Computer Science CS 4/57205 Information Security
Call Numbers 12367 and 12379
SYLLABUS
Spring 2015

Time and Place:

Monday, Wednesday, 2:15-3:30 108 Smith Hall

Instructor:

Michael Rothstein, 268 MSB, phone 330-672-9065. Email addresses: rothstei at cs.kent.edu or mrothste at kent.edu ; please do not send mail to both at once; I'll simply get it twice and think it is spam! (Substitute @ for `` at '').

Web address:

http://www.cs.kent.edu/~rothstei

Office Hours:

Monday, Wednesday 11:00-12:00 and 3:45-5:00 PM
Also, you can always send email with questions and/or to set up an appointment. Usual turnaround will be a few hours during the day. Email use is to be preferred over voicemail, which will not be checked as often.

Textbook:

Stallings, William and Brown, Lawrie, Computer Security : Principles and Practice 3d ed. Pearson Education Inc. (publishing as Prentice Hall), 2015, ISBN 978-0-13-377392-7

Goal of the course

This course is an overview of some of the issues surrounding information security; we will look at basic concepts, threats, protection mechanisms, and the design and administration of secure systems.

Material to be covered

Time permitting, we will cover most chapters in the book except for chapters 10, 11, 20, 21.

Prerequisite:

CS 33001, CS II

Ethical issues:

Ethical issues used to be prerequisite of this course; it no longer is; however, taking or attending this course includes a heavy responsibility; issues and techniques will be covered which can do a lot of damage; bad use of these techniques may have very serious consequences; for example, promising students who have misused hacking techniques have been, not only expelled from the University, but also forbidden from setting foot on University Grounds; nobody takes this abuse lightly.

Attendance policy

I will not take attendance in this class; however, I will periodically take pop quizzes on material that should be fresh on your minds to make sure it is being understood correctly.

Notwithstanding the above, if you are absent, there may be material created, either spontaneously or in response to questions, and covered in the classroom; often there will not be any written notes of this material, so it might be a good idea to team up with somebody who keeps good notes to make sure you have all the material covered. Some of this material may show up in an exam.

Read the text. You are fully responsible for the whole content of the text with exceptions noted. The class will mostly cover material in the same order as the text book, there may be exceptions however. It is the student's responsibility to maintain an awareness of the material in the text that is currently being covered. Ask around if you are unsure of the text material currently being covered.

The syllabus may be changed during the semester if necesary: changes will be announced in class; they will also show up on the instructor's website.

Class disruptions

This is a large class, so disruptions should be kept to a minimum; these include (in increasing order of seriousness):

1. Early departure (if announced and done discreetly: please sit near the door so that as few people as possible notice.)
2. Late arrival
3. Use of electronic devices or other devices which may interfere with your or other student's participation. Laptops are acceptable for taking notes, however, please sit in the last row of the room so that your screen does not distract/block other students.
4. Conversation among students.
5. Aiding and/or abetting these or any other student's disruptive behaviors.

Guidelines pertaining to class disruptions are outlined in Chapter 4 of the University Policy Register in section 4 - 02.2.

Grading:

Your grade will be based on a midterm, one final, assorted assigned exercises, a project grade, and a ``class participation grade'', based on the number of relevant questions and comments: specially good questions or catching my mistakes get extra points. The weights are:

Pop quizzes and class participation	10%
Midterm (March 4)	20%
Final (12:45-3:00, May 7)	30%
Project (TBA)	20%
Exercises	20%

The final will be comprehensive.

The midterm and final will be closed book; however, a small (like 20 sheets) amount of paper will be allowed for consultation.

Test make-up policy:

I will need signed documentation to verify each individual absence in order to provide make-ups; only university accepted reasons will be honored.

Grading scale:

I will assign number grades during the session and only convert them to letter grades when I turn them in at the end of the session. No decision can be made regarding a conversion table until the very last minute due to such imponderables as test difficulty, class attendance and participation, etc. which will influence the grade. However, I guarantee the following, worst case, table:

97-100	will convert into an A
94-96	will convert into at least an A-
91-93	will convert into at least a B+
88-90	will convert into at least a B
85-87	will convert into at least a B-
82-84	will convert into at least a C+
79-81	will convert into at least a C
76-78	will convert into at least a C-
73-75	will convert into at least a D+
66-72	will convert into at least a D

Special accommodations for Students with Disabilities:

University policy 3342-3-01.3 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit:
http://www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

Registration Requirement:

The official registration deadline for this course is January 25, 2015. University policy requires all students to be officially registered in each class they are attending. Students who are not officially registered for a course by published deadlines should not be attending classes and will not receive credit or a grade for the course. Each student must confirm enrollment by checking his/her class schedule (using Student Tools in FlashFast) prior to the deadline indicated. Registration errors must be corrected prior to the deadline.

The last day to withdraw is March 22, 2015.

On cheating, plagiarism and other unethical behavior

You are encouraged to discuss class problems with other students but required to work independently of anybody else except the instructors and/or tutor, unless otherwise indicated. Copying other people's work, allowing your work to be copied (even inadvertently!) and plagiarizing work will not be tolerated and will be dealt with according to University regulations. For more information, see the University policy statement on cheating

Notes:

1. By default, the penalty for cheating in this course is an ``F'' in the course.
2. University regulations require me to notify Student Conduct in case of violations.
3. Cooperation is just as bad as the deed itself: so, deciding which of two is the original is a non-issue: both are equally guilty.