This course explores the design and implementation of secure and trusted software systems. The course focuses on two fundamental problems: (1) how to isolate sensitive data and computation from untrusted system components, and (2) how untrusted components can compute over sensitive data. We will examine techniques for solving these problems using secure hardware, modern cryptographic primitives, and safe programming environments.
Must be a graduate student in Computer Science. I expect students to have a good understanding of operating systems, computer organization, network programming, and some applied cryptography
I expect you to attend class regularly, which generally means attending at least 80% of the classes. Class will be in-person only. If you are unable to attend in person (for either the whole semester or an extended period), please let me know and I will make appropriate accommodations.
I also expect you to come ready to discuss that day's research paper. The 780 classes are discussion classes, and we can only have meaningful discussions if you read the paper.
You are responsible for leading one class this semester. You must select one research paper and prepare a 40-minute slide presentation of that paper (I will lead the remaining class time).
The paper must:
To ensure that (3) is met, you must get my approval for the paper. Please see the schedule for the approval deadline.
The acceptable conferences are (with links to last year's program):
ConferencesYou will write a research proposal on a topic of your choice related to systems security. The proposal should motivate a problem and research question, give a sketch of your proposed approach for solving the problem, and then discuss any challenges or open questions with your approach. For this class, you are merely proposing a problem and an approach; I do not expect that you will implement anything.
Your paper must:
The template generates a PDF like this.
To get a sense of the format for the proposal, you may find it useful to review some of the proposal-oriented papers from Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HotOS). A very common template is:
You will deliver a slide-presentation of your proposal to the class. Your presentation should be at least 10-minutes long, and no more than 15-minutes.
W&M has a significant tradition in its honor code, stated below:
As a member of the William & Mary community, I pledge on my honor not to lie, cheat, or steal, either in my academic or personal life. I understand that such acts violate the Honor Code and undermine the community of trust, of which we are all stewards.
William & Mary recognizes that students juggle different responsibilities and can face challenges that make learning difficult. There are many resources available at W&M to help students navigate emotional/psychological, physical/medical, material/accessibility concerns, including:
W&M accommodates students with disabilities in accordance with federal laws and university policy. Any student who feels they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a learning, psychiatric, physical, or chronic health diagnosis should contact Student Accessibility Services staff at (757) 221-2512 or at sas@wm.edu to determine if accommodations are warranted and to obtain an official letter of accommodation. For more information, please see www.wm.edu/sas.
As per the university's guidance, if you have a religious observance that conflicts with a deadline, please notify me as soon as possible so that I can attempt to make an appropriate adjustment.