Seminar: Computer Security Foundations

Organizer:	Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel
Form:	Seminar (S2) - 3 CP
Language:	English
Dates:	Block seminar on February 4-5, 2016, 9:00-20:00, in S2|02 E302 (please reserve both days, the exact schedule will be determined depending on the actual number of participants)
Registration:	in TUCaN (course id 20-00-0925-se)
Preparation meeting:	October 14, 2015, 16:15-17:55, in S2|02 E302

 

Content

In this seminar, recent developments on the formal foundations of computer security will be presented and discussed. The seminar will be based on recent research articles covering selected foundational aspects of computer security. Each article will be presented by one participant of the seminar and will then be discussed intensely by the entire group of participants.

Formal foundations of computer security are necessary to clarify desirable security guarantees and possible security threats. For instance, formal security models can be used to capture security requirements precisely and can then serve as a reliable basis for verifying whether these requirements are met. Formal foundations of security can also serve as a basis for establishing security by design, including a precise definition of security requirements, a component-based development of secure systems, and the stepwise refinement of high-level system specifications to more-detailed specifications, ultimately to secure program code.

Exemplary topics include:

• composition, abstraction and refinement in computer security,
• information-flow security and information-flow control,
• language-based security,
• security models and properties,
• secure usage and usage control,
• quantitative security, and
• verifiable security.

Learning Objectives

After successfully participating in this course, students will be able to discuss selected developments in computer security foundations. Furthermore, students will have improved their skills in reading and understanding scientific articles, in presenting scientific results, and in discussing as well as comparing formal approaches of computer security and their implementation.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of Computer Science equivalent to the first four Semesters in the Computer Science Bachelor program.

Last modified on 18 December 2015.