Instructor: Yixin Sun
TA: Galen Harrison (gh7vp), Tu Le (tnl6wk)
Lecture time: 3:30-4:45pm TuTh
Location: Thornton E316
Office hours (starting 2/6, check Collab for most up-to-date hours):
Mon: 2-3PM, Tu (Zoom)
Tue: 2-3PM, Yixin (Rice 403)
Wed: 3-4PM, Galen (Zoom)
Thu: 2-3PM, Tu (Zoom)
Fri: 3-4PM, Galen (Zoom)
This course investigates security and privacy issues that stem from the Internet infrastructure. We will cover topics such as BGP security, DNS security, DDoS attacks, and anonymous communications. We will also look at various mechanisms to secure the Internet infrastructure as well as privacy enhancing technologies. Note that this course will involve literature review and paper presentation/discussion.
No formal prerequisites, but assumes basic familiarity with programming in languages like C and Python. Some background in computer networks (e.g., equivalence of CS4457) will be helpful.
| Dates | Topic | Paper | Notes |
| Thu 1/19 | Intro/Network Architecture | - | Classes start |
| Tue 1/24 | HTTP and TLS | - | |
| Thu 1/26 | TCP/UDP | - | |
| Tue 1/31 | Addressing and Naming | - | |
| Thu 2/2 | Control plane (routing) | - | |
| Tue 2/7 | Data plane (forwarding) | - | |
| Thu 2/9 | Internet scanning | IPv6 scanning | Paper reading starts |
| Tue 2/14 | Routing attack | BGP data center | |
| Thu 2/16 | Routing defense | Path-end validation | HW1 due on Friday 2/17 |
| Tue 2/21 | DDoS/Botnet | Mirai | |
| Thu 2/23 | TCP attacks | Attack discovery | |
| Tue 2/28 | DNS attacks | Cache poisoning | |
| Thu 3/2 | DNS defense | DNSSEC | HW2 due on Friday 3/3 |
| Tue 3/7 | (Spring break) | - | |
| Thu 3/9 | (Spring break) | - | |
| Tue 3/14 | Certificates | Let's Encrypt | |
| Thu 3/16 | Malware/APT | IoT malware | Project team/proposal due on Saturday |
| Tue 3/21 | Anomaly detection | Bro | |
| Thu 3/23 | Secure programmable dataplane | Poseidon | |
| Tue 3/28 | Anonymity systems | Safely measure Tor | |
| Thu 3/30 | Fingerprinting | k-fingerprinting | |
| Tue 4/4 | Censroship measurement | ICLab | |
| Thu 4/6 | Censorship circumvention | TLS circumvention | |
| Tue 4/11 | Online tracking | Online tracking | |
| Thu 4/13 | Future Internet | SCION | Paper reading ends |
| Tue 4/18 | Project presentation | ||
| Thu 4/20 | Project presentation | ||
| Tue 4/25 | Project presentation | ||
| Thu 4/27 | Project presentation | ||
| Tue 5/2 | Project presentation | ||
Homework assignments: 30% (2 assignments, 15% each)
Final project (presentation and report): 40%
Paper reviews and presentation: 30%
Late Policy
All assignments/reviews are due via Collab at 11:59pm on the due date.
Grace period: 12 hours (intended to cover real issues, e.g., internet issues, server down)
10% penalty per day late
There is no textbook for the course that you need to purchase. We will distribute materials as needed.
There are several sites, all can be found/linked from Collab:
Course website (this one): informational purpose
Collab: Announcements, assignment submissions, course materials and recordings, Zoom links
Piazza: Long-form questions, notes, private messages for faculty/TA, regrade request
Please direct all course-related questions to Piazza (or go to office hours). If you want to discuss other topics or have personal/team issues that can and should only be handled by a professor, please email me directly (ys3kz).
You must cite any and every source you consult, other than those explicitly provided by the course itself. This includes talking with a friend/classmate or looking at a website/book. If you're unsure, please ask us. We run all submissions through a plagiarism checker by default.
All assignments are individual work and there is no collaboration allowed. That means you should not push it to GitHub (or any other site), send a copy to anyone, turn your screen to your neighbor, code up solutions together, etc. It is ok to discuss with classmates, but please include the names of students whom you've discussed with.
While discussion is allowed for assignments, it is NOT allowed for paper reviews. Paper reviews should represent your original thoughts without any discussion or consultation of any source.
Penalties may be up to and including a failing grade (F) in the course, independent of and in addition to the operations of the Honor Code.
Ack: this section is adapted from CS 2130.