Learning Outcomes and Grades

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Identify potential security threats in different kinds of software systems
• Know standard mitigation techniques for common threats to software systems
• Implement standard mitigations against common threats to software systems
• Identify the role of non-technical concerns and approaches in securing software systems
• Demonstrate knowledge of standard terminology and concepts that underlie software and web-application security
• Communicate security concepts to non-security experts

Course grades will be based on how well you satisfy these outcomes. Each assignment provides chances to earn points towards certain outcomes. There will be multiple ways to earn points on each outcome during the course. Roughly speaking, A-level grades require strong evidence of satisfying all of the outcomes, B-level grades require strong evidence on many outcomes and sufficient evidence on all outcomes, and C-level grades require sufficient progress on most outcomes. Further details will be provided throughout the term.

Assignments

Project 1: Turnout-Web – Three due dates starting Thursday, August 30

Assignment 2: Threats and the Security Mindset; Due Tuesday Sept 11 by the start of class

Assignment 2.5: Tech Memo Critiques; Due Friday Sept 14 by 11pm.
On the discussion board (Course Materials->Tech Memos), you'll find all of the submitted security mindset tech memos and the usernames of two classmates whose memos you should critique. Write a brief (paragraph of two) critique of each memo, covering presentation issues as well as technical content. Use the questions you were supposed to address to think about your comments on technical content. By the deadline, email each critique to the corresponding student, and upload each memo as a separate file named username.txt to turnin (assignment name threats-critiques).

Assignment 3: Two tech memos on authentication; Due Tuesday Sept 18 by the start of class

Project 4: Turnout-C – Three due dates starting Friday, September 21

BS/MS Assignment (only for those seeking BS/MS credit): Security decisions for the literary magazine; Due Tuesday, Oct 23 (start of B-term)

Assignment 5: Tech memos on mobile platform security architectures; Due Thursday Oct 4 by the start of class

Assignment 6: Design a Security Review; Due Thursday Oct 11 by the start of class

You can expect the following kinds of assignments in the course:

• 2-3 assignments on breaking into and patching software systems
• a couple of technical memo assignments (see below)
• an assignment on presenting a security concept to non-experts in some creative way (a game design, short-story outline, song, website, or other similar ideas)

There will be no in-class exams.

Participation in in-class and electronic discussions can also earn you points towards the various outcomes.

Technical Memo assignments will ask you write a brief (one-page) memo to other computer scientists about a security technology. On the job, you might be asked to explore a technology and report back on it to the rest of your project team. The technical memo assignments help you practice writing good memos. Your goal is to be crisp, informative, and technically accurate. Great memos are worth reading. You will critique other students' technical memos as part of learning to write good ones. These assignments are designed to help you simultaneously master both security technologies and communications skills that will matter for your career.