Course Syllabus

Spring 2023 | CIS-2245-VO01 - Concepts of Computer Security

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

Todd Ponto
View Faculty Credentials

Hiring Coordinator for this course: Debra Grant

General Education Requirements

Digital and Technical Literacy

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course is an introduction to computer and information security. Concepts include network infrastructure, access control, security threats, security applications, encryption, and monitoring. Recommended prior or concurrent learning: Concepts of Local Area Networks and Desktop Operating Systems.

Essential Objectives

1. Describe the process of using certificates for secure communication; include the creation and proper handling of private and public keys.
2. Explain differences between authentication and authorization and the roles they play in a secure computing environment.
3. Describe different types of common threats such as viruses, worms, Trojans, backdoors, rootkits, and various types of malware.
4. Discuss creation of secure passwords and passphrases and how they relate to a defined policy.
5. Discuss various authentication models including but not limited to: multi-form authentication, RADIUS, LDAP, and biometrics.
6. Demonstrate the use of common tools for monitoring a system, network, and vulnerability testing.
7. Compare common encryption methods including WEP, WPA, DES, AES, and PGP.
8. Identify basic infrastructure steps for data security and protection including data backup, disk redundancy, power backup, and environmental controls.
9. Define social engineering and discuss methods of protecting against it.
10. Discuss the need and process of an audit as it relates to data security.
11. Demonstrate how to secure a cloud-based computing environment using technologies such as VPC, VPN, security groups, identity management, and routing rules.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV IT Support page. https://support.ccv.edu/general/computer-recommendations/

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

This course only uses free Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or library materials. For details, see the Canvas Site for this class.

Evaluation Criteria

This course uses a weighted calculation for grades:

• Final Paper = 40%
• Discussions = 20%
• Research Papers = 20%
• Quizzes = 10%
• Labs = 10%

The course consists of the following assignments:

• 1 - Final Paper
• 4 - Research Papers
• 7 - Discussions
• 20 - Labs
• 11 - Quizzes

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Participation Policy

Please read this policy and contact the instructor if you have any concerns or questions.

In this class, we will all be considered lifelong learners and partners in each other's success. For the course to be successful, you need to participate.

If you are sick or have some justified conflicting reasons that your class work for a week will be late, please reach out to the instructor ahead of time so that we can come up with a plan.

I may be the instructor, but things come up last minute for me as well. If you become sick or are sent on travel for work, please still reach out to the instructor as soon as possible so we can devise a reasonable solution.

As this is an online-only course, participating in the weekly activities will be a large part of your grade. We will have discussion questions almost weekly that you will need to post to and respond to two of your classmates' posts each week.

Class participation for weeks with discussion questions will be based on you providing an initial posting and your responses to a classmates.

Class participation for weeks without discussion questions will be based on you finishing the quiz that week.

Failure to participate for three weeks, which does not include the students that worked out a plan with the instructor, will be considered a breach of CCV policy and result in a grade of F or an automatic withdrawal from the course.

Weekly readings are assigned to help you prepare for the discussion questions and the weekly quizzes.

Most weeks will have a quiz. There will be three short research papers and one final project for this course. Additional some weeks will have discussion questions to help reinforce the learning objectives for that week.

Participation is key to passing this course.

Missing & Late Work Policy

Missing and Late Work Policy

Please read this policy and contact the instructor if you have any concerns or questions.

All work should be submitted on time. The instructor will review all work and provide feedback within 48-72 hours of submission.

As a student, you are responsible for your success or failure. As the instructor, I will do everything possible to help you succeed.

If you know that you are having an issue with a due date or assignment, please do the following:

1. Determine why you are having this problem, then
2. Contact the instructor and propose a solution or plan to address the problem

All work not submitted by the due date will be considered late. Late submissions will be accepted; however, they will incur a penalty. Work submitted after the deadline may receive a 10% grade point deduction for each day following the due date.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity