CS 559. Advanced Topics in Theoretical Computer Science
Spring 2011 
Tuesday, Thursday, 4 -- 5:20, FL 320

Topic:  Foundations of Security and Trust in Distributed Systems

Our society relies on distributed systems for most of its core
functions.  Companies rely on the web to interact with customers, with
partners, and often with their own employees.  Banking transactions
and credit card payments ride over the Internet, as do personal
investment decisions.  Bank-to-bank and investment firm transactions
ride over closed networks, but these networks are still heterogeneous
distributed systems.  Varied devices, systems, and software use them.
Moreover, the goals of the people and organizations using them differ,
and are frequently in conflict.

Security and trust in distributed systems are urgently important
practical issues, because participants in those systems have
conflicting goals.  

Security and trust have also provided one of the best areas for
interaction between theoretical computer science and practical
problem-solving in the past decade or two.  Sophisticated theoretical
methods have been applied to cryptographic protocol analysis,
distributed access control, trust management, secure system
configuration, web programming security, and other areas.  We will
study a range of these problems, and the foundational ideas that have
been applied to them.  

This will be a seminar-style advanced topics course.  Substantial
class time will be devoted to student presentations on recent research
papers and class projects.

Recommended background:  graduate course in Foundations of Computer
Science or Logic.  Advanced undergraduates may participate with
instructor approval.