CS/ECE 578 :: Cyber-Security
Winter 2026



Latest Announcements [Full List]


Textbooks

No required textbook. Reading materials will be provided on the course website and/or distributed in class.

Prerequisites

This course requires a basic understanding of computer systems and computer security. Please consider taking these courses first:

  • CS 312 :: Linux System Administration (must)
  • CS 370 :: Introduction to Security (must)
  • CS 344 :: Operating Systems I (recommended)
  • CS 434 :: Machine Learning and Data Mining (recommended)

Grading

Your final grade for this course will be based on the following scheme:
[Bonus] Extra credit opportunities:
  • +5%: Submit research project to workshop

Schedule

This schedule is subject to change. Please check back regularly.
Date Topic(s) Before Class Reading/Notes Assignments
Introduction
Mon 01/05 Administrivia - [Optional] SoK: Science, Security, and the Elusive Goal of Security as a Scientific Pursuit. (Slides|Video)
[Assigned] Research project
Wed 01/07 Security + Trust - [Optional] Perspectives on Security.
- [Optional] Reflections on Trusting Trust.
- [Optional] Running the "Reflections on Trusting Trust" Compiler.
Mon 01/12 Security Mechanisms - [Optional] The Joy of Cryptography.
- [Optional] Practice-Oriented Provable Security and the Social Construction of Cryptography.
[Deadline] Presentation signup
Due 1/12 at 9PM PDT (UTC-7)
[Deadline] Submit Project Team
Due 1/14 at 9PM PDT (UTC-7)
Wed 01/14 Security Mechanisms - [Optional] Certificate Transparency.
Mon 01/19 No class MLK Day
Cryptography
Wed 01/21 Public Key Deployment - Mining Your Ps and Qs: Detection of Widespread Weak Keys in Network Devices. (Slides|Video)
- The Million-Key Question — Investigating the Origins of RSA Public Keys . (Slides|Video)
Mon 01/26 Encrypted Data - Practical Techniques for Searches on Encrypted Data.
- Attribute-based encryption for fine-grained access control of encrypted data. (Slides)
Software + ML Security
Wed 01/28 Binary Analysis - Dynamic Taint Analysis for Automatic Detection Analysis, and Signature Generation of Exploits on Commodity Software.
- SOK: (State of) The Art of War: Offensive Techniques in Binary Analysis. (Video)
Mon 02/02 Fuzz + Symbolic Testing - Evaluating Fuzz Testing. (Video)
- EXE: automatically generating inputs of death.
Wed 02/04 Adversarial ML - Towards Evaluating the Robustness of Neural Networks. (Video)
- Accessorize to a Crime: Real and Stealthy Attacks on State-of-the-Art Face Recognition. (Video)
Mon 02/09 Adversarial ML - The Limitations of Deep Learning in Adversarial Settings. (Slides)
- Membership Inference Attacks Against Machine Learning Models. (Video)
Hardware Security
Wed 02/11 Memory - Flipping Bits in Memory Without Accessing Them.
- FLUSH+RELOAD: A High Resolution, Low Noise, L3 Cache Side-Channel Attack. (Video)
Mon 02/16 Speculative Execution - Meltdown: Reading Kernel Memory from User Space. (Slides|Video)
- Spectre Attacks: Exploiting Speculative Execution. (Slides|Video)
Network + Web Security
Wed 02/18 TLS - Let's Encrypt: An Automated Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web. (Video)
- The Security Impact of HTTPS Interception. (Video)
Mon 02/23 Cloud Security - Hey, you, get off of my cloud: exploring information leakage in third-party compute clouds.
- Cloud Strife: Mitigating the Security Risks of Domain-Validated Certificates. (Slides)
Wed 02/25 Mobile + IoT - Understanding the Mirai Botnet. (Slides|Video)
- Dissecting Android Malware: Characterization and Evolution.
Mon 03/02 Distributed Systems + Blockchains - Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin. (Slides)
- SoK: Research Perspectives and Challenges for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies. (Video)
Users + Security Policy
Wed 03/05 Social Engineering - Sunrise to Sunset: Analyzing the End-to-end Life Cycle and Effectiveness of Phishing Attacks at Scale. (Slides|Video)
- Diving into Robocall Content with SnorCall. (Slides|Video)
Mon 03/09 User Behavior + Security Advice - Imagined Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook.
- A Comprehensive Quality Evaluation of Security and Privacy Advice on the Web. (Slides|Video)
Project Presentations
Wed 03/11 Group Project Final presentations, in-class
Finals Week
Sun 03/15 No Final Exam. [Deadline] Final report due 03/15 at 11:59:59PM PST (UTC-8)