MITx_Cyber security_Syllabus

Cyber security: Technology, Application and Policy| Modules, Topics, and Faculty
MODULE ONE: Introduction
The introductory module aims to give a broad survey of the course and of
cybersecurity challenges and opportunities.
Introduction: Cybersecurity (Howard Shrobe)
 Learning from the past: Multics
 Examples of what can go wrong
 Capability architectures
 Tagged architectures, including Memory safety, Type safety, Information flow, and
“Zero Kernel”
Security Overview (Srini Devedas)
 Why security is a hard goal to achieve
 Broad strategies that one can employ to create secure systems
MODULE TWO: Systems Security
The systems security module surveys the system development side of cybersecurity.
Hardware Architectures for Security (Howard Shrobe)
 How novel hardware architectures can help to enforce the security properties that
Operating Systems and Programming Languages expect, including memory safety,
type safety, information flow, and access control
 How to enforce properties in hardware can be much more systematic and
dramatically more efficient than enforcement by software alone

Operating Systems Security (Frans Kaashoek)
 Taking a global, systems-wide view of security. Viewing security as a "negative goal,"
considering all possible paths to security breaches- permissions, access, trojans,
bugs, and many others
 Discussion of various design approaches to securing systems, including complete
mediation, separation privilege, and minimizing the trusted computer base
Verifying Systems (Adam Chlipala)
 How to formulate requirements on secure behavior of C-like programs as rigorous
logical formulas
 How to argue that programs meet such requirements
Secure Programming Languages (Armando Solar Lezama)
 Languages and low-level security properties
 Languages and high-level security properties
 Type safety
MODULE THREE: Cryptography and Network
This module is on algorithms for secure computation and security challenges in
network and protocol design.
Public Key Cryptography (Ron Rivest)
 A quick overview of basic public-key cryptography, including the RSA and El-Gamal
public-key cryptosystems, relevant number theory, security definitions, and
complexity assumptions
 A brief intro to more advanced notions, such as digital signatures, certificates,
homomorphic encryption, and elliptic curves
Multi-party Computation, Secret Sharing, Distributed Trust (Shafi Goldwasser)
 A cryptographic paradigm shift: from communication of private data to computation
over private data

 How to define secure multiparty computation and its applications
 How to achieve multi-party secure computation through polynomial secret sharing
and computation on shares
 Using the principles of multiparty computation to distribute trust and power
Homomorphic and functional encryption (Vinod Vaikuntanathan)
 Solving the all or nothing paradigm of encryption - how do we keep data secure,
while allowing computations on underlying data: how to “have your cake and eat it
too”
 Discussion on the developments in homomorphic encryption from the ‘80s through
today, and constructing partially and fully homomorphic crypto-systems
 How functional encryption systems can grant third-party access to only the precise
information it needs to perform a task
Network Security and Protocol Design (Dave Clark)
 What the different aspects of network security are and what mechanisms are used to
address them
 Why the current state of network security is so poor
MODULE FOUR: Case Studies
This systems module discusses solutions to security in several domains.
Bitlocker (Nickolai Zeldovich)
 Discussion of the challenges of building a disk encryption system using passwords,
removable devices and trusted hardware methods
 Overview of the Trusted platform method and case study of how BitLocker uses this
method
 How BitLocker actually encrypts data using the ‘poor man’s authentication’ method
Resilient Software (Martin Rinard)
 An explanation of how errors can cause serious security vulnerabilities using
examples of buffer and integer overflow errors
 Overview of methods to automatically find and patch these errors, including
transferring correct code from one application to another, and generating patches to
identify errors and produce the correct output

 Discussion of how automating these difficult and expensive manual tasks can
produce software that is more reliable and secure, with enhanced functionality
Web security (Daniel Jackson)
 What makes web applications especially vulnerable to attack
 How attacks against web applications work: two broad classes
 How to defend against attacks, at the design and implementation levels
Mobile Phone Security (Nickolai Zeldovich)
 Discussion of the unique characteristics of a mobile phone that necessitate different
applications from existing desktop or web applications
 Case study of how computer system security works in mobile phones, using the
Android's application model, and mechanisms used by Android to secure data while
allowing applications to share information
 A look back on Android’s development: What worked? What didn’t work? What
changes have been made to overcome challenges?
MODULE FIVE: Policy
This systems module discusses policy aspects of cybersecurity.
The Landscape of Cyber Policy (Danny Weitzner)
 Inquiring into the role public policy plays in sustaining and securing the Internet
 Reviewing six key policy goals embodied in today’s digital communications
environment, how they arose, and what keeps them on track
 Exploring the way progress requires policymakers to understand the background
against which new rules are made

MITx_Cyber security_Syllabus

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