University of Padua -
MSc in Computer Science
Computer and Network Security
Academic Year: 2019/2020
Lecturer: Mauro Conti
Teaching Assistant: Eleonora Losiouk and
Luca Pajola
Note: In this page you will find updated information about the course.
(students are invited to visit often this page).
Computer and Network Security
Academic Year: 2019/2020
Lecturer: Mauro Conti
Teaching Assistant: Eleonora Losiouk and Luca Pajola
Note: In this page you will find updated information about the course.
(students are invited to visit often this page).
Language: The course and the exam will be in English.
Credits: 6 CFU.
Schedule: I semester (course schedule is published HERE).
Mailing List: Students enrolled for this course are invited to join THIS Google group.
Course Content:
The first part of the course will cover advanced research topic in CyberSecurity, among which:- Ransomware/data analysis on public blockchains
- Authentication and behavioral biometrics
- Security of the Internet of things
- Adversarial machine learning
- Cyber-physical system security
- Mobile security
- Future Internet security
The second part of the course takes the form of seminars based on a selection of scientific papers (that either have had a strong impact on security today, or explore novel ideas that may be important in the future). The list of topics can be found HERE.
For each topic there is a primary paper, and possibly other additional papers. All the students are required to read all primary papers and be able to competently discuss the material in class. Each student will be responsible for presenting one lecture (based on one of the primary paper including as much relevant related work as necessary to distill the work presented in the paper). The speaker will have a finite time (20 minutes) to present the papers. The presentation will be followed by 10 minutes of interactive discussion in the class. 48 hours before each lecture each student must upload on a shared repository at least two thought-provoking questions for each one of the main papers covered in the lecture. These questions should critically evaluate the papers (e.g., questioning the assumptions, criticize the methodology, compare with other solutions, propose alternative solutions, etc.).
This is intended to be an interactive class: class participation is strongly recommended (and will play a role in the grading criteria). Sleeping during the class is optional, but not recommended.
Grading Criteria:
At the end of the course, each student must write a 5-page long essay about one of the topics that has been discussed in class, or another topic agreed with the lecturer. The topic and the structure of the essay must be agreed with the lecturer. The essay might include some implementation prototype or experiments/simulations to evaluate/support the claim in the paper (in case this is a significant part of the essay, two students can agree with the lecturer to work together). If the student cannot attend the lectures, an alternative work (e.g. a longer essay) must be agreed with the lecturer. During the oral exam, the student is asked to give a 15-minute presentation to the lecturer and the teaching assistants about the essay (presenting with slides is highly recommended).Students will be graded according to:
- (25%) the presentation during the second part of the course
- (15%) Layout and Graphics
- (30%) Content
- (20%) Organization
- (20%) Presentation
- (15%) Q&A.
- (25%) the participation in the discussions during the second part of the course
- (25%) the content and quality of the essay
- (30%) Style
- (20%) Originality
- (50%) Organization (clarity in your argumentation, coherence between assumptions and conclusions, logical organization, evidence to support claims)
- (25%) the oral presentation of the essay, during which the student can also be asked questions on the first part of the course