Aim

The aims of the course are to acquaint students with security exposures in telecommunication and computer networks and with modern methods of defence. Wherever possible the theoretical background to such topics as cryptography will be illustrated with practical examples of networks in use today. In particular IPSec protocol and its use in securing VPN communications through the internet will be analysed in detail. At the end of the course students should be able to give an engineering analysis of a security system and understand its limitations.

Syllabus

1. Requirements for network security: examples of types of network attach; passive and active, communication channel and network management, traffic related. Protection by encryption and authentication. Digital signatures. Management controls. Importance of trusted parties in system management. Overhead, cost and other management aspects.

2. Algorithms and standards: private key systems and DES. Public key systems and PSA. Analysis of strength of protection. Weak keys. Attack by exhaustive search. Calculation of required key length. Types of analytic attack. Relationship with information and coding theory.

3. Key Management: Diffie-Hellman key exchange. RSA key management. Public key certificates. Overall system management and management controls.

4. Systems for network security: VPN security. Wireless (including wireless LANs) security. LAN security. Internet security and the IPSEc protocol.

Lecture Schedule and Notes (Spring 2007)

Week
1	1 - Introduction	2 - Data Encription Standard (DES)
2	3 - Encryption/Decryption	4 - Hashes & Message Digests
3	5 - Number Theory	6 - Public Key Algorithms & RSA
4	7 - More Public Key Algorithms	8 - Authentication Systems I
5	9 - Authentication Systems II	10 - Strong Password Protocols

6	11 - Kerberos V4	12 - Kerberos V5
7	13 - Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)	14 - Communications Security in Real-Time
8	15 - IPSec	16 - Secure Sockets Layer & Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS)
9	17 - Electronic Mail Security	18 - PEM & S/MIME
10	19 - Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)	20 - Firewalls
11	21 - Aspects of Web Security	22 - Quantum Cryptography

Past Papers (with solutions)

2006 Network Security Paper
2007 Network Security Paper

Sample Paper I 
Sample Paper 2

Problem Sheets

Problem Sheet 1
Problem Sheet 2
Problem Sheet 3
Problem Sheet 4
Solutions to all problem sheets

This page is maintained by Peter Cheung
Last updated: 18 May 2008.