CS88 : Security and Privacy — Fall 2022

By the end of the course, we hope that you will have developed the skills to:

There is no required textbook for this course. We will do readings from various sources listed below. The following are recommended textbooks that are also available from the Cornell Library on reserve:

Links that are related to the course may be posted here. If you have suggestions for links, let me know.

This course will have pre-recorded class videos and readings that are required before class. There will be a short reading quiz based on that day’s required videos/readings. In-class we will break into smaller discussion groups and go over 10-15 minute discussion questions, that take a deeper look at the class material. You’re expected to actively participate in your smaller discussion groups. The homework quizzes will heavily be based on class discussions.

Class Attendance: Participation in class discussions accounts for your participation grade.

This course features regular lab assignments that account for the largest component of your course grade. Lab attendance is required by all students, unless you have already completed and submitted the lab assignment for the week. While you must attend the lab session for which you are registered, you may optionally attend additional lab sessions, however, students registered for the lab will have priority.

Changing Lab Sections: Right now, we have an even number of folks in each lab section. If you would like to switch sections please send out a post on EdStem so someone can swap with you.

To help with cases of minor illnesses, or other short-term time limitations, we will drop your three lowest reading and participation grades. You are still responsible for the material, and you should review any missed materials via the class recordings as soon as you can.

Each student may use up to 2 late days per lab assignment, up to a total sum of 5 late days on labs for the semester, no questions asked. Late days do not apply to reading quizzes, participation grades. A late day is a considered a full 24-hours (i.e., 15 minutes late is the same as 23 hours late). In the case of labs, late days are counted against all lab partners.

In the rare case in which only one partner has unused late days, the partnership can use the late days, barring a consistent pattern. If you continuously find yourself needing late days on the assignment, please reach out to your Professor to discuss this.

To use your extra time, you must email your professor after you have completed the lab and pushed to your repository. You do not need to inform anyone ahead of time. When you use late time, you should still expect to work on the newly-released lab during the following lab section meeting. The professor will always prioritize answering questions related to the current lab assignment.

If you feel that you need an extension on an assignment or that you are unable to attend class for two or more meetings due to a medical condition (e.g., extended illness, concussion, hospitalization) or other emergency, you must contact the dean’s office and your instructors. Faculty will coordinate with the deans to determine and provide the appropriate accommodations.

Grades will be weighted as follows:

In this class, you will learn about various security vulnerabilities and about implementing and launching various attacks, and possible countermeasures and controls used to prevent such attacks. This is not an invitation to perform these attacks. You are expected to perform your labwork using the virtual machines as directed by the lab assignments. You shoud not try or consider trying these exercises on any real system or network. To do otherwise would risk a violating Swarthmore College policies, PA and U.S. laws, and very likely illegal in most other countries. This applies whether or not you utilize Swarthmore College computing systems and/or networks. Apart from obeying the law, behaving ethically means you avoid activities that do harm or may do harm to people, the environment, or other computers. Note that just because you can do something, that is potentially technically legal, but is in any way harmful or a nuisance, or is without explicit permission from all necessary parties, is unethical for the purpose of this course.

The goal is to foster discovery, experimentation, and exploration, but in a safe, ethical, and respectful manner, always. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact the course professor directly. Please sign the ethics policy form agreeing to this policy by the end of the first week of course to continue to be enrolled in the course: Ethics Form

Language adapted from Dave Levine, UMD; Charles Palmer, Dartmouth; and Bryan Parno, CMU

Academic honesty is required in all your work. Under no circumstances may you hand in work done with (or by) someone else under your own name. Your code should never be shared with anyone; you may not examine or use code belonging to someone else, nor may you let anyone else look at or make a copy of your code. This includes, but is not limited to, obtaining solutions from students who previously took the course or code that can be found online. You may not share solutions after the due date of the assignment or make them publicly available anywhere (e.g. public GitHub repository).

Discussing ideas and approaches to problems with others on a general level is fine (in fact, we encourage you to discuss general strategies with each other), but you should never read anyone else’s code or let anyone else read your code. All code and written homeworks you submit must be your own with the following permissible exceptions: code distributed in class, code found in the course text book, and code worked on with an assigned partner. In these cases, you should always include detailed comments that indicates on which parts of the assignment you received help, and what your sources were.

Failure to abide by these rules constitutes academic dishonesty and will lead to a hearing of the College Judiciary Committee. According to the Faculty Handbook:

The spirit of this policy applies to all course work, including code, homework solutions (e.g., proofs, analysis, written reports), and exams. Please contact me if you have any questions about what is permissible in this course.

Students must strictly adhere to the following policy, which applies to all exams taken in a Computer Science course at Swarthmore:

Exam takers must place all non-essential items at the front of the room (or other designated area). Unless otherwise permitted, students may not have any electronic devices or course materials in their possession during the entirety of the exam. This includes cell phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, course notes, articles and books, among others. These items should be placed at the front of the room near the proctor. If you need to leave the room during the exam, you must obtain permission from an instructor first. Any non-permitted discussion or aide in regards to exam material will result in immediate forfeiture of the exam and a report to the College Judiciary Committee. Please discuss any concerns or accommodations with your instructor prior to starting the exam.

If you believe you need accommodations for a disability or a chronic medical condition, please contact Student Disability Services via email at studentdisabilityservices@swarthmore.edu to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs. As appropriate, the office will issue students with documented disabilities or medical conditions a formal Accommodations Letter. Since accommodations require early planning and are not retroactive, please contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. For details about the accommodations process, visit the Student Disability Services website. You are also welcome to contact me privately to discuss your academic needs. However, all disability-related accommodations must be arranged, in advance, through Student Disability Services.

To receive an accommodation for a course activity you must have an official Accommodations Letter and you need to setup a meeting with me to work out the details of your accommodation at least two weeks prior to any activity requiring accommodations.