Credits: 5EC
Prerequisites: Security and Cryptography (IN4191) and Network Security (CS4430). The fundamental tools and protocols of security, cryptography and networking are assumed to be known and will be used as building blocks to tackle advanced topics in security.
Delivery: This course will be tele-lectured.
Motivation: This course is about learning to study, analyse, perform and criticize research in cybersecurity. This will be done by being exposed to current research topics and scientific papers and discussing these together.
Synopsis: The course takes the form of seminars based on a selection of scientific papers (that either have had a strong impact on security today, or explore novel ideas that may be important in the future). The list of topics can be found in the Brightspace Topics and Papers module. For each topic there is a primary paper, and possibly other additional papers. All the students are required to read all primary papers and be able to competently discuss the material in class. Each student will be responsible for presenting one lecture (based on one of the primary papers including as much relevant related work as necessary to distill the work presented in the paper). The speaker will have a finite time (20 minutes) to present the papers. The presentation will be followed by 10 minutes of interactive discussion in the class. 48 hours before each lecture each student must upload on a shared repository at least two thought-provoking questions for each one of the main papers covered in the lecture. These questions should critically evaluate the papers (e.g., questioning the assumptions, criticise the methodology, compare with other solutions, propose alternative solutions, etc.).
Learning outcomes: After successful completion of this course, you will:
● Have learned about the state of the art in a variety of academic research topics in cybersecurity
● Be able to study, analyse and criticise current research in cybersecurity
● Be able to present (an essay on) your own research or literature study
Lecturer: Prof Mauro Conti (TU Delft/University of Padua)
Examination: The final grade will be made up of four components:
● (25%) In-class presentation of a chosen topic from academic literature
● (25%) Prepared questions on selected research papers and active in-class participation
● (25%) Content and quality of final essay on a chosen topic from current research
● (25%) Oral presentation of final essay
Contents: The list of selected papers covers around 40 topics to choose from, including but not limited to:
● Mobile Security (Smartphone Security, Android Security, User Profiling, SSL security)
● Network Security (Information-centric Networking, Software-defined Networking, Secure Content Delivery, Named Data Networking, Cloud Security, DDoS attacks)
● Machine Learning (Adversarial Machine Learning, Deep Learning)
● Communication (Anonymous Communication, Anonymity in Wireless Networks, Secure Messaging, VoIP Security, Circumventing Censorship)
● Detection (Keylogger Detection, Botnet Detection, Hate Speech Detection, Behavioural Biometrics)
● Physical Security (Cyber-Physical Systems, Operational Technology Security, Wireless Sensor Networks, RFID Security)
● Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Security
Core text: Selected papers from academic literature, see Contents.
Interaction: This is intended to be an interactive class: class participation is strongly recommended (and will play a role in the grading criteria). Sleeping during the class is optional, but not recommended.