CS530L

Until recent years, information systems security was the limited focus of the military and the financial communities. With the recent explosive growth and merging of telecommunications and computing, security has become an integral element of any reliable and robust information systems environment. This class will cover information systems security at the graduate level. Students should have a basic understanding of networking and operating systems prior to attending the class.

Please note: this coming Friday no lab homework is due - since we did no lab exercise last Friday. But, this coming Friday, don't forget there will be a lab exercise (authentication) at 2:20 and a lecture (authorization) at 4:00. (2/6)

Please note: this coming week lecture but no lab - today you did the first lab exercise, but I gave no lecture. So next Friday February 3 you won't do a lab exercise. But I will give the 4pm lecture, on the topic of authentication, and you'll do the authentication exercise a week later. (1/27)

Please note: this week lab but no lecture - the first lab activity is scheduled for this week Friday January 27 at 2:20pm in OHE406. However, as for the usual 4pm lecture, we are skipping a week so that my topics will be timed to coincide with their coverage by Professor Mirkovic. (1/24)

My RSA lecture available online - I ran out of time in today's lecture, without having talked about the latter slides in my presentation. Those slides covered the steps and math of the RSA algorithm. They are closely related to the lab activity you'll do in a week. I have those slides online, with my narration. You may listen to them if you like (it would help) before coming to the lab next Friday. (1/20)

Timeslot assignments - the lab is set for Fridays from 2:20pm to3:40pm. This was preferred by most people who responded. Two of you (agarwal, chiwane) expressed conflict with Friday. I will email you 2 who have conflicts, with alternative instructions. The lab performed on a given Friday will be the one that was the subject of the lecture a week earlier, and the due date for submitting the result will be a week later. Take as an example the cryptography topic. The lecture for it is today; you'll do the lab exercise in a week, on Friday January 27; your electronic submittal of the result is due a week after that, on Friday Feburary3. (1/20)

Clarification: no lab meetings this week. They will start next week. (1/17)

First homework tasks -
1) express your lab timeslot preferences (unless you are a DEN student) deadline: end of day Tuesday 1/17/12
If you are a DEN student, install VMWare Player (or other version of VMware) if you do not have it already. See "DEN students" comments below.
2) as a tourist, visit the informational links listed at left under the heading "DETER net testbed". Gain initial familiarity with DETER at tourist level. We will arrange DETER accounts for you shortly.
3) visit link at left under entitled "Cryptography" under the heading "Labs." Our upcoming initial lab topic will be on the subject of cryptography. Lecture on the subject will be January 20, with corresponding lab exercise performed the following week. (1/13)

Individual lab timeslot assignments

You will be assigned to a particular lab session. You will express preference among the timeslots using this web form:

On the form (which does not validate entries) please take care to enter a unique explicit digit from among 0, 1, 2, and 5 for each of the five lab timeslot possibilities.
- enter 0 for any slot with which you have a bona fide conflict (other commitment that cannot be changed)
- enter 1 for your most preferred non-conflicting timeslot, if any
- enter 2 for your second-most preferred non-conflicting timeslot, if any
- enter 3 for your third-most preferred non-conflicting timeslot, if any

The software that will process your entry will filter it out if it deviates from that. So fill in the form correctly to avoid adversely affecting our meeting your preference. I will do my best to follow student preference within my ability to control. (1/13)

The web form is here. To use it, you need to supply an ID. Your ID is your last name, all lower case. On-campus students who were registered as of yesterday are in the web form's database. I will make a supplemental update with names of later registrants sometime next week as a fresh class roster is made available to me. (1/14)

Slides from today's lecture in color or greyscale.(1/13)

Strong recommendation - preview or scan the lab instructions in advance, before your lab session each week. It will enable you to do the exercises more efficiently, with greater understanding, and ensure you can finish before the lab ends. (1/13)

Support questions - try the "Labs" category of the discussion board found on DEN/Blackboard for CS530. If it's a question of general interest (maybe somebody else has the same question in mind) put it there. Alternatively, or for more specifically personal questions, csci530l@usc.edu email address, shared by me and the lab grader. (1/13)

Lab location - room OHE406. The hardware-identical computers in this room have removable hard drives. You will be assigned a drive. You will insert it in one of the computers when you arrive at the lab each week. You will put it in a locker afterward, where it will be stored for you until the following week's session. (1/13)

DEN students - most if not all of the lab exercises are performed in VMware virtual machines. We will make available images of the same vm's that are installed in the lab, for you to install on your machine. You will then be able to run that vm using VMware player, which is distributed free from www.vmware.com. The lab handouts (instructions) will be posted online, here on this website, weekly. I intend to distribute the vm images to you via download, details to be posted on this website. (These are not for the consumption of on-campus students.) (1/13)