Information Security

Logistics

Course Overview

This course provides a foundational understanding of information security, focusing on the principles of trust, verifiability, and adversarial threat models. It explores key concepts such as secrecy, privacy, and security, along with the basics of cryptography, including symmetric and public-key encryption, authentication, hash functions, digital signatures, certificates, cryptographic protocols, and applications. The course also introduces cryptographic security definitions to provide a rigorous framework for reasoning about security. Key topics include models of authentication and authorization, biometrics, identity systems, and the challenges associated with verifying hardware and software integrity; the frameworks of formal verification and model checking. The course also addresses trust assumptions and strategies for distributing trust through secure multiparty computations, hardware trust models, trusted computing environments, and remote attestation. The curriculum also covers elements of operating system and network security, offering a comprehensive perspective on addressing real-world security challenges with rigor and precision.

Coverage

• Introduction to security
• Trust vs verifiability
• Adversarial threat models
• Notions of secrecy, privacy, and security
• Basics of cryptography – symmetric and public key encryption, authentication, hash functions, digital signatures, certificates, cryptographic protocols, and applications
• Cryptographic security definitions
• Models of authentication and authorisation; biometrics; identity
• Issues with verification of hardware and software integrity; the frameworks of formal verification and model checking
• Trust assumptions, distributing trust with secure multiparty computations, hardware trust models, trusted computing environments and remote attestation
• Elements of OS and Network security

Grading

• Quizzes: 20%
• Assignments: 30%
• Midterm: 25%
• Final exam: 25%

The grading policy will be absolute, meaning your grade will be based on your performance against fixed criteria, not compared to other students. This ensures that anyone who demonstrates mastery of the material can achieve the top grades, regardless of how others perform. The cut-offs for each grade will be announced soon.

Attendance

The course requires 100% attendance, and attendance will be recorded in every class. There will be material covered in class that is not present in textbooks. In addition, some portion of the lectures will be used for discussions. It is in your best interests to attend the lectures as they happen, and get your questions answered during the discussions, rather than waiting till the end of the semester. Additionally, there will be no make-up provisions for missed quizzes or class participation for whatever reason.

Reading List

• Matthew A. Bishop, Computer Security: Art and Science, 2nd Edition, Pearson, 2018
• Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryptography, John Wiley & Sons, 1996
• William Stallings, Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice, 8th Edition, Pearson, 2022
• Ross Anderson, Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems, 3rd Edition, Wiley, 2020
• Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, and Mike Speciner, Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, 3rd Edition, Pearson

Discussion Sessions

Please sign up for the discussion sessions on the AMS.

Academic Honor Code

From Ashoka’s Academic Integrity Policy (MyAshoka → Information and Documents → Office of Academic Affairs): plagiarism—which is a matter of producing academic work that borrows, without acknowledging, from another person’s work—is a serious academic offense. All violations of Academic Integrity Policy (including but not limited to plagiarism) will be reported to the Academic Integrity Committee and will result in an F grade for the entire course, no exceptions. Please familiarize yourself with the policies and sanctions.

Contacting Course Staff:

The recommended method for contacting course staff is through the email alias cs3610staff@ashoka.edu.in. Please start the subject of your email with “Information Security:”.

Support

Students are encouraged to reach out to University offices such as the Office of Learning Support, and Ashoka Center for Well-Being for additional support.