MCS 180(280) Fall 2004

Assignments

Note: No late assignments are accepted for credit.

Weekly readings are assigned every Thursday. Weekly homeworks or labs are assigned every Tuesday and due the following Tuesday. Solutions to the homeworks are given in class one week after the homework is due. You can work in groups, but you must write your own solution.

There is a security topic presentation and a class project. The class project is only for graduate students. For both assignments you can work individually or in a group of two. Groups have to be form by 9/7 . Write your group partner in your homework 1 solution.

Security topic presentation:

• Each student chooses a security topic, finds a paper on the topic, studies the necessary background and presents the paper in class.
• Example topic: computing forensic, wireless security, security in ad-hoc or sensor networks, database security, risk analysis and management, router security, case studies (The Hannover Hackers, An Evening with Berferd, The Internet Worm)
• Send paper to me two weeks in advance for approval
• Each group prepares a 10 minutes presentation on their topic (Power Point is optional). Presentation days are on 10/30, 10/5, 10/7.

Final class project (Only for grad students)

For the class project, work individually or in groups of two. You need to identify an active research area in computer security, execute research, and write and present the results. For your project you can either (1) design a new technique or algorithm or (2) analyze a current technique and propose an improvement.

Project checkpoints:

1. Turn in two-pages project proposal describing your topic, related work and references to your topic. Due 10/12.
2. Write your project report, and prepare a 15 minutes power point presentation. There will be 5 minutes for questions and discussion. The report should be between 4 and 7 pages, single column, 11pt size. Reports due on 12/2.

   Suggested outline to the project report:
   Abstract
   Introduction: motivate your project and state the problem
   Methodology
   Implementation
   Testing and Results
   Conclusion
   Reference

   Also, include a section that explains the different phases of your project, how long you spent in each phase, and what the difficulties you encountered. If something didn't work, explain why. Presentations will be on 12/2.