Cyber Defense
EECS 465, Spring 2025
Course Details
| Lectures | Tuesday & Thursday 11:00am - 12:15pm, 2003 Eaton Hall (Class # 57677) - In Person Tuesday & Thursday 02:30pm - 03:45pm, 2003 Eaton Hall (Class # 47958) - In Person |
| Instructor |
Alex Bardas Office: 2040 Eaton Hall Office hours: Tuesday & Thursday 1:00pm - 2:00pm CT (Email appointment is needed to schedule a meeting over Zoom: meeting details)  : alexbardas
|
| Graduate Teaching Assistant | Mohd Mamoon Office Hours: Wednesday 10:00am - 11:00am CT in 2003 Eaton Hall (Office hours also cover the optional discussion sessions. Email appointment is needed to schedule a meeting over Zoom: meeting details) : mohdmamoon
|
| Lab Manager and Grader | Michael Oliver Office Hours: Monday 11:00am - 11:50am CT in 2003 Eaton Hall (Office hours also cover the optional discussion sessions. Email appointment is needed to schedule a meeting over Zoom: meeting details) : mmoliver469
|
ku
eduSyllabus
The syllabus is available through Simple Syllabus: EECS 465 Syllabus (Spring 2025).
Check the syllabus frequently since its content is subject to change throughout the semester.
Announcements: You are responsible for all announcements we make in class, over Canvas and/or email, such as information about assignments, changes in the syllabus, etc.
Schedule
NOTE: Schedules are tentative and subject to change.
Course Schedule
Updated on a regular basis. Use your KU Online ID (all numeric is not correct) and password to access the slides and other materials.
Jan 21, 2025 |
Lecture 1 | Introduction, Undergraduate Cybersecurity Certificate, and Cybersecurity Engineering Degree |
intro-slides, cert-slides, degree-overview |
| Jan 23, 2025 |
Lecture 2 | Networking Terminology and Clonezilla Supplemental readings:
|
networking-slides, clonezilla-slides |
| Jan 28, 2025 |
Lecture 3 | Operating Systems (OS) Basics Supplemental readings:
|
os-slides |
| Jan 30, 2025 |
Lecture 4 | Linux Command Line Basics Quiz 1 is available on Canvas. Due date: Monday, Feb 3, at 11:59pm CT. Supplemental readings: |
basic-commands-slides, LAMP-stack-slides |
| Feb 4, 2025 |
Lecture 5 | Reconnaissance (Part 1) Supplemental readings: |
recon-slides (1/2) |
| Feb 6, 2025 |
Lecture 6 | Reconnaissance (Part 2) |
recon-slides (2/2) |
| Feb 11, 2025 |
Homework 1 (Lecture 7) |
Introduction to SQL Injections
|
hw1, sql-intro-slides |
| Feb 13, 2025 |
Lecture 8 | Exploiting Vulnerabilities and Metasploit Overview (Part 1) |
slides |
Feb 18, 2025 |
Lecture 9 | No lecture due to winter weather. Please see alerts.ku.edu for more details. |
|
| Feb 20, 2025 |
Lecture 10 | Exploiting Vulnerabilities and Metasploit Overview (Part 2) |
slides |
Extra Credit
You can earn an extra 2% on your final grade by identifying, reading,
and summarizing 2 conference articles from the following venues:
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P),
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS),
USENIX Security,
Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS).
Only these four conferences (from 2015 to 2025) will be accepted.
Partial credit will also be awarded for less than 2 articles.
Requirements:
- Articles should be related to the material we are covering in class (i.e. cyber defense articles)
- Articles should not be older than 10 years (i.e. 2015 or newer)
- For each article, the summary should be between one and two pages long (11pt font, 1-inch margins, single spaced). Summarize the content of the article based on your understanding.
- Submission details: Summaries should be saved in
one file (.pdf or .txt format)and uploaded via Canvas (the link will be available in the Assignments section). Number the articles and for each article, state its title, author(s), publishing venue, publication year, and a link to the article (can be a direct link to the article or a link to the article's entry in the society's digital library e.g., an IEEE Xplore link).
File name:yourLastName-465-ec.pdforyourLastName-465-ec.txt(Don't submit .doc, .docx, .odt, or any other file formats; ONLY .pdf or .txt are accepted)
Deadline for submitting the extra-credit assignment:Tuesday (May 6, 2025) at 11:59pm CT
Articles serving as class reading materials (i.e., posted in the course schedule) can NOT be used for extra credit.
Note! If you are not sure whether an article is appropriate for earning extra credit,
write a few lines about why you think the article is related to the material covered in class
and feel free to contact the instructor.
Note! You can access directly IEEE and ACM articles for free if you are connected to KU's network
(e.g., wireless JAYHAWK network). You can also use the following links (especially when you are off-campus): ACM-Digital-Library, IEEE-Xplore.
USENIX makes all materials available for free from any network. Only articles from the four venues mentioned above can qualify for extra credit.
Important! Besides the instructor's and the grader's/TA's assessments, your summaries will be ran through software applications (Turnitin Feedback Studio in Canvas and one other application) for identifying plagiarism. Read the articles, write your own summaries, and you will be rewarded.
Tentative Roadmap
| Week | Week of | Topic(s) | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1/20 | Introduction | ||
| 2 | 1/27 | Networking Primer and Operating Systems (OS) Basics | Assigning Quiz 1 | |
| 3 | 2/3 | Basic Linux Commands and Reconnaissance | ||
| 4 | 2/10 | Reconnaissance and Introduction to SQL Injections | Assigning Homework 1 | |
| 5 | 2/17 | Exploiting Vulnerabilities and Metasploit | Assigning Quiz 2 | |
| 6 | 2/24 | Password Cracking | Assigning Report 1 | |
| 7 | 3/3 | Crypthography Basics | Assigning Quiz 3 | |
| 8 | 3/10 | Secure SHell (SSH) and Sniffing Network Traffic | ||
| 9 | 3/17 | Spring Break | Enjoy the break! | |
| 10 | 3/24 | Interacting with Network Traffic | Assigning Homework 2 | |
| 11 | 3/31 | DoS/DDoS attacks | Assigning Quiz 4 | |
| 12 | 4/7 | Wireless Networks Cracking | Assigning Homework 3 | |
| 13 | 4/14 | Rootkits | ||
| 14 | 4/21 | Logging&Auditing and Introduction to Security Onion | Assigning Report 2 | |
| 15 | 4/28 | Firewalls | Assigning Quiz 5 | |
| 16 | 5/5 | Final Exam Review | ||
| 17 | 5/12 | Finals Week |
Acknowledgments
Kabir Panahi and Dalton Brucker-Hahn contributed to creating some of the course materials such as course slides and homework assignments.