Ph.D. of Computer Science: Information Security

The course investigates deeply the security platforms and architecture associated with different cloud computing deployment models. Students have to examine the concerns, incidents, vulnerabilities, the corresponding security issues due to virtualization and the use of hypervisors and virtual machines. The course has to emphasize on the countermeasures correlated with the virtualized environments, virtualized data centers, virtual machines theft, hyper-jacking, data leakage and denial of service attacks. The course investigates the forensics concerns and threats facing cloud users and cloud providers, multi-tenancy threats, taking into considerations the governing legal and regulatory issues on a local, regional and international platform

This‬ course‬ targets‬ building‬ advanced‬ knowledge‬ and‬ experience‬ in‬ the‬ applied‬ domains‬ of‬ cryptography‬ and‬ its‬ future‬ trends‬ and‬ algorithms.‬ The‬ course‬ should‬ span‬ deeply‬ the‬ most‬ popular‬ crypt analytic ‬techniques.‬ Students ‬must ‬build‬ experience ‬and‬ gain‬ understanding ‬of ‬the‬ practical‬ and‬ applied‬ aspects‬ of‬ the‬ cryptographic‬ engineering‬ techniques‬ and‬ algorithms.‬ The‬ course‬ goes‬ deeply‬ with‬ the ‬relevant‬ and‬ required‬ mathematical‬ and ‬algebraic‬ backgrounds ‬such‬ as‬ discrete‬ logarithm-based‬ cryptosystems‬ and‬ signatures,‬ digital‬ watermarking,‬ digital‬ fingerprinting,‬ steganography,‬ blockchain‬ technologies,‬ quantum‬ computing,‬ and‬ quantum‬ cryptography,‬ communication‬ protocol‬ design‬ and‬ analysis,‬ digital‬ signatures,‬ anonymous‬ communication, ‬cryptographic ‬backdoors,‬ security‬ proofs.‬ The ‬impact‬ of ‬crypto graphic ‬issues ‬on‬ real ‬systems,‬ while‬ maintaining‬ an ‬appreciation‬ for‬ grounding ‬the‬ work ‬in ‬fundamental‬ science.‬

Network ‬security‬ is‬ one‬ of ‬the ‬ever-evolving‬ domains ‬of ‬research.‬ The‬ course‬ has ‬to ‬go ‬deeply‬ into ‬large ‬scale‬ network‬ attacks‬ and ‬its‬ direct‬ and‬ indirect ‬impacts.‬ Students‬ have ‬to ‬examine ‬in‬ full‬ details‬ the ‬DoS,‬DDoS,‬Malware-based‬ attacks,‬penetration ‬testing‬ methodologies,‬ network‬ monitoring, ‬and‬ bot net‬ detection.‬ The‬ course ‬also‬ targets ‬designing ‬secure ‬network ‬protocols ‬and‬ studying‬ vulnerabilities ‬in ‬the ‬whole ‬TCP/IP‬ protocol‬s tack.‬ Students‬ must ‬examine ‬the ‬different‬ web‬ security‬ attacks,‬ and‬ the ‬associated ‬defense‬ models.

In‬ this‬ course,‬ students‬ go‬ deeply‬ into‬ the‬ different‬ digital‬ cyber crime ‬scenes‬ and‬ scenarios; ‬from‬
the‬ criminal‬ and‬ the‬ victim(s)‬ perspectives.‬ The‬ course‬ analyses‬ the‬ vulnerability‬ foundation,‬
traditional‬ causes,‬ system‬ strengths‬ and‬ weaknesses,‬ counter measures,‬ and‬ prevention‬ and‬
protection ‬techniques. ‬Human‬ vulnerabilities,‬ insider‬ threat ‬and ‬attacks,‬ organizational‬ policies‬
and‬ regulations‬ must‬ be‬ thoroughly‬ examined.‬ Students‬ through this‬ course‬ should‬ deal‬ with‬
cyber crime‬ identification,‬ cyber crime ‬investigation,‬ prevention‬ and ‬mitigating‬ against.

The‬ course‬ covers‬ the‬ necessary‬ capabilities‬ for‬ forensic‬ analysts‬ and‬ incident‬ responders‬ to‬ identify‬ and‬ counter‬ a‬ wide‬ range‬ of‬ threats‬ within‬ enterprise‬ networks,‬ including‬ economic‬ espionage,‬ hacktivism,‬ and‬ financial‬ crime‬ syndicates.‬ The‬ course‬ will‬ consist‬ of‬ in-class‬ presentations,‬ workshops ‬and ‬interactive‬d discussions‬ about‬ research ‬papers.

This‬ advanced‬ course‬ introduces‬ students‬ to‬ the‬ most‬ prominent‬ and‬ powerful‬ attack‬ vectors,‬ allowing‬ students‬ to‬ perform‬ these‬ attacks‬ in‬ a‬ variety‬ of‬ hands-on‬ scenarios.‬ The‬ course‬ includes‬ research ‬seminars ‬covering‬ foundational ‬work‬ and‬ current‬ topics‬ in‬ penetration‬ testing‬ and‬ ethical‬ hacking.‬ Students‬ will‬ read‬ and‬ discuss ‬published‬ research ‬papers ‬as‬ well ‬as ‬complete‬ an ‬original ‬research‬ project ‬in ‬small‬ groups.

The course examines security platforms and concerns related to cyber physical systems with emphasis on the industrial control systems such as SCADA systems. The course explores the industrial cyber security threats, corresponding networking architecture, control systems, design, protocols, and governing modules. Students have to investigate different security threats to different cyber-physical systems in different domains

This ‬course‬ examines ‬in‬ depth ‬the ‬operating ‬systems’ ‬structuring,‬ design ‬and‬ implementation‬ concepts. ‬It‬ emphasizes on the possible attack scenarios and vulnerabilities in distributed systems, scheduling in parallel systems, grid systems, parallel computing, virtualization, hypervisors and virtual machines, and defense-in-depth concepts in virtualized environment.

The course examines the security issues of the classical versus virtualized data centers. Students have to go in depth into the hypervisor architectures, virtual machine construction and specifications, VM status, VM templates, the related security concerns, securing VM to VM traffic, securing hypervisor kernels and VMMs, virtual firewalls, virtualized networking environment, security incidents and threats at the compute platform, the memory forensics, security at network and storage levels, guest and host operating systems security, intrusion detection, mitigation and protection measures.

The course covers securing software design, development and implementation, defense in depth, multi tier architecture, attacks to APIs, code vulnerability, data validation, SQL injection, data storage, encryption and decryption, error handling and logging, sessions hijacking, threat modeling and/or threat 54 trees, risk analysis, management, mitigation and countermeasures. The course contents emphasize on security architecture and platforms in different application domains such as mailing systems, databases, and e-banking applications.