CS 448 Survivable Systems and Networks

Total Credits: 3 cr

Course Coordinator: Axel Krings

URL: http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~krings/CS448/index.html

Current Catalog Description: Computers and networks under malicious threat or attack. Attributes of survivability, trustworthiness, dependability and assurance. Threats to survivability, security, reliability and performance. Models and analytical methods to assess survivability, vulnerability, interdependence and risk. Systemic inadequacies and approaches for overcoming deficiencies. Literature review and case studies. Additional project/assignments required for graduate credit. Recommended Preparation: CS J449/J549 or CS J423.

Textbook: No textbook yet exists on this topic. Instead, many papers are reviewed. See course web site for details.

References:

• Peter G. Neumann Practical Architectures for Survivable Systems and Networks, SRI, 2000. http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/arl-one.html.
• Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak and Marshall Pease, “The Byzantine Generals Problem,” ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, Volume 4, Issue 3, (July 1982).
• James A. Whittaker, and J.H. Poore, “Markov Analysis of Software Specifications,” ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Vol.2, No.1, January 1993, pp. 93-106.
• See the course web site for additional references.

Course Goals: The area of survivable systems and networks has received much attention by government and military initiatives, such as the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, or many workshops and conference tracks, such as the Information Survivability Workshop, and workshops associated with the DSN. This course addresses this growing interest and deals with specific issues of computer and network survivability. Survivability goes beyond computer and network security or fault-tolerance. The range of threats to survivability that must be considered is enormous, including hardware malfunctions, software flaws, environmental hazards, and malicious and accidental human acts.

Prerequisites by Topic:

• Proficient programming skills in a high level language such as C++ or Java (IV-8) (CS 121)
• Understanding of basic concepts of programming languages and the benefits and limitations associated with them (IV-6) (CS 210)
• Ability to use basic software development tools (CS 270)
• Understand fundamental concepts of computer organization, computer architecture, operating systems and their relationship to application programs (IV-6) (CS 150, CS 240)

Major Topics Covered in the Course:

• Survivability, Attributes of System Survivability
• Trustworthiness, Dependability and Assurance
• Threats to Survivability, Threats to Security, Threats to Reliability
• Threats to Performance
• Requirements and Their Interdependence
• Systemic Inadequacies, Approaches for Overcoming Deficiencies
• Evaluation Criteria, Attempts at Standardization
• Architectures for Survivability
Implementing and Configuring for Survivability

Laboratory projects (specify number of weeks on each): None.

Estimated Curriculum Category Content:

Area	Core	Advanced	Area	Core	Advanced
Algorithms			Data Structures
Software Design		1 cr.	Prog. Languages
Computer Arch		2 dr.	Other

Oral and Written Communications: Every student is required to submit at least 1 written reports (not including exams, tests, quizzes, or commented programs) of typically 10 or more pages.  No oral presentations are required.

Social and Ethical Issues: Conducting Survivability Systems Analysis (SSA) requires discussions about very sensitive issues. Within an SSA the following are addressed: ethical hacking (2 hours), vulnerability exposure and consequences to companies and organizations (2 hours), and nondisclosure issues. (2 hours)

Theoretical Content:

• Agreement algorithms
• Statistics
• Graph theory
• Scheduling theory
• Markov models and Petri Nets

Problem Analysis: None.

Solution Design: None.

Course Outcomes: The following list documents the course outcomes and crossreferences them to the BSCS program outcomes. The letter at the beginning of each reference identifies the program outcome supported. The numbers sequentially identify the course outcome for this course. After completing CS 448 a student should be able to: