Schedule
September 1: Introduction
Agenda:
Why should we care about network security?
Common misconceptions of network security
Examples of computer security issues and solutions
Overall structure of the course
Overview of labs and projects
Readings:
Google’s Networking Class on Coursera. You can audit the class for free.
Watch all videos under “Week 1”, “Week 2”, “Week 3”, and “Week 4.
Optionally, watch all videos under “Week 5” and “Week 6”.
September 8: How does the Internet work?
Agenda:
What happens when I visit "Google.com"?
How to capture and analyze packets with Wireshark and Pandas
Overview of protocols: IP, DHCP, ARP, DNS, TCP/UDP, HTTP, TLS
Readings:
Google’s Networking Class on Coursera. You can audit the class for free.
Watch all videos under “Week 1”, “Week 2”, “Week 3”, and “Week 4.
Optionally, watch all videos under “Week 5” and “Week 6”.
Read the following chapters of the Computer Networks Textbook (5th Edition) by Larry Peterson et al.
Chapter 2.6 - Ethernet
Chapter 3 - Inter-networking
Chapter 4 - Internet routing
Chapter 5.1 and 5.2 - UDP and TCP
Chapter 9.1.2 - HTTP
Chapter 9.3.1 - DNS
Optionally, check out the following YouTube videos from Princeton’s Networking Class
Videos 26-32: IP
Videos 33-34: Routing, autonomous systems
Videos 85-89: DNS
Videos 146-151: HTTP
Videos 154-159: CDNs
[Recording] [Pcaps] [Slides] [Answers to the in-class ungraded quiz]
September 15: Local network security issues
Agenda:
In-class exam on networking basics (2:15 - 2:45 pm)
Scanning with nmap
ARP spoofing
DHCP starvation
Readings:
September 22: Access to the local network
Agenda:
Scanning with nmap
ARP spoofing
Why does Bob flip back to the correct ARP table?
Does Bob know Alice is doing ARP spoofing?
Can Bob protect himself? DoH? VPN?
DHCP starvation
NAT
Readings:
September 29: Beyond the local network
Agenda:
Lab 1 announced: How to analyze a large number of packets?
Final exam/project format.
Recap:
Racing against time: ARP spoofing
How VPN works
"Good" vs "bad" VPN
BGP + DNS
nmap, what is routable
Readings:
October 6: Cryptography
Agenda:
Lab 1 review
Guest lecture by Vijay Prakash
CIA
Historical cryptography & Kerckhoffs's principle of cryptography
Cryptographic setting
Modern cryptographic algorithms
Block cipher & Stream cipher
Symmetric and Asymmetric algorithms
DES
Diffie-Hellman
RSA
Digital signature
Hashes
Hash chaining
MAC
Readings:
Mining Your Ps and Qs: Detection of Widespread Weak Keys in Network Devices
Fun comic: http://www.moserware.com/2009/09/stick-figure-guide-to-advanced.html
The Code Book, by Simon Singh
October 13: TLS & Public Key Infrastructure
Agenda:
Recap on RSA and DH
HTTPS: A primer on web security
PKI
Let's Encrypt, Certificate Transparency
Man-in-the-middling TLS connection
Readings:
RSA and DH
Cloudflare blogs
PKI
How LetsEncrypt works: https://letsencrypt.org/how-it-works/
Introduction to PKI and TLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuK-OAyfET4
PKI: https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-build-your-own-public-key-infrastructure/
[Slides] [Mentimeter] [Python demo] [Recording]
October 20: TLS + PKI + Authentication
Agenda:
HTTPS: A primer on web security
PKI
Let's Encrypt, Certificate Transparency
Man-in-the-middling TLS connection
Readings:
PKI
How LetsEncrypt works: https://letsencrypt.org/how-it-works/
Introduction to PKI and TLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuK-OAyfET4
PKI: https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-build-your-own-public-key-infrastructure/
Certificate transparency: https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-certificate-transparency-and-nimbus/
[Slides] [Mentimeter] [Recording (NYU Sign-in Needed)]
October 27: Web security and privacy
Agenda:
Certificate transparency, wrapping up
HTTP
Cookies
CSRF
XSS
Fingerprinting
Readings:
Deadline:
[Project] Send Danny project groups and preliminary topics. Danny will provide feedback. Remember: You have a choice to EITHER do a project OR take the final exam, but not BOTH. You'll hear back by October 27 whether you are selected to do the project.
NYU Logins Required: [Zoom Recording] [Slides] [Mentimeter]
November 3: IoT security and privacy
Agenda:
Web privacy, continued
Smart TV privacy
Readings:
NYU Logins Required: [Zoom recording] [Slide 1] [Slide 2] [Mentimeter]
November 10: Enterprise security
Agenda:
Guest Lecture by Brandon Sloane
Job Market: Are there jobs out there and how much do they pay?
Industry Challenges: Blockchain, AI, VR, Quantum Computing, Regulatory Requirements
Industry Trends: Passwordless Authentication (Fido/U2F/etc), ZeroTrust (micro-segmentation, continuous authentication)
Firewalls, IPtables, IDS, IPS
Readings:
https://www.nist.gov/publications/zero-trust-architecture [Scan, don't read]
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-207.pdf [Scan, don't read]
November 17: Tunnels
Agenda:
Zero-trust
OAuth
Firewall + IPTables
Tunnels (e.g., SSH, IPSec, WireGuard, TailScale)
Readings:
TailScale:
Zero-trust:
OAuth 2.0:
IPTables and MITMproxy
NYU sign-in needed: [Zoom recording] [Slides]
December 1: Malware, eCrime and abuse
Agenda:
ToR
Ransomware
Cryptocurrencies
Botnets
Readings:
Tor
Click Trajectory: https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~savage/papers/Oakland11.pdf
Ransomware: https://hdanny.org/static/oakland-18.pdf
NYU Sign-in required: [Zoom recording] [Tor slides] [Ransomware slides]
December 8: Project Presentation
This session will NOT be livestreamed.
All presentations will be in person. There will be six groups of presentations. Each group will give a ten-minute talk, followed by about five minutes of Q&A. We will spend about 100 minutes on the presentations. The remaining 50 minutes will be to wrap up the lecture on ransomware and other malware, and with concluding remarks.
Danny highly encourages everyone to attend in person and provide constructive feedback to individual groups. Extra credits will be awarded; please see this form.
Agenda:
Project presentations:
Project 3: “Ask app not to track” Is that a fraud?
Project 7: Data collected by 3rd party apps from Google Fit
Project 11: What happens in the public captive portal
Project 13: How do universities in China handle email security?
Project 17: Code scanning for vulnerabilities using LSTMs
Project 19: Disclosing IoT device traffic data without compromising privacy
Ransomware + Malware
Ethics: censhorship and malware takedown
Conclusion