CSE 291-6

Schedule: Lecture:TTh 11:00-12:30 (CSE 4140)

Instructor: Stefan Savage
Office hours: TBD

Description

There are few classes of online attacks that have captured public attention more than "ransomware" -- attacks characterized by extorting victims around access to their own data. In this class, we'll explore the history and evolution of these attacks, their technical and operational underpinnings, and the range of defenses, and interventions that are employed (or have been proposed). The course will be built around readings and discussion that will try to cover the broad range of issues at play in this space -- technical, economic, legal, political, and social -- not limiting ourselves purely to academic computer science. Where possible and appropriate we will feature outside guest speakers with particular domain expertise.

There are no required pre-requisites but we are going to assume you understand enough about the technical aspects of security and privacy (e.g., such as having taking an undergraduate class in security) that we, at most, only need to do cursory reviews of any technical material.

This will very much be a readings and discussion class, so be prepared to enage if you sign up.