Currently there are two undergraduate courses and three graduate courses supported by ISIS in computer and network security. Students willing to pursue a concentration program in Information Assurance (IA) please consult this page.

If you want more information on how to obtain instruction material please consult this page.

Undergraduate Courses:

CS 392 Computer Security
(Fall 2008) (Fall 2007) (Fall 2006) (Fall 2005) (Fall 2004)
Basic notions of confidentiality, integrity, availability. Cryptographic systems, coding and decoding of messages. Network, database, and operating system security issues, capability and access-control mechanisms. Computer Viruses; authentication models; protection models; security kernels. Physical security issues; Personnel security; policy formation and enforcement; legal aspects; ethical aspects. Audit; Classification and trust modeling; Risk assessment.

CS 393 Network Security
(Spring 2005) (Spring 2004) (Spring 2003) (Spring 2002)
Review of topics in networking. Basic notions of confidentiality, integrity, availability; cryptographic systems, coding and decoding of messages. Cryptographic protocols for privacy, integrity, key exchange and access control. TCP/IP security; Firewalls, IPSec; Virtual Private Networks. Web Security; mobile code security; secure E-commerce. Intrusion detection, prevention, response. Advanced topics. Prereq: Operating systems, Computer Networks.

New: Cyber Security Certificate:
Polytechnic is proud to offer a Certificate in Cyber Security program. A complete description can be found on the Certificate in Cyber Security page.

Graduate Courses:

CS 681 Information, Privacy and Security
(Fall 2008) (Fall 2005) (Fall 2004) (Spring 2003)
Introduction to security and privacy issues associated with information systems. Cost/risk tradeo . Technical, physical, and administrative methods of providing security. Control of access through technical and physical means. Identi cation and authentication. Encryption, including the Data Encryption Standard (DES) and public key systems. Management of encryption systems, including key protection and distribution. Privacy legislation and technical means of providing privacy

CS 682 Network Management and Security
(Spring 2005) (Spring 2004)
Review of topics in networking. Basic notions of confidentiality, integrity, availability; cryptographic systems, coding and decoding of messages. Cryptographic protocols for privacy, integrity, key exchange and access control. TCP/IP security; Firewalls, IPSec; Virtual Private Networks. Web Security; mobile code security; secure E-commerce. Intrusion detection, prevention, response. Advanced topics.

CS 904 Financial Cryptography
The course provides a thorough introduction to the theory and applications of cryptography. Introduces underlying number theory and develops public and private-key algorithms; RSA, El-Gamal, DES, AES are analyzed. Various modes of operations of the algorithms, advantages and disadvantages of di erent modes are also discussed. Protocols for important applications such as authentication and key-distribution are developed. The course highlights the weaknesses and strengths of each system, possibleattacks and implementation considerations.

CS 996 Modern Cryptography
(Spring 2007)
This course deals with the study of modern cryptography from a theoretical perspective, the emphasis of the course being on "provable security". In particular, we study the cryptographic primitives that are the building-blocks of various cryptographic applications. The course involves the study of notions of security for a given cryptographic primitive, its various constructions, and respective security analysis based on the security notion. The cryptographic primitives that we cover include pseudo-random functions, symmetric encryption (block ciphers), hash functions and random oracles, message authentication code, asymmetric encryption and digital signatures.
CS 996 Advanced Project in Computer Security - Information Security Management
(Spring 2005) (Spring 2004)
This course covers the life cycle management of information security: risk analysis, security policy, information security program management, information security administration, incident response. It is also covers federal government policies for classified information.

CS 996 Advanced Project in Computer Security - Digital Forensics
(Spring 2005) (Spring 2004)
This course covers the all technical, legal, and law enforcement aspects of digital forensics. The course covers various topics such as "Incident response process", "Network based evidence", "Data analysis techniques", etc.

CS 996 Advanced Project in Computer Security - Pentration and Testing
(Fall 2005) (Fall 2004) (Fall 2003)
This is a special interest course in computer & network security that focuses on penetration testing and vulnerability analysis.

CS 996 Advanced Project in Computer Security - Cryptography
(Fall 2004)
This is a special interest course in cryptography. More information will be posted soon.

Students will be required to complete project in the Computer or Network security field. Please check back for more information.

CS 904 Financial Cryptography
The course o ers a thorough introduction to the theory and applications of cryptography. Introduces underlying number theory and develops public and private-key algorithms; RSA, El-Gamal, DES, AES are analyzed. Various modes of operations of the algorithms, advantages and disadvantages of di erent modes are also discussed. Protocols for important applications such as authentication and key-distribution are developed. The course highlights the weaknesses and strengths of each system, possibleattacks and implementation considerations.

CS 909 Biometrics
This course introduces various types of biometric identification schemes. An introduction to physical security and e ective implementation of physical security is discussed with the help of case studies. Basic signal processing is introduced using JPEG algorithm; Theory and practises of voice identification, fingerprint and retinal scans are introduced. The course introduces, with the use of examples from MATLAB, face recognition and retina identification. Each year the students do a eld trip to the Biometric Testing Lab of the International Biometrics Group, a consulting company located inthe Financial District.

CS 916 Application Security
(Spring 2005) (Spring 2004)
This course will give students the theoretical foundation and practical knowledge of applying computer security principles on the application level. First, we will study the principles important for application security, concentrating on the issues of access control and data hiding and encapsulation. We will then study the security model in Java 2 in detail, with students performing programming assignments that use this model. The topics covered will include - configuring the security policy on trusted hosts that may run untrusted code - using digital signatures to sign code components - deploying code in the form of signed and sealed classes - using assertion mechanisms to check for object integrity at run-time - security aspects of using the Java serialization mechanism - using the Java security model in the context of RMI

In the second part of the course, the students will concentrate on implementing a non-trivial distributed system. The work will be performed in groups. After the implementation of the system is finished by all groups, the students will be asked to write malicious classes and attempt to disrupt operation of the systems implemented by other groups. The instructor will also use malicious classes to validate the students' work.

CS 9033 Mobile Application Programming
(Spring 2009)
Mobile Application Programming (MAP) was taught for the first time in Spring 2009. MAP is a project course, that is designed to give the students an opportunity to create a product out of an idea in a rapid pace. Students develop projects on one of the two popular programmable mobile platforms: Apple's Iphone OS or Google's Android OS. The projects unlock the unique and ever growing set of abilities of the latest mobile devices such as accelerometer, multi-touch screen, compass, wifi, GPS, camera and accelerated graphics. Students work in teams of 3 members. Both their personal and team progress are evaluated throughout the semester with deliverables including reports and milestones.