CS4600: Secure System Principles - NPS Online
Secure System Principles
Course #CS4600
Est.imated Completion Time: 3 months
POC: NPS Online Support
Overview
An advanced course that focuses on key principles of a constructive approach to secure systems. A brief review of operating systems and computer architecture is provided. Major topics include threat characterization and subversion; confinement; fundamental abstractions, principles, and mechanisms, such as reduced complexity, hierarchical relationships, least privilege, hardware protection, resource management and virtualization, software security, secure system composition, mutual suspicion, synchronization, covert and side-channel analysis, secure metadata, secure operational states, usability, and life cycle assurance. Current developments will include advances in security hardware, components, and systems.
Included in degrees & certificates
- 256
- 258
- 367
Prerequisites
- CS3600
- CS3070
- CS3502
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain indicators of and factors that contribute to complexity in computing systems, and principle-based techniques to mitigate complexity.
- Motivate and summarize purpose and scope of constructive security.
- Analyze the relationship between reference monitor concept, reference monitors, and essential protection features.
- Describe fundamental access modes, access as a relationship permitted by policy and encoded in software and hardware for both directly and interpretively accessed objects.
- Explain the major security policy types and characteristics, including policy dynamicity and control in runtime systems.
- Describe basic secure system principles and their application.
- Explain and assess how principles drive system organization, implementation, and trustworthiness.
- Show how component organization in system architectures affects security.
- Distinguish and contrast security functionality and assurance.
- Describe and justify lifecycle assurance processes.
- Describe why systems have imperfect security despite lifecycle rigor.
- Explain essential hardware support for security.
- Analyze the impact of supply-chain vulnerabilities in complex system architectures.
- Outline formal requirements for virtualization.
- Explain the differences between Type I and Type II virtual machines.
- Describe current approaches to virtualization and concerns for cloud security.
- Define covert and side channels, their manifestations, and challenges associated with them.
- Apply the basic mathematics used in secure system design and analysis.
Application Deadlines
No upcoming deadlines.
Academic Calendar
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