This course first covers attacks and threats in computer networks, including network mapping, port scanning, sniffing, DoS, DDoS, reflection attacks, attacks on DNS, and leveraging P2P deployments for attacks. The course then covers the topics in cryptography that are most relevant to secure networking protocols. These topics include block ciphers, stream ciphers, public-key cryptography, RSA, Diffie-Hellman, certification authorities, digital signatures, and message integrity. After surveying the basic cryptographic techniques, the course examines a number of secure networking protocols, including PGP, SSL, IPsec, and wireless security protocols. The course also examines operational security, including firewalls and intrusion detection systems. The course involves reading some recent research papers on network security.
The course also has an important lab component, including labs on packet sniffing, network mapping, firewalls, SSL, and IPsec.