CSCI373.01 is an upper level course in computer security for CSCI majors and people working as System Administrators. There are no pre-requisites except for permission of instructor. Anyone who can convince me that they have enough informal background to handle the material in this course is welcome.

Our text is Computer Security Principles and Practice, by William Stallings and Lawrie Brown. This a text deigned for junior level Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering course. There is some material on cryptography and probability that requires a strong mathematical background as well other material that requires a programming background, but most of the text is accessible to anyone with reasonable knowledge of computer operating systems and networks.

Grading:

This course meets UNCA's Writing Intensive Course requirements. That means that writing - English, not code - is an important part of the course content and a significant part - almost half - of the grade is based on writing assignments. There are two kinds of writing assignments for this course, sngel page chapter summaries for each chapter we cover in the text and two, five page, formal reports based on your research.

Chapter summaries of each chapter.
We will cover approximately one chapter a week. At the start of each class meeting after the first, you will be expected to turn in, on paper, a one page typed summary of the chapter we are covering that week. It isn't easy to summarize a chapter in a text book on a single page, and trying to do it well is an excellent way to learn the material in a text.

In order to get full credit for your summary, you will have to do a good job of figuring out what is important in the chapter - I find that repeated outlining of the chapter is the best way to do this - and present that material properly. 75% of your summary grade will be based on content - how good a job you do of summarizing the material, and the remaining 25% will be based on the quality of your writing - how good a job you do of using the English language to present it.

Two formal project reports, identical in format to the written part of CSCI's Senior Projects.
The projects are based on library research and, possibly, work with a network of virtual machines. I will provide the resources you need and help you choose your projects. You will have a month to work on each project.

For each project:
You will create a project proposal, similar in format to a CSCI Senior Project proposals. We will review it and, if needed, make suggestion about how you should change it before it will be approved. After you get your proposal approved, you will have two weeks to work on a draft version of the project report. Then we will review and comment each others drafts in class and you'll have another week to produce the final version of that report.

Your project grade will be based on three equal parts. The first third is based on how well your report meets the specifications given for a Senior Project Report on the CSCI Departmental website. The second third is based on how well your report is written - your use of the English language. The final third is based on the content of your report - how good a job you have done on using the resources available to you.

At the start of each class, right after I take up the chapter summaries, we'll have a half hour quiz over the material assigned for that week. That material will include the current chapter in the text, the homework assigned from that chapter, and any other assignment I might have given you the previous week.

We will have a comprehensive final exam.

The course grade will be based on:

Weekly Chapter Summaries: 25%
Weekly Quizzes: 25%
Projects, two at 10% each: 20%
Comprehensive Final Exam: 30%

Grading will be on a 60-70-80-90 scale.

My office is RH 024. My office hours are 1:00 to 2:30 PM W. For other times please send me email (boyd@unca.edu), call me at my office (232-5162) during my office hours or leave a message with the CSCI secretary at 251- 6446. Email is best.

[Homework assignments and links to class materials go here]