Information Security

Spring semester 2017 (252-0211-00L)

Overview

Lecturers:
Prof. Srdjan Capkun (Part I), Prof. David Basin (Part II)

Assistants:
Part I: Dr. Kari Kostiainen, Dr. Alexandra Dmitrienko, Arthur Gervais

Part II: Carlos Cotrini Jimenez, Dr. Andreas Lochbihler, Lara Schmid

Lectures:
Thu  13-15    CAB G 61
Fri    13-15    CAB G 61

Exercises:
Wed  15-18    HG F 26.5
Thu   15-18    ML F 36

Credits: 8 ECTS (4V + 3U)

Requirements: None

Language: English

Announcements

  • 18.05.2017 - Q&A session before the exam
    There will be a question-and-answer session on August 8 from 13:00 to 15:00 in CAB G 11. Please send your questions before the meeting to and (second part). The session may end before 15:00 when all questions have been answered.
  • 07.04.2017 - Two exercise sheets for in the week before Easter.
    There are two exercise sheets for the week before Easter (12./13.04.), one for the first part and one for the second of InfSec. They will be both discussed in the exercise sessions. You may submit your solutions to the sheet for the second part as described below.
  • 02.02.2017 - No exercise sessions during the first week.
    There will be no exercise sessions during the first week. The first exercise sessions will take place on Wed 01.03. The first exercises will be published on Fri 24.02.

Exercise info (Part I)

The weekly exercises will be published on the course webpage on Fridays. The purpose of the exercises is that students should attempt to solve them before the exercise sessions that are on Wednesdays and Thursdays. At the exercise session the course assistants will explain the example solutions and discuss alternative solutions. The example solutions are published on the course webpage after the exercises sessions. For the first part of the course the exercises are not graded, but solving them and attending the exercise sessions is recommended. 

Exercise info (Part II)

You can hand in your solutions to the exercises to receive feedback from the tutors. Solutions can be submitted in two ways. The first way is to e-mail Andreas Lochbihler. Please put [InfSec] in the subject of the message. The second way is to drop off your solution in the drop box opposite of CNB F 101. In that case, please mark which exercise session (Wednesday/Thursday) you plan to attend.  Solutions must be received by 23:59 on the Monday after the exercise is published, in order to receive feedback.

Description

This course provides an introduction to Information Security. The focus is on fundamental concepts and models, basic cryptography, protocols and system security, and privacy and data protection. While the emphasis is on foundations, case studies will be given that examine different realizations of these ideas in practice.

Resources

Literature

  • Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot, and Scott A. Vanstone: Handbook of Applied Cryptography, CRC Press, 1996 (available online).
  • Dieter Gollmann: Computer Security, Wiley, 2000.
  • Matt Bishop: Computer Security: Art and Science, Addison-Wesley, 2002 (available online for ETH members).
  • Jonathan Katz and Yehuda Lindell, Introduction to Modern Cryptography, Chapman & Hall, 2008
  • Charlie Kaufman, Rhadia Perlman, and Mike Speciner, Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, 2nd Edition, 2002.
  • William Stallings: Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2002.
  • William Stallings: Network Security Essentials: Applications and Standards, 2nd Edition, Pearson, 2003.
  • Ken Thompson: Reflections on trusting trust (available online).
  • Wenbo Mao: Modern Cryptography: Theory & Practice, Prentice Hall, 2004.

Course Material

The lecture notes, exercises, slides, and other resources are available in our protected pagesecured area (log in at the top of the page first!).

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