CMPS 122: Computer Security

Spring 2004

The prerequisite for this class is CMPS 111, which will be offered in both Fall 2003 and Winter 2004. In addition, knowledge of computer networking and probability and statistics will be helpful.

Basic information

Who:	Prof. Ethan Miller
When:	MWF 11–12:10
Where:	Porter 144

Assignments

• 2 Jun: Reminder: your project is due at 5 PM on Sunday, June 6th. Late projects will not be accepted. Your project report (paper) must be turned in using submit on unix.ic, and must be in either PDF (preferred) or plain ASCII text.
• 24 May: Homework #5 is assigned, and is due on Wednesday, June 2nd at 11:59 PM.
• 21 May: The final project is officially due on Friday, June 4th. However, you may have a free extension until Sunday, June 6th at 5 PM. Please use submit to turn in your final project; do not submit the project by email.
• 17 May: Homework #4 is assigned, and is due on Monday, May 24th at 11:59 PM.
• 28 Apr: The second challenge problem has been modified. Answers to the first posting of challenge problem #2 will no longer be accepted (they were too easy!).
• 26 Apr: Homework #3 is assigned, and is due on Tuesday, May 4th at 11:59 PM.
• 21 Apr: Your project topic is due on Monday, April 26th. Please read the project page for details.
• 16 Apr: The due date for Homework #2 is now Tuesday, April 20th at 11:59 PM.
• 12 Apr: Solutions to Homework #1 have been posted.
• 11 Apr: Homework #2 has been assigned, and is due on Monday, April 19th at 10 AM.
• 2 Apr: Homework #1 has been assigned, and is due on Friday, April 9th at 10 AM. Please remember to turn in your homework using the submit program on unix.ic.
• 30 Mar: Challenge problems are accessible from the homework page.

Announcements

• 15 Jun: Final grades are now posted. If you would like to discuss your final grade, your final exam score, or final project grade, please contact Prof. Miller.
• 6 Jun: Grades for the midterm and all homeworks are now posted. You can get your password by following the instructions on the grades page. If you're having difficulty with your password, please rerun the password generator—the generator has changed relatively recently.
• 2 Jun: There will be no class on Friday, June 4th.
• 18 May: Solutions for the midterm have been posted. As with other solutions, you need to be on campus or supply a password to read them.
• 5 May: There will be no class on Monday, May 10th.
• 4 May: Reminder: the midterm exam has been rescheduled for May 7th in class. It will cover material through honeypots and firewalls. A sample midterm (with answers) is available online; the sample midterm is not full-length, but is rather intended to provide sample questions.
• 30 Mar: Sung Kim's office hours will be Tuesday 3–4PM and Thursday 4–5 PM in Baskin 354I.
• 23 Mar: Slides and other materials are accessible only from within ucsc.edu or with a password. Please read this page from on campus (the ucsc.edu domain) to see how to access restricted materials from an off-campus computer.

Recommended reading

The following books are interesting and relevant to the topics we'll be covering in class. None of them are required, but you might find them interesting.

• Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)
• The Code Book (Simon Singh)
• Database Nation (Simson Garfinkel)
• Applied Cryptography (Bruce Schneier)
• Practical Cryptography (Neils Ferguson and Bruce Schneier)
• Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, 2nd edition (Cheswick, Bellovin, and Rubin)
• The Cuckoo's Egg (Clifford Stoll)
• Practical Unix & Internet Security, 3rd edition (Garfinkel, Schwartz, and Spafford)

Other interesting links

• A presentation by Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Internet Security. The presentation discusses the need for computer security and what can be done about it.
• List of small primes
• Random number generators
• CryptoGram mailing list

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Last updated 15 Jun 2004 by Ethan L. Miller (elm at ucsc d0t edu)