CPSC 525/625: Principles of Computer Security

Winter 2012

Instructor: Philip W. L. Fong  <pwlfong AT ucalgary DOT ca>
Lectures: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 12:00 - 12:50 PM  ;  ST 061
Office Hours: Thursday 3:00 - 5:00 PM  ;  ICT 640
TA: Ebrahim Tarameshloo <etarames AT ucalgary DOT ca>
Tutorials: Tuesday/Thursday 11:00 - 11:50 PM  ;  EEEL 151
Course web page: http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~pwlfong/525
Official Course Outline: http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/custom/undergrad/
outlines2012/w12/cpsc525and625_winter2012.pdf
Final Exam: April 21, 2012 (Saturday), 3:30-5:30 PM, ICT 114

Prerequisite

CPSC 457 and MATH 271 or 273. CPSC 329 is recommended as preparation for this course.

Marking Scheme

For CPSC 525 Students

Critical Essay: 30%
Proposal 5%
Portfolio: 15%
Presentation: 15%
Final Exam: 35%

For CPSC 625 Students

Critical Essay: 30%
Proposal 5%
Portfolio: 15%
Presentation: 15%
Term Paper: 35%

Important: Each of the above components will be given a letter grade using the official University grading system. The final grade will be calculated using the grade point equivalents weighted by the percentage given above and then reconverted to a final letter grade using the official University grade point equivalents. In order to obtain a final grade of C- or better, and to pass the class, a CPSC 525 student must achieve a grade of C- or better on the final exams.

Textbook and References

The following is the required textbook:

Dieter Gollmann. Computer Security (3rd Edition). Wiley, 2011.

The following are recommended references for this course. Selected chapters from them will be covered.

Both of the above references are available electronically, in full text, via the University of Calgary Library Website.

Additional reading materials will be made available at the course website as the course progresses.

Tentative Lecture Plan

The course is mostly lecture based, except for those classes in which students take turn to present course materials (see below).

WeekDateTopicRemarks
1 Jan 9, 11, 13
2 Jan 16, 18, 20
3 Jan 23, 25, 27
  • Access Control (Ch. 5)
    [slides]
  • Bell-LaPadula Model (Ch. 11)
    [slides]
4 Jan 30, Feb 1, 3
  • Security Models (Ch. 12)
    [slides]
5 Feb 6, 8, 10 Instructor away
for CODASPY'2012
6 Feb 13, 15, 17
  • Design Principles for Secure Systems
    [slides]
  • Reference Monitors (Ch. 6)
    [slides]
7 Feb 20, 22, 24 No lecture due to Reading Week.
8 Feb 27, 29, Mar 2
  • Unix Security (Ch. 7)
    [slides]
9 Mar 5, 7, 9
  • Database Security (Ch. 9)
    [slides]
10 Mar 12, 14, 16
  • Java Security (Ch. 20)
    [Notes]
  • Code-Based Access Control (Ch. 20) [Notes]
11 Mar 19, 21, 23
  • Guest Lecture (Monday):
    • Access Control of Circulating Digital Documents: InfoSec Issues and Strategies
      by Merv Matson
      Abstract and Biography
  • Student Presentations:
    • Multiple-Ownership in Social Network Systems (Wednesday)
    • Location-Based Social Network (Friday)
12 Mar 26, 28, 30
  • Student Presentations:
    • Visualizing Access Control Policies and Configurations (Monday)
    • Break-Glass Mechanisms (Wednesday)
    • Protection Challenges in the Android Smartphone Platform (Friday)
Instructor away
for SAC'2012
13 Apr 2, 4, 6
  • Student Presentations:
    • Alternative Protection Technologies for the Android Smartphone Platform (Monday)
    • Access Control Models for Cloud Computing (Wednesday)
  • No lecture on Good Friday
14 Apr 9, 11, 13
  • Student Presentations:
    • Spatially-Aware Access Control (Monday)
    • Proximity-Based Access Control (Wednesday)
    • Cross Domain Access Control Final Exam Review (Friday)

Presentation Teams

3 weeks of lectures will be composed of student presentations. Each presentation will be given by a presentation team. CPSC 525 students will form teams of 4-5 students. Each CPSC 625 student (i.e., graduate student) will form a one-person "team".

The goal of the presentation is to give students an opportunity to conduct a literature survey on an emerging topic in the area of Access Control, and to identify open research problems in that topic. A list of presentation topics will be made available in the first week of lecture. Students must choose their presentation topics from this list.

To help students prepare for the presentation, the whole project is subdivided into building blocks. The proposal component offers students a chance to explore the presentation topic and assess the scope of literature survey. The critical essay offers students the experience of evaluating intellectual controversies surrounding an access control technology. The portfolio helps students build up an annotated bibliography. Lastly, the presentation is a report of the students' findings (i.e., open research problems in that topic).

The list of presentation topics, and instructions on how to join a team, is given in the following:

Proposal (5%)

Due Friday, February 10, 2012 (note the new due date).

In this short exploratory writing exercise, each presentation team will turn in a short paper documenting their initial research efforts in understanding the presentation topic as well as assessing the scope of literature survey.

Critical Essay (30%)

Due Friday, March 2, 2012.

In this critical essay assignment, each student will turn in an essay evaluating controversies surrounding the standardization of Role-Based Access Control Models. The controversies are based on the NIST standard of RBAC models, together with a number of articles written by the critics and the authors of the NIST standard. Students are asked to select a small number of points of controversy, and argue for or against the specific design of RBAC that generated those points of controversy.

Portfolio (15%)

Due on the day of presentation.

A portfolio contains (i) the collection of research papers that inform the presentation, (ii) an annotated bibliography that explains how each paper contributes to the presentation (or why a paper is not covered in the presentation), and (iii) the presentation slides. Each presentation team will turn in one portfolio.

Presentation (15%)

The goal of the presentation is NOT an encyclopedic overview of the topic. Instead, it should be an assessment of the achievements and limitations of existing research work on the topic, and, based on the assessment, a suggestion of open research challenges.

Final Exam (35%) for CPSC 525 Students

CPSC 525 students will write a registrar-scheduled final exam, which will be based on the textbook materials covered in the lectures.

Term Paper (35%) for CPSC 625 Students

Due Friday, April 27, 2012.

Instead of a final exam, CPSC 625 students are required to write a term paper.


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