COMP3155

Course Title: 
Computer and Network Security
Credits: 
4
Educational Level: 
III
Semester offered: 
II
Associated Programme: 
B.Sc. CS
Core Course: 
yes
Course Aims: 

This course aims to provide the computer science student with a general understanding of computer and network security issues. It will cover the physical, software and social aspects of securing computer systems.

Syllabus: 
  • Confidentiality, integrity and availability: the pillars of security.
  • The ethical issues facing the security professional.
  • Physical access to information resources: secure sites, security policies, backups, disaster recovery
  • The human factor: social engineering
  • Malware: viruses, worms, Trojan horses, mailers, etc.
  • Penetration testing: threat discovery, assessment and system hardening.
  • Confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation: the use of cryptography in security (hash functions, message digests, public/private key cryptography)
Course Assessment: 
  • Final exam (2 hours long)     60%
  • Coursework       40%
    • Assignments     10%
    • Project   20%
    • In-course test   10%

Students will be required to pass both the coursework and the final examination to pass the course.

Course Prerequisites: 

COMP3150