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.