Type: Unrestricted Elective Module
Difficulty: Easy
Workload: Light
Lecturer(s): Dr Sufatrio
Lecturer(s): Dr Sufatrio
Assessment: 1 Quiz, 3 Assignments, 1 Group Presentation and Finals
This module covered a wide range of Information Security topics, without going too deep into the mathematical details. There can be some topics which can be a little abstract (e.g. Certificates, Key Exchanges and SSL TLS protocol). These more abstract topics build upon the earlier topics of cryptography and encryption. Hence, it is vital to grasp the concepts of the first few topics really really well. Know what is the difference between Encryption and Hashing and the different types of them. Be very clear the differences between the various types of encryption and hashing methods.
For the midterm quiz, revise especially the birthday attack equation and the birthday attack variant (in your tutorial), the lecturer has a particular liking to this topic.
The 3 assignments were pretty fun, but it can be a headache when you just can't seem to tackle it. Google and stackexchange is your best friend in this. But I'll highly recommend you to do these projects as a group as its possible to delegate the work between friends.
The finals are open book, but the books won't save you. It is still important to know your concepts at your fingertips. Also, i'll recommend you to bring a 'dictionary' of terms compiled from your tutorials and lecture notes for your finals just in case. However the nature of the questions will require you to derive the terms from the definition, not the other way round, which increases the difficulty level.
The bell curve for this module can be rather steep at the better grades, but it's still pretty normal around for the grades below B+. This conclusion was formed by my own personal experience and a sample size of about 10 comp-science students. I was in the 75th percentile in all my assignments, quiz and finals, however I still didn't manage to achieve an A+ grade which I predicted. In computer science, there will always be a small group of students who are complete geniuses, who are complete experts in this field, who are better than the teaching assistants. Oh well, but I am still contented with my grade.
* A Hint: Know your concepts after every week. Don't procrastinate catching up, or your confusion will snowball, I guarantee this. If you are unclear in any topics, draw a visual mindmap on what happens. Personally seeing a visual big picture helped me understand much clearer than simply reading the notes.
This module covered a wide range of Information Security topics, without going too deep into the mathematical details. There can be some topics which can be a little abstract (e.g. Certificates, Key Exchanges and SSL TLS protocol). These more abstract topics build upon the earlier topics of cryptography and encryption. Hence, it is vital to grasp the concepts of the first few topics really really well. Know what is the difference between Encryption and Hashing and the different types of them. Be very clear the differences between the various types of encryption and hashing methods.
For the midterm quiz, revise especially the birthday attack equation and the birthday attack variant (in your tutorial), the lecturer has a particular liking to this topic.
The 3 assignments were pretty fun, but it can be a headache when you just can't seem to tackle it. Google and stackexchange is your best friend in this. But I'll highly recommend you to do these projects as a group as its possible to delegate the work between friends.
The finals are open book, but the books won't save you. It is still important to know your concepts at your fingertips. Also, i'll recommend you to bring a 'dictionary' of terms compiled from your tutorials and lecture notes for your finals just in case. However the nature of the questions will require you to derive the terms from the definition, not the other way round, which increases the difficulty level.
The bell curve for this module can be rather steep at the better grades, but it's still pretty normal around for the grades below B+. This conclusion was formed by my own personal experience and a sample size of about 10 comp-science students. I was in the 75th percentile in all my assignments, quiz and finals, however I still didn't manage to achieve an A+ grade which I predicted. In computer science, there will always be a small group of students who are complete geniuses, who are complete experts in this field, who are better than the teaching assistants. Oh well, but I am still contented with my grade.
* A Hint: Know your concepts after every week. Don't procrastinate catching up, or your confusion will snowball, I guarantee this. If you are unclear in any topics, draw a visual mindmap on what happens. Personally seeing a visual big picture helped me understand much clearer than simply reading the notes.
Expected Grade: A+
Achieved Grade: A
