Course 2024-2025 a.y.

20650 - CYBER SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES, PROCEDURES AND POLICIES

Cross-institutional study L. Bocconi - Politecnico Milano

Course taught in English

Class timetable
Exam timetable
Go to class group/s: 25
CYBER (6 credits - I sem. - OB  |  ING-INF/05)
Course Director:
STEFANO ZANERO

Classes: 25 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 25: STEFANO ZANERO


Suggested background knowledge

PREREQUISITES

Course attendees should have completed the pre-course materials, or possess an equivalent level of knowledge of basic ICT topics.

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

Modern computer systems routinely handle high-value information such as financial and personal data, economic transactions, and various forms of valuable intellectual property. Moreover, computer systems are becoming pervasive, always-on and increasingly interconnected. Ensuring information security in this landscape is an extremely challenging task. Security engineering, the discipline of designing and building secure systems, is a complex, interdisciplinary problem mixing elements of cryptography, software engineering, secure networking, as well as political, economical and social challenges. This course is an extensive introduction to the challenges of cybersecurity, and to the methodology to build, validate, and bypass security systems with the goal of learning how to secure them properly. During the lectures, we will analyze the various technologies used as building blocks of a cybersecurity system. We will constructively analyze their vulnerabilities, see how these can be exploited, and deductively learn what was wrong and how to avoid repeating such engineering mistakes.

CONTENT SUMMARY

1) Introduction to information security
- What is information security: examples
- Vulnerabilities, Risks, Exploits, Attackers: definitions
- Security as risk management
2) A short introduction to cryptography
- Basic concepts: cypher, transposition, substitution
- Symmetric and asymmetric ciphers
- Hash functions, digital signatures and PKI
- Vulnerabilities in digital signature schemes and in PKI
- Why all of the above is almost useless as a security defense
3) Authentication
- The three ways of authentication
- Multifactor authentication
- Authentication technologies evaluation; bypassing authentication control
4) Authorization and access control
- Discretionary (DAC) and mandatory (MAC) access control policies
- Multilevel security and its applications: military secrets management
5) Software vulnerabilities
- Design, implementation and configuration bugs
- The vulnerability lifecycle. Zero-days. Disclosure. The vulnerability market.
6) Secure networking architectures
- Network protocol attacks: sniffing, denial of service, spoofing, DNS poisoning, ARP poisoning
- Firewall: taxonomy and technologies
- Secure network architectures (DMZ and multi-zone networks)
- Virtual private networks (VPN)
- Secure connections and transactions: the tale of SSL and SET and their weaknesses
7) Malicious software
- The evolution of malicious software: from the Morris worms to modern malware
- Mobile malware: the case of malicious Android apps
- Botnets and underground economy
- Malware analysis and honeypots


Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

students will know the basic terminology of security and a rudimentary risk assessment methodology. They will have a broad knowledge of basic security technologies and of their fallacies
and issues.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

tudents will have developed the skills needed to assess the basic security issues of systems and processes. They will be able to discuss security choices in meaningful terms, to evaluate a provided
solution and improve over it, or to offer and sketch a solution to a security problem provided.
 


Teaching methods

  • Lectures
  • Practical Exercises
  • Interaction/Gamification

DETAILS

DIDATTICA TRASMISSIVA/FRONTALE DIDATTICA INTERATTIVA/PARTECIPATIVA DIDATTICA VALUTATIVA DIDATTICA LABORATORIALE DIDATTICA PROGETTUALE


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Oral individual exam
    x
  • Active class participation (virtual, attendance)
x    

ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The course is evaluated partly based on class participation and discussions, and partly based on an oral exam.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Dieter Gollmann, Computer Security - 3rd edition, Editore: Wiley, Anno edizione: 2011, ISBN: 978-0-470-74115-3 It is vital that you get the 3rd edition if you choose this book!

Ross Anderson, Security Engineering, Editore: Wiley, ISBN: 0-471-38922-6 http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html

Last change 21/11/2024 11:35