Fall 2019 - 59060 - PA 380L - Topics in Public Policy and Law

Technology of Cybersecurity: An Introduction for Law and Policy Students
Instructor:  Ryan Cunningham Course Description This course is an introduction to the technical aspects of cybersecurity. No background is assumed. If you want to learn how this stuff works, this course was made for you. The course is intended for graduate students in law, public affairs, and other non-technical disciplines. We will explore topics like cryptography, authentication, malware, and social engineering. Note that this course does not address legal or policy questions, as those are the subject of the separate Cybersecurity Foundations course taught by Professor Chesney. Both courses are part of the larger Strauss Center program promoting cross-disciplinary training related to cybersecurity across the graduate school community at UT. Further notes: 1. For LBJ students who intend to take part in Strauss’s “cybersecurity fellows” program (details here), they’ll need to take this one sooner or later, as the program requires at least one technical course to go with the law and policy courses. 2. Specific topics covered by this course: 09/09 - Fundamentals of Security & Computation 09/16 - Cryptographic Hashes 09/23 - Symmetric Cryptography 09/30 - Asymmetric Cryptography 10/07 - Cryptography in Practice 10/14 - Fundamentals of Web Apps & AppSec (Midterm) 10/21 - Server-side Web Attacks & Defense 10/28 - Client-side Web Attack & Defense 11/04 - Fundamentals of Systems 11/11 - Systems Security 11/18 - Software Vulnerabilities 11/25 - Software Security 12/02 - Network Security Overview 12/09 - The Human Factor The Law School is the home department for this course.