Computer Science 432: Information Security
Princeton University
Fall 2014


Course Information | Schedule

This schedule is subject to change.

DATE TOPIC HOMEWORK
Wed 10 Sep Message integrity and pseudorandom functions
Mon 15 Sep Randomness, pseudorandomness, and stream ciphers
Wed 17 Sep Block ciphers
Mon 22 Sep Public-key cryptography Homework 1 due
Wed 24 Sep Key exchange and key management
Mon 29 Sep Authenticating people
Wed 1 Oct SSL/TLS and public key infrastructure Homework 2 due at 11:59pm
Mon 6 Oct System security
Wed 8 Oct Secure programming
Mon 13 Oct Securing network infrastructure Homework 3 due
Wed 15 Oct Firewalls and virtual private networks
Mon 20 Oct Web security
Wed 22 Oct Web privacy
Fri 24 Oct Homework 4 due at 5:00pm
Mon 3 Nov Electronic voting
Wed 5 Nov Backdoors in crypto standards
Mon 10 Nov Homework 5 due at 11:59pm
Mon 10 Nov Spam
Wed 12 Nov Guest lecture: Prof. Arvind Narayanan
Mon 17 Nov Malware Homework 6 due
Wed 19 Nov Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
Mon 24 Nov Big data and privacy Homework 7 due
Mon 1 Dec Economics of security
Wed 3 Dec Human factors in security
Mon 8 Dec Security and ethics
Wed 10 Dec TBD
Fri 12 Dec Homework 8 due at 11:59pm
Sun 18 Jan at 1:00pm, in McCosh 10 Final Exam
Open notes, open homework
Here are two sample finals

Submission policy.  You must submit your solutions electronically via the Dropbox submission system. You will need to type your Princeton netID and password for authentication. Be sure to incude your name and login at the top of every file you submit. Also be sure to click the Check All Submitted Files button to make sure that you have submitted all of the required files and that they compile cleanly. If you do not follow these directions, you will lose a substantial number of points.

You can resubmit and unsubmit files as needed up until the submission deadline. However, once the submission deadline passes, you should not resubmit or unsubmit files: if you wish to submit an assignment late, be sure that your submission directory is empty from the deadline until you are ready to submit all of your files for that assignment. Any files that have been submitted at grading time will be graded as is.

Lateness policy.   Homework will 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.

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

Collaboration policy.   Unless the assignment explicitly states otherwise, you may not collaborate with other students on the homework. (Of course, if it is a group assignment, you should collaborate within your group!) If you make use of outside sources, you should disclose that fact and cite the sources, as you would in any scholarly work.

Important note.   Please do not publish solutions to programming assignments in a way that could compromise their utility as pedagogical tools. At Princeton, this is a violation of the basic rights, rules and responsibilities of members of the university community.