Network Security

Week 1: Introduction and motivation
Network security problems, types of attacks, main network security requirements, illustrative case studies.
Week 2: Network intrusion techniques
Phases of a typical penetration attack, methods and tools used in each phase, illustrative examples. Security testing of networks (penetration testing, ethical hacking).
Week 3: Firewalls
Perimeter defense with firewalls, types of firewalls, their operating principles, typical configuration settings, and usual configuration pitfalls. New generation firewalls, application detection, content filtering, deep packet inspection. Introduction of some specific firewall products, illustrative examples.
Week 4: Intrusion prevention and detection systems (IPS/IDS)
Types, operation, and configuration of IPS/IDS systems. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, security dashboard functions. Introduction of some specific IPS/IDS, as well as SIEM products, illustrative examples.
Week 5: Log analysis
Monitoring and recording network traffic. Goals, theoretical limits, and tools for network log analysis, specific examples for log analysis tools, illustrative examples.
Week 6: Honeypots and their applications
Types of honeypots, and their possible applications for detecting network intrusions and tracking attacker activity, illustrative examples. Protection and management of honeypots, and secure integration of honeypots into operaztional environments.
Week 7: Network infrastructure security
Introduction of the DNS system, common threats on DNS and examples for attacks. Ensuring security of DNS with DNSSEC. Security issues related to routing and the BGP protocol, consequences and possible solutions.
Week 8-9: Botnets
Types, architecture, and operation of botnets, applied control methods. Detecting and mapping botnets, determining botnet size. Techniques to increase botnet robustness (e.g., peer-to-peer techniques). History and operation of some known botnets, analysis and take down examples.
Week 10: Spam filtering and protection against DoS attacks
The spam problem, its effects on sociatey and economics, evolution of spam techniques. Background and methods of spam filtering, fine tuning spam filters, and performance analysis. Attacks against anti-spam solutions.  DoS and distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks, methods and possible detection and protection approaches.
Week 11: Security of web based services
Typical security problems in web based systems (SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, etc.) and proposed solutions. Session hijacking and secure session handling in web based systems. Security configuration of web servers, security testing of web based services, illsutrative examples.
Week 12: Security of enterprise networks
Security architecture of enterprise networks, user authetication, access right management, and access control enforcement. Security of Wifi networks, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) problem. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions. Organizational requirements, security policies, standards, and recommendations.
Week 13: Security in industrial control networks and cyber-physical systems
Special features of industrial control networks, their security problems, possible attacks and their potential consequences. Security requirements and solutions in ICS systems. Security issues in other cyber-physical systems (e.g., embedded sensor networks), design challenges and possible security solutions.
Week 14: Privacy protection in the web and in social networks
Tracking users on the web (e.g., browser fingerprinting, third party cookies), possible countermeasures. Privacy problems in social networks.

Classroom exercises extend the lectures by illustration of the usage of concrete security tools, their configurations, and help deepening knowledge by solving challenges in the following domains:  
1. Application of network discovery and mapping tools
2. Firewall configuration exercises
3. Analysis of IDS outputs
4. Honeypot configuration and appliactions examples
5. Log analysis via examples
6. SQL injection attack: generation of some attacks against a toy server
7. Botnet analysis: measurements and quantitative analysis of botnets