Cyber Defense
EECS 465, Spring 2026
Course Details
| Lectures | Tuesday & Thursday 2:00pm - 2:50pm, 1005 Haworth Hall - In Person |
| Labs |
Monday 4:00pm - 4:50pm, 2003 Eaton Hall - In Person [Section #57402] Wednesday 11:00pm - 11:50pm, 2003 Eaton Hall - In Person [Section #56030] Friday 11:00pm - 11:50pm, 2003 Eaton Hall - In Person [Section #56029] |
Instructor |
Alex Bardas Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 12:30pm - 1:30pm in 2040 Eaton Hall (Email appointment is needed to schedule a meeting over Zoom)  : alexbardas
|
| Graduate Teaching Assistant | Michael Oliver Office Hours: Monday 3pm - 4pm and Wednesday 12pm - 1pm in 2003 Eaton Hall (Email appointment is needed to schedule a meeting over Zoom) : mmoliver469
|
| Graduate Teaching Assistant | Bryan Richlinski Office Hours: Wednesday 9:30am - 10:30am and Friday 12pm - 1pm in 2003 Eaton Hall (Email appointment is needed to schedule a meeting over Zoom) : b748r023
|
| Graduate Teaching Assistant | Mohd Mamoon Office Hours: Monday 11am - 12pm in 2003 Eaton Hall (Email appointment is needed to schedule a meeting over Zoom) : mohdmamoon
|
ku
eduSyllabus
The syllabus is available through Simple Syllabus: EECS 465 Syllabus (Spring 2026).
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 (lectures and labs), over Canvas, and/or email. Announcements may include 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 20, 2026 |
Lecture 1 | Introduction, Undergraduate Cybersecurity Certificate, and Cybersecurity Engineering Degree |
intro-slides, cert-slides, degree-overview |
| Jan 22, 2026 |
Lecture 2 | Networking Terminology and Clonezilla |
networking-slides |
Jan 26-30, 2026 |
Lab 1 | Lab Setup and Clonezilla
iClicker Access Info -- Monday Labs (#57402) |
lab-overview-slides, clonezilla-slides |
| Jan 27, 2026 |
Lecture 3 | Operating Systems (OS) Basics Supplemental readings:
|
os-slides |
| Jan 29, 2026 |
Lecture 4 | Linux Command Line Basics Quiz 1 is available on Canvas. Due date: Monday, Feb 2, at 11:59pm CT. Supplemental readings: |
basic-commands-slides, LAMP-stack-slides |
| Feb 2-6, 2026 |
Lab 2 |
LAMP |
lab2-slides, LAMP-useful-commands |
| Feb 3, 2026 |
Lecture 5 | Reconnaissance (Part 1) Supplemental readings: |
recon-slides (1/2) |
| Feb 5, 2026 |
Lecture 6 | Reconnaissance (Part 2) Supplemental readings:
|
recon-slides (2/2) |
| Feb 9-13, 2026 |
Lab 3 |
Reconnaissance |
lab3-slides |
| Feb 10, 2026 |
Homework 1 (Lecture 7) |
Introduction to SQL Injections
|
hw1, sql-intro-slides |
| Feb 12, 2026 |
Lecture 8 | Exploiting Vulnerabilities and Metasploit Overview |
slides |
| Feb 16-20, 2026 |
Lab 4 |
Metasploit |
lab4-slides |
| Feb 17, 2026 |
Lecture 9 | Password Cracking (Part 1) Quiz 2 is available on Canvas. Due date: Friday, Feb 20, at 11:59pm CT. Supplemental readings: |
slides |
| Feb 19, 2026 |
Lecture 10 | Password Cracking (Part 2) |
slides |
| Feb 23-27, 2026 |
Lab 5 |
Password Cracking |
lab5-slides |
| Feb 24, 2026 |
Lecture 11 | Crypthography Basics (Part 1) Supplemental readings:
|
slides |
| Feb 26, 2026 |
Report 1 (Lecture 12) |
Crypthography Basics (Part 2) | report1, slides |
| Mar 2-6, 2026 |
Lab 6 |
Crypthography Basics |
lab6-slides |
| Mar 3, 2026 |
Lecture 13 | Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) Quiz 3 is available on Canvas (due Friday, Mar 6, at 11:59pm CT) Supplemental readings:
|
slides |
| Mar 5, 2026 |
Lecture 14 | Sniffing Network Traffic
|
slides |
| Mar 9-13, 2026 |
Lab 6 |
SSH and Sniffing Network Traffic |
lab7-slides |
Extra Credit
You can earn an extra 1% on your final grade by identifying, reading,
and summarizing one conference research paper 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 2023 to 2026) will be accepted.
Requirements:
- The research paper (article) should be related to the material we are covering in class (i.e. cyber defense articles)
- The research paper should be from 2023 or newer.
- Your summary should be between one and two pages long (11pt font, 1-inch margins, single spaced). Summarize the content of the research paper 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). For the research paper you have chosen, please state its title, author(s), publishing venue, publication year, and a link (can be a direct link to the research paper or a link to the 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 5, 2026) at 11:59pm CT
Research papers (article) 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.
In short: Read the articles, write your own summaries, and you will be rewarded. Don't not use GenAI tools such as Copilot, ChatGPT, etc. for generating the summaries. We want to gauge your understanding of the paper(s).
Tentative Roadmap
| Week | Week of | Topic(s) | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1/19 | Introduction | ||
| 2 | 1/26 | Networking Primer and Operating Systems (OS) Basics | Assigning Quiz 1 | |
| 3 | 2/2 | Basic Linux Commands and Reconnaissance | ||
| 4 | 2/9 | Reconnaissance and Introduction to SQL Injections | Assigning Homework 1 | |
| 5 | 2/16 | Exploiting Vulnerabilities and Metasploit | Assigning Quiz 2 | |
| 6 | 2/23 | Password Cracking | Assigning Report 1 | |
| 7 | 3/2 | Crypthography Basics and Secure SHell (SSH) | Assigning Quiz 3 | |
| 8 | 3/9 | Sniffing and Interacting with Network Traffic | ||
| 9 | 3/16 | Spring Break | No Lectures&Labs | |
| 10 | 3/23 | DoS/DDoS Attacks | Assigning Homework 2 | |
| 11 | 3/30 | Wireless Networks Cracking | Assigning Quiz 4 | |
| 12 | 4/6 | Rootkits | Assigning Homework 3 | |
| 13 | 4/13 | Logging&Auditing | Assigning Report 2 | |
| 14 | 4/20 | Introduction to Security Onion | Assigning Quiz 5 | |
| 15 | 4/27 | Firewalls | ||
| 16 | 5/4 | Final Exam Review and Current Research in Cybersecurity | ||
| 17 | 5/11 | Finals Week |
Acknowledgments
Kabir Panahi and Dalton Brucker-Hahn contributed to creating some of the course materials such as course slides and homework assignments.