MCF8112 Cryptographic and Authentication Systems

Computing professionals are facing new challenges as a result of increasing commonality and complexity in the use of computer-based systems in the practical world. More and more developers and users are demanding for the provision of secure systems to protect the resources from abuse. This requirement has been compounded by the emergence and rapid expansion of the Internet and the popularity of the applications such as E-commerce. This subject focuses on standards, architectures and technologies used to ensure security of computer-based systems and the related resources. Topics include Introduction to computer security, models of security, elementary cryptography, software security, vulnerabilities, threats, defenses, secure-software development processes. Security in networks threats and defenses; secure system design principles, techniques and security evaluation; and privacy, ethics and legal issues.

Course Objectives
The course aims at enabling students to:

• Explain the concepts and theory underlying cryptography and authentication
• Analyze modern security standards, architectures and technologies used to ensure confidentiality, integrity, availability
• Equip students with skills in using cryptographic software tools. 

Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the learner will be able to: 

• Identify and describe the main types of cryptographic primitives.
• Evaluate and describe current cryptographic algorithms.
• Explain the basics of public key infrastructures.
• Describe the role of certificate authorities and certificate repositories.
• Compare and contrast centralized infrastructures and decentralized infrastructures.
• Understand the various standards involved in establishing an interoperable Internet PKI.
• Describe interoperability issues with PKI standards, and describe how the common Internet protocols use and implement the PKI standards.