CS 6967: Security Operations

This course introduces concepts, technologies, and tools on asset protection, integrity management, availability methodology, incident response, and other issues that the operational team needs to know to run security products and services in a live environment. During the course, the students will be exposed to hands-on experience with the above topics in a reality-simulating platform and develop the skills to become professionals in security operations and administration. This is a core course of the Secure Computing Master Track

This class is open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. It is recommended you have a preliminary background of network, operating system, and programming

Professor	Jun Xu
Suggested Prerequisites	CS 4440 or similar courses, with a grade of C or better.
Lectures	MEB 1248, Monday and Wednesday, 03:00PM-04:20PM Slides are available at Schedule.
Office Hours	Monday 1:30PM - 2:30PM, MEB 3442
Communication	We use Piazza for announcements and discussion about assignments and other course material. For administrative issues, email junxzm@cs.utah.edu. Assignments will be posted here, and collected and graded via Gradescope.
Recommended Textbook	Cybersecurity Operations Handbook by Bill Hancock, John W. Rittinghouse, and William M. Hancock, First Edition, ISBN: 978-1555583064 by Bill Hancock, John W. Rittinghouse, and William M. Hancock
UofU Cyber Resources	Professor Xu's research group Professor Nagy FuTURES³ Lab Professor Zhang's research group Professor Kasera's research group Professor Patil's research group Interested in starting a UofU Capture The Flag team? Reach out!

Grading

Course Project	30%	Students will team up to complete a course project on security operations Get creative and have fun!
Homework Assignments	30%	There will be 3 homework assignments, which will be tentatively scheduled in Weeks 3, 8 and 12.
	10%	One pre-class practice + one in-class practice every week
Attendance	Counted as in-class practices	During the semester, the instructor will randomly pick two lectures to record the attendance. Your presence in BOTH lectures will bring you the full score.

Ethics, Law, and University Policies Warning

To defend a system you need to be able to think like an attacker, and that includes understanding techniques that can be used to compromise security. However, using those techniques in the real world may violate the law or the university’s rules, and it may be unethical. Under some circumstances, even probing for weaknesses may result in severe penalties, up to and including expulsion, civil fines, and jail time. Our policy in CS 5963/6963 is that you must respect the privacy and property rights of others at all times, or else you will fail the course.

Acting lawfully and ethically is your responsibility. Carefully read the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), one of several federal laws that broadly criminalizes computer intrusion (i.e., "hacking"). Understand what the law prohibits—you dont want to end up like this guy. If in doubt, we can refer you to an attorney.

Please review the University's Acceptable Use Policy concerning proper use of information technology, as well as the Student Code. As members of the university, you are required to abide by these (and all other) policies.