CSC789 Special Topic:
Information Warfare
Course
Description
As per John Alger’s
definition, Information Warfare (IW) consists of those actions intended to protect,
exploit, corrupt, deny, or destroy information or information resources in
order to achieve a significant advantage, objective or victory over an
adversary. Adversaries can be
nations, corporations or individuals.
As the sophistication, frequency and damage of computer-based IW
attacks has increased, the inherent limitations of traditional approaches
towards hardening current software and hardware infrastucture has become
apparent. Part of this problem
is due to the massive deployment of internet-accessible hardware and software
that was originally designed for limited access, unconnected environments. This seminar course
will survey various offensive and defensive IW techniques that involve the
use of computer systems.
Offensive techniques that are already in the public domain will be
studied in the context of how to mount a defense against them or how they can
be used as part of a “reactive” defense. This course will address unconventional approaches towards
designing and maintaining secure computing systems that must operate in a
completely hostile environment.
These novel systems must posess the capability to anticipate attacks,
warn of attacks, automatically respond to attacks, heal themselves if
compromised, learn from the attack, and retain memory of the experience that
can be shared with other systems.
Each system may perform all of these tasks independently of, or
collaboratively with, other “friendly” systems. This course differs
from a conventional computer or network security class in that it does not
focus exclusively on traditional techniques for defending information,
privacy and contemporary computing systems from preexisting types of
threats. While knowledge of
these topics is vital for todays security practitioner, this course focuses
on novel, experimental techniques and computing architecture to be
incorporated in the design of next-generation secure computing
infrastructure. This
infrastructure will be less vulnerable to both existing and future types of
attack, and will actively and automously respond to attack. Course Objective
Upon completion of the
course, the student will have acquired an awareness of IW issues (as they
related to computer systems).
The student will also have acquired in-depth technical expertise in
several IW areas. The student
will have acquired the ability to undertake research in the field of IW. Instructor - Dr
John Harrison
Course
Methodology
This course will be structured
in a seminar style, with numerous student presentations and class
discussion. Students will
review, and present, literature from various subject areas such as network
and computer security, combo-malware, the integration and analysis of information
extracted from both open and compromised sources, compartmentalization and
recovery of compromised systems and system components, applied machine
learning and self-healing autonomous systems. Students will then identify a topic of special interest to
themselves, and approved by the instructor, and then undertake a project
relating to the topic. The
workload in the course will be as follows: Class
Presentations: Student will be
expected to make several class presentations during the semester based on
reading assignments issued by the instructor (and supplementary related
material obtained independently by the student). The number of presentations made by each student will
depend on the number of students in the class but will be no less than
3. Students must create their
own presentation material.
Students should arrange to meet the instructor during his office hours
no later than two days prior to the scheduled presentation date. This meeting is for the purpose of
reviewing the presentation material.
Presentations must be prepared for display on a digital projector
using either MS Powerpoint, OpenOffice or Adobe PDF. Hardware will be provided for the
presentation however you are welcome to use your own notebook computer if you
wish. Assignments
and Class Participation: Students
who are not presenting on a particular week may be expected to review
material relating to the presentation, which will be specified by the
instructor. This reading must be
performed in advance of the presentation. All students, including the presenter, may be given an
assignment based on the reading material. The assignment will be due at the start of the class that
the material is being presented.
It is also expected that students will contribute to classroom discussion
on a regular basis. The
instructor will assign class participation grades based on his evaluation of
the student’s in-class contribution.
Note that there may be additional assignments given that are unrelated
to class presentations. Research
Project: Each student will
undertake a research project during the semester. The project must be approved by the instructor but can be
in an IW area of special interest to the student. Many types of projects are acceptable. The project could include advanced study
on a topic presented by the student (or another student) during the
semester. Alternatively, the
project could include the design and implementation of software, or the novel
application / demonstration of sophisticated experimental software created by
someone else. All projects will
require a class presentation. A
group project will be acceptable under certain circumstances. Course Resources
There is no
assigned IW textbook for the course that you must purchase. Instead course resources will be provided
by the instructor in class, or will be available on the WWW or via the course
website (see CSC789 Resources ). Evaluation · In-Class Presentations: 40% · Assignments and Class Participation: 20% · Research Project: 40% Ethics Advisory
Nothing in this course should be taken as encouragement or
incitement to crack, e.g., access, modify or interfere with computer systems
without permission, or develop software that does so. In addition to being unethical and
hurtful, these actions can (and do!) lead to civil and criminal
prosecution. You are welcome to
seek guidance from the instructor on these topics. Any experimentation with software that is potentially dangerous
to other systems, e.g., has the capability to self-replicate, should only be
conducted on a system that is not, nor will be, connected to the internet
until all secondary storage is erased and other safety steps are taken. (All CS lab machines are
connected to the internet.) If
you wish to perform such an experiment, please seek advice from the
instructor regarding access to special computer resources. Breaking into systems to “demonstrate” security problems, even
if you have good intentions, can at best cause a headache to overworked
system administrators but can also compromise and disrupt systems and can
lead to civil and criminal prosecution.
If you identify a vulnerability, do not exploit it. Please contact the appropriate
administrators confidentially.
Keeping abreast with the latest security patches, methods and malware
defense tools is difficult and the implementation of practical security
measures involves weighing risks and costs. Consequently, any advice or suggestions that you may give
to a system administrator may not be acted upon quickly. This is especially true in a
relatively low security environment such as a university, where open access
has traditionally been put above security and resources for system administrators
are very scarce. This does not
mean that your contribution has been ignored or that your advice has not been
taken seriously. Computer Labs
The primary
UNLV laboratory resource for this class will be B-361 but, due to the nature of
the course, in certain cases other computer resources may be available (see
the instructor for details). Students are welcome to use their own computer
resources. Any problems with Lab
resources in B-361 are to be reported to the School’s system administrator,
Mr John Kowalski at johnmk@cs.unlv.edu. UNLV Policies
“Learning
Enhancement Services” (LES) houses “Disability Services”, “Tutoring
Services”, and “Learning Strategies”.
If you have a documented disability that may require assistance, you
will need to contact LES for coordination in your academic accommodations.
LES is located in the Reynolds Student Services Complex in room 137. The DRC
phone number is 895-0866 or TDD 895-0652. Their website is: http://www.unlv.edu/studentlife/les. The
University requires all members of the University Community to familiarize
themselves and to follow copyright and fair use requirements. You are
individually and solely responsible for violations of copyright and fair use
laws. The University will neither protect nor defend you nor assume any
responsibility for employee or student violations and fair use laws.
Violations of copyright laws could subject you to federal and state civil
penalties and criminal liability as well as disciplinary action under
University Policies. To help familiarize yourself with copyright and fair use
policies, the University encourages you to visit its copyright web page at: www.unlv.edu/committees/copyright/. Course Change
Disclaimer
For a
number of reasons, the syllabus and assessment may change during the
semester. Students will be
given adequate time to prepare for any changes that do occur. |
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