Internet Security and Privacy

The course is focused on how communication on the Internet is made secure and privacy-preserving by means of cryptography and sound engineering. The first part of the course covers applied cryptography with a focus on cryptographic primitives, security definitions, and current recommendations regarding the choice of primitives and parameters. The goal is to create a toolbox based on an understanding of primitives, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they are used in practice in software. The second part of the course applies the toolbox created in the first part. Communication protocols and other technologies for secure and privacy-preserving communication that are common on the Internet are studied in detail, with a focus on the technical design for reaching different levels and types of protection in relation to different threat models. Examples are Transport Layer Security, WireGuard, and the anonymity network Tor. Throughout the course, students engage in laboratory sessions and hand-in assignments which include oral and written presentations. The course concludes with an oral presentation of a group project which requires students to analyse a protocol or technology independently. The analysis includes technical, ethical, and societal aspects related to the area of use, target users, developers, and other driving forces of the technology in question.