Network Security

Threats and attacks are like living organisms: some survive unaltered, mostly hidden from view, but remain deadly when conditions are “just right” ; others emerge quickly, wreck havoc, then become extinct — and yet others keep evolving, both in terms of their propagation methods and their impact.

This course is therefore not just limited to a theoretical understanding the state of the art of security standards, threats, and techniques— but tries to bring a broad systems-understanding, to be able to be proactive and identify potential attack surfaces of a system, before an attack exists, and the necessary background to be able to rapidly analyse and understand the root nature of a new attackon a system.

This course will consist of a set activities, organised through "learning flows". These activities are:

• Video Capsules, which introduce key technological concepts for conceiving network systems.
• Quizzes, which will help you verify if you have learned the key technologicla concepts and -- if not -- will help you identify which you will need to study further.
• Tutorials, where you will work on some practical, and real, network security problem -- and thereby demonstrate your understanding of how to put theory into practice. Once you have completed a tutorial, you'll have a (physical or virtual) meeting with an instructor, where you will demonstrate what you have done, and answer questions from the instructor
• Reading materials, which will allow you to both go in-depth, and to broaden, your knowledge on computer networking.
• A Final Exam, verifying your level of acquisition of the concepts and skills in this course.

Course Evaluation & Grading:

To validate the course, you need:

• > 50% in total, and
• > 50% in each of (quizzes, tutorials, final exam)

All students satisfying the above will thus be given validating grades.

For students not satisfying the above:

• Any instance of plagiarism will be met with an F.
• The grade F, will be used for all scores ≤50%

Your final grade for this course will be made up from three components:

• Final exam (30% of your final grade)
  • ~25 questions in a multiple-choice questionnaire "on computer” — timed to max 2h.
  • The questions will be covering the entire course syllabus
  • The exam is "Open Book", which means that you:
    • Can bring all the notes that you want, electronic or otherwise (provided that you can demostrate that your electronic device can be put into "airplane mode" and so not connect to the Internet).
    • Can bring an electronic calculate (there's no reason you would, but ... you can)
    • Can not consult the Internet
    • Can not communicate with anybody (other than a professor or instructor for the class), whether verbally, in writing, electronically, or telepathically.
    • Can not use AI tools, even if these are locally hosted
• Quizzes associated to the learning flows (30% of your final grade)
  • On the subjects treated in the corresponding lecture flow.
• Graded Tutorials (40% of your final grade)
  • For each tutorial that you have completed, you will take an appointment with an instructor to demonstrate and explain your work. The instructor will ask you probing questions, to check that you have understood the cardinal points of each tutorial -- and, based on your work and your answers, will give you a grade in Moodle. You can then move on to the next tutorial

Remedial Exam: Students who do not validate (i.e., who do not get a grade of C or above) in the ordinary session will have to sit a remedial exam. the format of the remedial exam depends on which parts of the course the student didn't validate, according to the below:

• A student who does not score >50% in either of the theory parts (either "final exam" or in in the quizzes), will have to sit another theory exam. This exam will be the exact same format (multiple choice questionnaire on Moodle) and with the same constraints (open-book, no AI, no Internet, ...) as the ordinary final exam.
• A student, who does not score >50% in the tutorials, will have to complete additional tutorials / hands-on, to be defined with the professor-in-charge of the course. These tutorials must - as for the tutorials done throughout the course - be presented and validated.

Language:

• All course materials are in English
• All instructors speak English and French (and often also Danish and Spanish)

Prerequisites:

• A strong understanding of Computer Networking is required - for example, through having previously followed CSC_51057_EP.
• Specifically, it is worth noting that CSC_2S007_EP is not a sufficient prerequisite to follow this course.

See the English version of the general description.

See the English version of the general description.

The course will be available asynchronously, fully on-line, or on- side, through learning flows with short videos, quizzes, homework, lab exercises / tutorials — as well as office-hours via Webex with professors and instructors. While being asynchronous