COS 496: Information Security

Spring 1999

General information
Schedule
Homework

Instructor

Edward Felten, felten@cs.princeton.edu, (609) 258-5906, 419 Computer Science (office hours: TBD)

Teaching Assistant

Limin Wang, lmwang@cs.princeton.edu, (609) 258-5135, 314 Computer Science (office hours: TBD)

Textbook

Security in Computing, by Charles P. Pfleeger, 2nd edition, ISBN 00133374866.

Lectures

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-2:50 PM, C.S. building, room 103.

Homework Policy

Homework will generally be due at the beginning of class. Late homework will lose 10% of its value for every day of lateness. Homework more than seven days late will not be accepted.

Each student will get one "free" extension. You can invoke your free extension by sending email to Prof. Felten on or before the assignment's due date, explaining that you're using your free extension on the current assignment. (You can use your free extension for any reason, so there's no need to explain why you're using it.) The free extension allows you to turn in the assignment up to seven days late with no penalty; but if you turn it in more than seven days late, you still receive no credit.

Besides the free extension, no extensions will be given except in extraordinary circumstances (such as documented illness), and then only if the official university procedures are followed.

Unless the assignment explicitly states otherwise, you may not collaborate with other students on the homework. If you make use of outside sources, you should disclose this fact and cite the sources, as you would in any scholarly work.

Course Project

Everyone is required to do a course project. During the last part of the semester, there will be no homework since we assume you will be working on your course projects then.

You will choose the topic of your course project, and the form of your project, in consultation with Prof. Felten. Any type of project is allowed, provided that it relates to the topics covered in the course and it represents an appropriate amount of work.

If you like, you may do a group project, with a group of up to four students. Group projects will naturally have to be larger in scope to compensate for the extra people working on the project. If you do a group project, the entire group will hand in a single project proposal and a single final report.

There are three milestone dates related to the course project.

On Tuesday, April 6, you will hand in a project proposal, which is a brief (about one page) description of the project you have in mind. (If you're proposing a group project, hand in a single description that lists the group members.) Prof. Felten will then contact you to discuss whether your proposed project is suitable, and if not, what can be done to make it suitable.
On Tuesday, April 13, you will then hand in a project description, which is like the project proposal except that it represents your commitment to do a particular project.
On Tuesday, May 11 (the Dean's Date), your final project report is due.