The objective of the MS CSP – Cyber Defense option is to create leaders with strong communication and management skills in addition to the strong technical knowledge in security and privacy of computer systems, networks, and web applications. This option is designed for working professionals or students who already have acquired some professional experience.

Cryptography and Security

• Understand the difference between the symmetric key and public key cryptography approaches.
• Select appropriate symmetric and public key cryptography protocols for a given application.

• Develop an efficient implementation of a cryptographic protocol based on a Discrete Logarithm Problem, RSA (Factoring) Problem or Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem.

Security and Privacy in Computing

• Understand the various models to evaluate the security of computer systems.
• Interpret security guarantees and assess the level of security provided by a cryptographic protocol.
• Understand the various security goals for communication over an insecure network.
• Identify the appropriate types of cryptographic primitives that should be used to achieve each of these goals.
• Understand the advantages and limitations of using symmetric key versus public-key cryptography.

Network Protocols Security

• Identify the appropriate security primitives that should be used to achieve specific security goals for communication over insecure networks.
• Analyze the security of the main mechanisms used on the internet to secure communication between computer systems at various network layers, including physical, network, transport and application layers.
• Describe common attacks against wired and wireless network protocols using standard terminology, allowing them to communicate effectively with other security professionals.