ITIS 6010/8010: Usable Security and Privacy

Spring 2009                            6:00pm - 8:45pm Tuesdays            Atkins 143

*The 6010 section of the course currently appears full on Banner, but there are still a few slots in the class. Email me if you would like to get in.

Much of the work into security and privacy solutions ignore a critical element – the human who must interact with those solutions. In this course, we investigate privacy and security from a user-centered point of view. How do people think about privacy and security? How do they interact with current solutions? What should be considered in designing user-friendly security systems? We will survey topics and research in Human Computer Interaction as they relate to privacy and security.

Professor: Dr. Heather Richter Lipford

 Text: Security and Usability plus other research papers

Assignments:

• Reading Summaries: Students are expected to read the assigned chapters and papers prior to class so that they may fully participate in class activities and discussion. Each student is to submit a short summary by 5pm on Tuesday on Moodle. The summary should consist of at least one paragraph for each chapter or paper (but not significantly more), summarizing the important points of that reading and what you as a student take away from the reading. Additionally, each summary should include one question or discussion point. The instructor will use these questions or discussion points in class. The lowest two grades will be dropped.
• Assignments: There will be several small individual assignments throughout the semester. These are each activities that require a bit of time outside of class to perform, usually 2 hours or less. Each will be discussed during class on the due date. The assignment grade will be part of that week's reading summaries grade.
• Project: Students will work in small groups on a class project. This project will likely be a preliminary user study on an existing privacy or security mechanism or tool, or on user attitudes or needs in privacy and security. See the project page for more information on the various project pieces and deliverables.

•  8010 students only: Specialized research topic. PhD students will have an additional assignment to choose a specialized topic of their choice, find several papers relevant to the topic, and then present a lecture/lead a class discussion on the topic in class. The instructor should approve all topics in advance.

Grading:

Class participation: 10 points

Reading summaries: 10 points

Assignments: 10 points

Exam: 20 points

Project: 50 points

Research topic: 20 points

(note that 8010 students have a total of 120 points)

The Syllabus:

The additional readings in the syllabus link directly to the paper. Please see the Readings page for the paper citation. The Readings page also lists a number of additional papers on the various course topics for optional reading if you are interested.