Homework 1

Out: Jan 7, 2008
Due: Jan 11, 2008

Exercises

1: Pfleeger and Pfleeger, Chapter 1, Problems 1, 3, 11, 12, 19, 20, and 21. Short answers are perfectly acceptable.

2: Pick a physical-world "system" designed to achieve some security, privacy, or access control property. For example, pick a physical-world security, privacy, or access control mechanism that you might have seen on campus, at work, at the bank, at the museum, at the doctors office or pharmacy, at the gym, or even on the street (like an armored car). Try to be creative; don't pick something "standard" like a door or window lock. Now conduct a "security review" of that physical-world system. See this URL for how to conduct a "security review:" http://cubist.cs.washington.edu/Security/2007/11/23/what-to-contribute-winter-2008-cse-484/. This assignment is to help you start thinking about security mechanisms in your everyday lives, to think about how you might circumvent those mechanisms, to assess the likelihood that an adversary will really try to circumvent those mechanisms, and to think about possible ways of strengthening the security of those systems.

NOTE: You are not required to post this security review on the blog -- just turn in a hardcopy on the due date. But if also post this on the blog, you will also get blogging credit for it as a non-security-review blog post (i.e., you'll get credit for your weekly blog post, but you'll still need to submit another security review within the first five weeks of the course). But (1) please don't post your blog entry until after class on Friday and (2) if someone else has already posted a blog entry about the same security mechanism, then please add to that discussion in the comments section rather than post a new blog article.