Master Degree & Courses

Master Degree in Cyber Security at TU/e

TU Eindhoven offers the Master’s track Cybersecurity of the MSc Computer Science and Engineering, with all lectures on the TU/e campus. It continues the Information Security Technology (IST) master track, which has been fully local since 2021-2022 and used to be part of the “TRU/e Master in Cyber Security” offered in collaboration with Radboud University (RU). The last intake of the TRU/e master was in 2020-2021. For more info, visit the website.

Courses offered by SEC

2IMS00: Seminar IST

In this course, students train the skills required for doing independent research in security. The student has to be able to explore a new security topic on his/her own and present the results in oral and written form. The Seminar is a preparation for the master’s thesis project. The students get a project assignment, consisting of a literature study and a practical assignment. They have to hand in a report and present their results orally to their fellow students. The reports are subjected to peer review.

2IMS10: Physical Aspects of Digital Security

The course covers a number of subjects where digital security is heavily influenced by interaction with the physical world: Fuzzy extractors, true random number generation, distance bounding, physical unclonable functions, quantum computers, quantum key exchange. The emphasis lies on the adaptation of algorithms and protocols to cope with and maximally exploit, the properties of the physical world.

2IMS15: Verification of Security Protocols

The student will learn what are security protocols, which kind of flaws they can contain and how to detect and fix such flaws. The following topics are treated:

• The Spi-calculus modeling language
• Typing for Secrecy, Authenticity, Authentication
• The Proverif protocol verification tool
• Anonymity
• Information flow

2IMS20: Cyberattacks, Crime and Defenses

Objectives

• Learn the principles of how IT systems can be exploited by cyberattackers.
• Learn how cyber attackers actually operate,
• Learn the principles of defense technologies and how they can be used,
• Learn the basics of cybercrime, and the organization of the criminal markets.

Content

We will start discussing the technical attack vectors (XSS, SQL Injections, XSRF, drive-by download) and how these vectors are embodied in complex attacks (malware, spyware, ransomware, botnets) Then, we will see how these attacks are used in the cybercrime economy (spam, phishing, infections and money laundering). We will discuss the principles of defense technology. We will touch on the economic aspects of cyber criminality, and on the markets of cybercrime as a service. Finally, we will discuss attacks sophistication, state-sponsored attacks, and the emergence of a grey market. We will make use of case studies (e.g., Hacking Team, Stuxnet, Flame, etc).

2IMS25: Principles of Data Protection

This course focuses on data protection technologies designed to prevent the dissemination of sensitive information of individuals. The course will provide a solid introduction to the most important access control models (e.g., DAC, MAC, RBAC) and their extensions for distributed systems (e.g., RT) and usage control (e.g., UCON). The course also covers industry standards in the area of access control and privacy (e.g., XACML and EPAL). See the course website for more information.

2IMS30: Wireless and IoT Security

The course is divided in THREE (3) parts.

1. The first part is dedicated to the recall of basic notions, such as cryptography, hashing, and fundamental related security services, that will be the roots of the following part of the course.
2. The second part of the course is dedicated to the security of IoT networks. The course will mostly follow a bottom-up approach, following the ISO/OSI Stack. We will establish several comparisons between traditional security protocols and the way these protocols are integrated into constrained IoT networks.
3. The third part will focus on specific network security applications. It will cover network security and privacy aspects of several use-case protocols, such as avionics protocols, maritime scenarios, and GNSS architectures.

2IMS40: Intrusion Detection Laboratory

This is a heavily hands-on course on the three building blocks of cyber security monitoring: network-based, host-based and log-based intrusion detection. It is not a course on the principles of intrusion detection, but a laboratory in which students apply those principles to real-world data and challenges, coming up with original solutions by understanding, combining and expanding on the material presented in class.

Objectives

• Learn the theoretical and practical principles of cyber security monitoring.
• Learn how to derive a threat model from complex attack scenarios.
• Learn how to build detection procedures that fit a given threat model.
• Master the practical and technical aspects of state-of-the-art network, host and log-based intrusion detection systems.
• Learn to structure the acquired knowledge into practical training activities, and to manage and organise the work of a small group.

Content

The course adopts a reverse classroom setup. The first classes provide the theoretical and practical material on security monitoring, with pointers to the technologies, techniques and methods used for each of the three building blocks, and an example lab activity that serves as a blueprint. Students then form groups, and each group chooses one of the building blocks to explore in depth by developing a fully-fledged, challenge-based laboratory activity for the other students: identifying and analysing threats in real-world data, and developing appropriate detection techniques. At the end of the course, each group runs and coordinates its lab in class, and all students take part in the labs of their fellow students.

The development and delivery of the lab is the final examination of the course. Labs are assessed on how well the attack scenario and its tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) are analysed, how well the attack mechanics observable in the data are understood, how well the detection strategy fits the attack scenario (including its evaluation, false positives and false negatives), and how well the lab activity is structured and coordinated.

By the end of the course, every student has a profound understanding of a technology of their choice, and hands-on experience with many aspects of intrusion detection through the labs developed by their fellow students.

2IMS55: Quantum Protocols

Objectives

• Master the density matrix formalism for quantum states and combined classical-quantum states.
• Be able to formulate the security requirements of quantum-cryptographic schemes, and apply the relevant proof techniques.
• Gain detailed knowledge of several quantum-cryptographic schemes, including variants of Quantum Key Distribution, quantum one-time pad encryption, quantum zero-knowledge and quantum money.
• Understand quantum attacker models in post-quantum cryptography, including the (compressed) quantum random oracle model and collapsing and non-collapsing hash functions.

Content

• Pure state formalism and the basics of quantum computing (without quantum algorithms)
• Density matrix formalism for mixed states and combined classical-quantum systems
• Quantum Key Distribution: the BB84 and six-state protocols, their security definition and full security proofs
• Other quantum-cryptographic schemes, covered without full proofs: quantum zero-knowledge, quantum encryption and quantum money
• The quantum random oracle model (QROM), including its compressed version
• Collapsing and non-collapsing hash functions