News and Announcements for CSC424 Communication, Distribution and Security.
Monday 25 Jan:
Semester begins. Welcome!
Syllabus for CSC424 Communication, Distribution and Security.
This is a course in:
The standard communication protocols of computers, including TCP/IP,
and the security concerns consequent to those protocols;
The craft of highly skilled coding in C, following specifications,
and understanding and countering sophisticated attacks against system security.
Readings:
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition: A Systems Approach
(The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) 5th Edition,
Other editions might be acceptable. by Larry L. Peterson (Author), Bruce S. Davie (Author).
((Amazon))
Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems,
2nd Edition,
by Ross J. Anderson.
((Amazon))
From time to time, to emphasize a concept. Will be due in a short
time frame, and no lateness is allowed.
Due by midnight of the date, in the current Miami local time (EST in winter).
Projects:
A series projects, usually 2 to 3 weeks in length. A grace period
of lateness is allowed. See below.
Project grading:
Projects are generally scored on a 0 to 5 scale.
The makefile usually provides a Basic Test, and correctly passing the Basic
Test gives 3 points, generally.
Projects passing the Basic Test are given an
Extended Test, for the remainder of the points.
The 3+2 point pattern that is generally true, is modified according to
project difficulty.
Lateness: Three days grace automatic on projects. One additional point off each week late,
up to four points.
Due dates are midnight of the given day, in the current Miami local time (EST in winter).
☛ No work accepted for grade after midnight, the last day of classes.
Grading:
Use of Subversion, Makefiles and file and folder names as requested are a must.
Grade can depend on completeness, correctness, and presentation.
Class grading: After normalizations, 70% projects, 30% quizzes
Computers:
You will need to enroll in AWS to use their Elastic Computing. That is: machines in the cloud
that you rent by the hour and completely control. You might qualify for a free tier. If not the
cost of the semester's computer use will be under $100.
We will make extensive use of subversion, a source code control system, to
distribute your work across machines, and to submit assignments.
To contact the AWS instance, you need a standard ssh. MacOS ships with ssh (it also ships with
subversion, if you want to bring your code to your local machine).
Windows users need cygwin for ssh, or I've been told WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) has an
ssh, and you install WSL through the usual windows channel.
