Study program

• Objectives

  IT security

  • Understands and can explain the challenges in the field of security. Is capable to describe good practices in cyber security.
  • Knows classical encryption algorithms such as Caesar, Vignenère, ...
  • Can apply frequency analysis methods to decrypt a text
  • Knows the principles of modern symmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithms such as AES, RSA, Diffie-Hellman
  • Knows the principle of hash functions
  • Knows the principle of hybrid encryption like SSL-TLS
  • Knows the principles of digital signature, digital certificates and PKI

  IT methodology

  • Knows how to use a version management tool (like git) for IT application development
  • Knows how to work in an agile development context
  • Is capable of using the command line (bash) available on Linux systems and is able to write scripts to carry out tasks (e.g. repetitive tasks).
• Content

  IT Security

  • Study of encryption algorithms, César, Vigenère, AES, RSA, Diffie-Hellman and hash functions
  • Frequency analysis of texts encrypted using traditional algorithms (César, Vigenère)
  • Decoding method based on frequency analysis
  • Hybrid protocols such as SSL-TLS, PGP
  • Practical application of cyber security measures

  IT Methodology

  • Using the git version manager in a single and multi-user environment
  • Putting agile development concepts into practice in personal/group projects
  • Development of command-line scripts as part of mini-projects

Type of teaching and workload

Course specification

Evaluation methods

• Continuous assessment Written work, Practical exercises / Evaluated reports

Course grade calculation method

The continuous assessment mark corresponds to the weighted average of all of the semester's exams. In case of a revision exam, the course's final mark corresponds to the arithmetic average of the continuous assessment and the revision exam marks.

Intructor(s) and/or coordinator(s)

Luca Haab, Philippe Joye, Michael Mäder, Jean-Roland Schuler