UnitLevel 5Postgraduate

FIT5124 Advanced topics in security

Faculty of Information Technology

FIT5124 Advanced topics in security is a level 5, 6-credit-point, postgraduate unit from the Faculty of Information Technology, offered in 2021 in Semester 1 at Clayton. It needs FIT5163.

Credit points
6
Offered in 2021
Semester 1
Clayton
Assessment
Exam 60%
and 2 other tasks
Workload
144 hours
per semester

This is the 2021 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.

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Requisites

Before FIT5124

Prerequisites

Pass these before you enrol.

After FIT5124

No unit lists FIT5124 as a prerequisite in the 2021 handbook.

Overview

This unit aims to provide students with advanced knowledge of cybersecurity. Advancements in cloud services, mobile computing, and machine learning bring much convenience to our lives, improve our productivity in daily work, and provide us with personalised services. Despite many benefits, these new paradigms incur aggravated security and privacy concerns. End-users, enterprises, and governments face growing threats from sophisticated cyber attacks. This unit will study advanced cybersecurity technologies to address those threats in the current practice. Topics include design and implementation of advanced cryptosystems for high-performance applications such as encrypted databases, cryptographic protocols and hardware-assisted approaches for secure computing applications such as privacy-preserving machine learning, and practical post-quantum cryptography that can address the emerging threats of quantum computers. Learning activities will focus on understanding security and privacy issues in cloud and networked systems, encrypted search techniques, cloud storage security, secure multi-party computation techniques, trusted computing, and lattice-based cryptography.

Offerings in 2021

Teaching periodCampusMode
First semesterClaytonOn campus

Assessment

  • Assessment 1OtherThreshold hurdle
    20%
  • Assessment 2OtherThreshold hurdle
    20%
  • Scheduled final assessment (2 hours and 10 minutes)ExamThreshold hurdle
    60%

Learning outcomes

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

  1. 1

    Identify security and privacy issues in cloud, networked, and machine learning systems;

  2. 2

    Describe the operations of several advanced cryptosystems and protocols and their underlying assumptions and applications;

  3. 3

    Apply hardware-assisted techniques to design secure and trustworthy systems;

  4. 4

    Explain advanced attacks against cryptosystems and machine learning systems;

  5. 5

    Analyse the strengths and limitations of emerging cybersecurity technologies

Workload and teaching

  • Laboratories24 hours
  • Lectures24 hours
  • Teaching approachPeer assisted learning

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled online and face to face learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated reading and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning and online engagement.

Learning resources

Required resources

Software for completing lab exercises will be either supplied in the lab or freely available for download from specified websites.

Where it fits

FIT5124 is part of 1 area of study in the 2021 handbook.

Contacts

Chief Examiners
Dr Ron Steinfeld

Common questions

What are the prerequisites for FIT5124?

You need FIT5163 before you enrol.

When is FIT5124 offered?

In 2021, FIT5124 runs in Semester 1 at Clayton.

How much work is FIT5124?

The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.

Does FIT5124 have an exam?

Yes. The exam is worth 60% of the final mark, alongside 2 other tasks.

Which majors and minors include FIT5124?

FIT5124 is part of Software engineering.

More details

Credit points
6
Level
5
Study level
Postgraduate
Faculty
Faculty of Information Technology
Type
Coursework
EFTSL
0.125
Student contribution
SCA Band 2
Study abroad
Available