Computer Security

Education facts

Code: 5DV220

This course gives an overview of security aspects of computer systems. It introduces basic building blocks such as cryptographic algorithms and hashing, and presents the main security architectures of operating systems and modern mobile software stacks such as Android. The course presents defense mechanisms but also describe attacks in the following contexts: system security (e.g., memory corruption vulnerabilities), web security (e.g., SQL injection, XSS) and mobile security. The course discusses approaches to find software vulnerabilities (e.g., fuzzing), to test and validate software (e.g., program analysis), to harden software but also to exploit vulnerabilities. The course presents different families of malware, and how to reverse engineer them to understand their behavior. Hardware security attacks (e.g., cold-boot attacks), network communication security, as well as attacks on anonymity networks such as Tor are also explained.

Entry requirements

Eligibility requires 60 ECTS in Computing Science as well as \- 7.5 ECTS introductory programming in C \- 7.5 ECTS datastructures and algorithms \- 7.5 ECTS systems programming \- 7.5 ECTS databases \- 7.5 ECTS discrete mathematics

Education offerings

Each offering has its own dates and conditions. Closed offerings are retained as history and do not mean that a new application is open.

• Computer Security

  Umeå University

  Start date: 2 November 2026

  End date: 17 January 2027

  Pace of study: 50 %