The set of topics in this course are listed below. Click on their links to see details such as: lecture notes, chapters from textbooks, links to interesting websites, and videos of the lecture.
Definitions of computer and network security; security services, mechanisms and attacks.
Old ciphers are presented to demonstrate principles used in many encryption algorithms.
Symmetric key encryption is primary performed with block ciphers. DES is used as an example.
Different modes of operation are available to apply block ciphers on large plaintexts.
Random numbers, pseudo-random number generators and their application in cryptography, and stream ciphers.
Background on number theory relevant to understanding public key cryptography.
Principles of public key cryptography and details of RSA
How to authenticate the send and contents of messages, especially using encryption and MACs
Hash functions and how they are used for authentication, especially digital signatures.
Describes different types of firewalls and uses Linux iptables as an example in configuring a firewall.
Methods to distribute secret and public keys to other users in a secure manner.
User authentication, focusing on password storage, entropy and limitations.
End-to-end protocols used in the Internet to secure communications, specifically SSL, HTTPS and SSH.