CMSC 23200/33250: Introduction to Computer Security

Week	Date	Topics	Instructor	Assignments & Reading Responses	Readings (Everyone)	Research Papers (CMSC 33250 only)
Week 1	1/11	Course Introduction and the Security Mindset [slides]	Blase & David	Reading Response 1 (on Chapt 1) due 1/12	Textbook Chapter 1 and Sections 5.1-5.6	None
	1/13	Basic Security Concepts and Threat Modeling [slides]	David	--
	1/15	OS Security [slides]	David	--
Week 2	1/18	No class in observance of MLK Day	--	Reading Response 2 due 1/19	Textbook Chapter 6 and Sections 7.1-7.5	Due 1/19 (a day later than normal because of the holiday): Stephens et al. Driller: Augmenting Fuzzing Through Selective Symbolic Execution, NDSS 2016.
	1/20	Memory Vulnerabilities [slides]	David	Assignment 1 due 1/21
	1/22	Memory Protection [slides]	David	--
Week 3	1/25	Software Security Techniques [slides]	David	Reading Response 3 due 1/26	Textbook Chapter 2 CVE-2020-11500 and CVE-2018-9195	Due 1/25: Narayan et al. Retrofitting Fine Grain Isolation in the Firefox Renderer, USENIX Security 2020.
	1/27	Crypto Tools I [slides]	David	Assignment 2 due 1/28
	1/29	Crypto Tools II [slides]	David	--
Week 4	2/1	How the Internet Works [slides]	Blase	Reading Response 4 due 2/2	Textbook Sections 10.6 and 9.1-9.3 Aas et al. Let's Encrypt: An Automated Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web, CCS 2019. Bode. Apple, Cloudflare Join Forces To Encrypt DNS, TechDirt, December 11, 2020.	Due 2/1: Lauinger et al. Thou Shalt Not Depend on Me: Analysing the Use of Outdated JavaScript Libraries on the Web, NDSS 2017.
	2/3	TLS and X.509 Certificates [slides]	David	Assignment 3 due 2/4
	2/5	How the Web Works I [slides]	Blase	--
Week 5	2/8	How the Web Works II [slides]	Blase	Reading Response 5 due 2/9	Textbook Sections 7.6 and 9.4-9.8 McMillan. How Heartbleed Broke the Internet — And Why It Can Happen Again, Wired, April 11, 2014. James Mickens. To Wash It All Away, USENIX ;login: magazine, March 2014.	Due 2/8: Durumeric and Li et al. The Matter of Heartbleed, IMC 2014.
	2/10	Web Attacks and Defenses I [slides]	Blase	Assignment 4 due 2/11
	2/12	Web Attacks and Defenses II [slides]	Blase	--
Week 6	2/15	Network Attacks and Defenses I [slides]	Blase	Reading Response 6 due 2/16	Textbook Chapter 11 and Sections 10.1-10.4 Manjoo and Bremer. I Visited 47 Sites. Hundreds of Trackers Followed Me., New York Times 8/23/19	Due 2/15: Wei et al. What Twitter Knows: Characterizing Ad Targeting Practices, User Perceptions, and Ad Explanations Through Users' Own Twitter Data, USENIX Security 2020.
	2/17	Network Attacks and Defenses II [slides]	Blase	Assignment 5 due 2/18
	2/19	Web Tracking and Identifiability [slides]	Blase	--
Week 7	2/22	Anonymity Tools, Blockchain [slides]	David	Reading Response 7 due 2/23	Textbook Chapter 3 Dan Goodin. Anatomy of a Hack: How Crackers Ransack Passwords Like "qeadzcwrsfxv1331", Ars Technica, May 27, 2013. Apple. Password Monitoring, Apple Platform Security, February 18, 2021. James Mickens. This World of Ours, USENIX ;login: magazine, January 2014.	Due 2/22: Pal et al. Beyond Credential Stuffing: Password Similarity Models using Neural Networks, IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy 2019.
	2/24	Authentication I [slides]	Blase	Assignment 6 due 2/25
	2/26	Authentication II and Usable Security [slides]	Blase	--
Week 8	3/1	Data Privacy and Deanonymization [slides]	David	Reading Response 8 due 3/2	Dwork-Roth Textbook pp 3-33 Mervis. Can a Set of Equations Keep U.S. Census Data Private? Science Magazine 1/4/19	Due 3/1: Falzon and Markatou et al. Full Database Reconstruction in Two Dimensions, CCS 2020.
	3/3	Differential Privacy [slides]	David	Assignment 7 due 3/4
	3/5	Current Topics in Cryptography [slides]	David & Alex	--
Week 9	3/8	Hardware Security and Authentication III [slides]	Blase	Reading Response 9 due 3/9	Brian Krebs. Scary Chip Flaws Raise Spectre of Meltdown, Krebs on Security Blog, January 5, 2018. Wallace et al. Does GPT-2 Know Your Phone Number?, BAIR Blog, December 20, 2020. Mattu and Hill. The House That Spied on Me, Gizmodo 2/7/18	Due 3/8: Kocher et al. Spectre Attacks: Exploiting Speculative Execution, IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy 2019.
	3/10	Security in Machine Learning and Ubiquitous Computing	Blase & Weijia	Assignment 8 due 3/11
	3/12	Security in Practice	Special Guests	Assignment 9 due 3/18

Schedule and Assignments (Winter 2021)