CSC301 Syllabus

  1. Course number and name

    CSC301 – Computer Security I

  2. Credits and contact hours

    3 Credit Hours

  3. Instructor’s or course coordinator’s name

    Instructor: Dr. Richard Epstein, Professor of Computer Science

  4. Text book, title, author, and year

    None.

    Other Supplemental Materials

    Students use the ACM and IEEE Computer Society digital libraries which contain the articles in our coursepack. These articles come from IEEE Security and Privacy, IEEE Computer and the Communications of the ACM.

  5. Specific course information

    1. brief description of the content of the course (catalog description)

      An introduction to computer security and the ethical underpinnings of security. The basic objectives of creating a secure system, attack methods, and defenses are discussed.

    2. prerequisites or co-requisites

      Prerequisite: CSC240 Computer Science III.

    3. indicate whether a required, elective, or selected elective course in the program

      Required course.

  6. Specific goals for the course

    1. specific outcomes of instruction

      • Students will have a broad understanding of the security issues in computer technology
      • Students will be have a broad understanding of specific topics in computer ethics, including computer crime, privacy, and intellectual property
      • Students will have a deep understanding of threats and vulnerabilities and actions that can be taken to protect themselves from identity theft and other security problems
      • Students will understand cyberwar and the issues involved in information warfare.

    2. explicitly indicate which of the student outcomes listed in Criterion 3 or any other outcomes are addressed by the course.

      Course addresses Student Outcomes (d), (e) and (g).

  7. Brief list of topics to be covered
    • Introduction to computer security
    • Privacy
    • Computer crime (history, current events)
    • Social engineering
    • Malware (especially botnets, recent worms, phishing)
    • Advanced persistent threats
    • Intellectual property
    • The weakest link (the user and his/her computer)
    • Mobile devices and security
    • Information warfare (cyberwar)
    • Computer immunology
    • Defense mechanisms
    • Biometrics
    • Security in the cloud