14-741 Introduction to Information Security

The growing importance of information systems, and their use to support safety-critical applications, has made information security a central issue for modern systems.

This course introduces the technical and policy foundations of information security. The main objective of the course is to enable students to reason about information systems from a security engineering perspective. Topics covered in the course include elementary cryptography, access control, common software vulnerabilities, common network vulnerabilities, digital rights management, policy and export control law, privacy, management and assurance, and special topics in information security.

Prerequisites: A basic working knowledge of computers, networks, C and UNIX programming; elementary mathematics background.  Prior exposure to topics in computer or communications security is not required.   14-741 is a prerequisite course for 18-731. 
Units: 12 
Schedule:  Fall semester