We'll use Security Engineering 2e, by Ross Anderson, Wiley 2008 often. This great book is now eight years old, and Anderson worked out a deal with his publisher to make each edition available for free online after four years. Lucky us. You can, of course, still buy the book itself if you wish--it's a 1000-page beast.
We'll also read a wide range of miscellaneous online papers, news stories, tutorials, technical specifications, etc.
Your grade will be based on your performance on homework (60%) and two take-home tests (20% each).
Each homework assignment will be given a due date and time. Work handed in after the due time but within 24 hours will be docked 25%. Anything handed in later will receive a score of 0.
Consult me at least 24 hours before an assignment is due if you have extraordinary circumstances preventing you from handing in your work on time. Note that "I have to attend a funeral" and "I am participating in a national championship" are examples that I normally consider to be extraordinary circumstances, whereas "I have a paper due in another class" and "my comps presentation is tomorrow" are not. In emergencies, contact me as soon as you are able.
Takehome exams are due by the due time, and will receive no credit otherwise except in very unusual circumstances.
Working with your classmates is generally a good thing. Sharing insights can be fun, and can enhance everybody's learning. The main danger of collaborating on course work is in allowing your collaborator to do all the work, and thus all the learning. If you want to work together on homework for this class, that's fine with me, but take care not to fall into collaboration's traps.
For homework assignments, you may work alone or with one other person. If you work with a partner, you may submit one copy of your work with both names on the paper or in the comments. For takehome exams, you must work alone, using only the resources I explicitly allow. If you have any doubts about what constitutes acceptable collaboration, let me know.
The rough ordering of topics in the course is shown below. Independently of these topics, we'll slip in some attention to security history, current security news, and practice on developing the