances beyond their control.

Applications for special consideration should be submitted via the Examinations Office website within five days of the assessment.

Where an extension may be granted for an assessment, this will be decided by direct application to the Department and an application to the Examinations Office may not be required.

Special consideration is not available for items worth less than 10% of the course.

Students prevented by extenuating circumstances from completing the course after the final date for withdrawing, may apply for special consideration for late discontinuation of the course. Applications must be submitted to the Examinations Office within five days of the end of the main examination period for the semester.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $963.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

Minimum enrolments

This course will not be offered if fewer than 5 people apply to enrol.

For further information see Computer Science and Software Engineering .

All COSC421 Occurrences

  • COSC421-17S1 (C) Semester One 2017