Introduction to Information Security Fall 2024

Introduction to Information Security is a introductory course in information security. It teaches the basic concepts and principles of information security, and the fundamental approaches to secure computers and networks. Main topics include:

Instructor
TAs
Face of David Teng
David Teng
Face of Chase Lee
Chase Lee
Face of Sai Anoop Avunuri
Sai Anoop Avunuri
Face of Aishwarya Tapade
Aishwarya Tapade
Face of Brandon Villa
Brandon Villa
Face of Aditya Vidyadharan
Aditya Vidyadharan
Face of Geoffrey Zhang
Geoffrey Zhang
Face of Josh Rakovitsky
Josh Rakovitsky
Face of Josh Zhang
Josh Zhang
Face of Varsha Jacob
Varsha Jacob
Face of Stuti Patel
Stuti Patel
Email gtinfosec-staff@cc.gatech.edu is the mailing list to reach all staff. Please do not email us individually.
Lectures Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30 PM–4:45 PM
Scheller College of Business 100
Office Hours Slots for office hours are listed on the course calendar below. The calendar is on Eastern Standard Time, and you can also subscribe to it (on Google Calendar). Visit any slot for help with the course. However, Office Hours marked "Policy" are for MS Cybersecurity students in the Policy track. As such, they will be prioritized over other students during these slots.

Infrastructure Ed Discussion will be used as the main communications medium for announcements. Our Canvas site contains the full syllabus and final grades for each assignment, and we'll also post announcements there. We'll use Gradescope to hold exams and projects that are rubric-based. Lastly, for projects and labs, we'll use our GitHub organization to distribute code and you will use the Autograder to submit your solutions.
Prerequisites CS 2200 or ECE 3057 or ECE 3058

Grading

Below is a description of how we'll calculate grades:

Quizzes 5% 10 true/false and multiple-choice quizzes. One quiz per week, 0.5% each.
Projects 45% Five projects, 9% each.
MS Cybersecurity Policy track students: you can replace one project with a policy-oriented report. See Canvas for details.
Labs 2% Five labs, 0.4% each.
Exams 48% Two remote exams, each worth 24%. See the course schedule for exam dates.

Course Policies

This is a short version. For the full list, please see Canvas.

Ethics We will be discussing attacks in this class, some of them quite nasty. None of this is in any way an invitation to undertake these attacks in any fashion other than with informed consent of all involved and affected parties. The existence of a security hole is no excuse. These issues concern not only professional ethics but also Georgia Tech policy and state and federal law. If there is any question in your mind about what conduct is allowable, contact the instructors first.
Honor Code Georgia Tech aims to cultivate a community based on trust, academic integrity, and honor. Please see the Honor Code at the Policy Library. Cheating will result in a zero grade for the entire project (e.g., both Part 1 and Part 2)
External Resources and Code Integrity Students may utilize external resources for inspiration and guidance. However, the direct copying and pasting of code from any of these sources is strictly prohibited.
Generative AI We discourage the use of generative AI models, such as ChatGPT. Remember that ultimately you are responsible for all the content you submit. However, if you do decide to use them you must submit a statement explaining which and how such tools were used, including applicable prompts.