Usable Security & Privacy

Usable Security & Privacy 
(held as block course from 13.3.23 - 31.3.23)

 

In this lecture, you will learn about human-centric aspects of IT security. Besides research and design methods, you will learn about hot topics in usable security such as authentication, confidentiality and privacy. In particular, you will learn to

• design user studies to study how humans interact with security & privacy technology with respect to threat models, 
• collect, understand, evaluate qualitative & quantitative data,
• interpret results and draw conclusions based on your data,
• design new security and privacy technology that is better tied to the users' needs and values.

Prerequisites: CySec1/CySec2 or Security, Statistics. It is also strongly advised to take our statistics self-assessment quiz found here. These are the topics that are needed in order to follow this course and they won't be covered in the scope of this lecture.

Please make sure to allocate enough time to work on the assignments for this course. Programming skills and profound knowledge of statistics and data analysis are required. If you have not yet completed any security courses BUT have a strong background in human-computer interaction, psychology, or design you are still welcome to attend this interdisciplinary lecture. In that case, please contact us to directly to discuss whether this is the right course for you.

Registration

*If you already passed the advanced lecture "Usable Security", you can not participate in this course.*
*If you failed the advanced lecture "Usable Security" three times, you can not participate in this course*

This block lecture is limited to 30 students on a first-come-first-serve basis. 

Registration closes: 13 March 2023, CMS.

Contact: usablesecurityAL@cispa.de

When & Where?

The lecture will take place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00-12:00, starting 13 March 2023. The last lecture will be on 24 March 2023. The final exam will be on 31 March 2023 in the Cispa Lecture Hall. Tutorials will be held on the same days as the lectures between 14:00-17:00.

Locations

Lectures and Tutorials will be in the CISPA Lecture Hall (except on Friday, 17 March the lecture will be in E2 2 (GHH) and the tutorial in SR014 E1 3).

The Office Hours will be in SR 107 E 1 3. 

Physical presence is required (= more than 70% of on-site lectures and tutorials).

 

Grading

In total, you can reach 100 points in the course of this lecture; points can be collected with

• 2 graded assignments (25 points each) and
• a written exam at the end of the semester (50 points).

To pass this course, you need to receive a minimum of 60 points in total and a minimum of 30 points for both the assignments and 30 points in the written exam. Besides that, you have to actively participate in the tutorials where you will 

• work on solving scenarios to deepen your knowledge and
• engage in (ungraded) mini quizzes.

Collaboration

You are encouraged to discuss assignments and ask us and other students for help if necessary. However, do not actually show your resulting work to each other if we did not explicitly tell you to do that. Do not plagiarize.

Assignments

There will be 2 graded assignments during the course of this lecture. 

Assignment	Start Date	Deadline
Assignment 1 (Qualitative)	13 March 2023	20 March 2023 - 10am
Assignment 2 (Quantitative)	15 March 2023	23 March 2023 - 10am

 

 

 

 

You can get a maximum of 25 points for each assignment.

 

Office Hours

There will be office hours on the off days (each Tuesday and Thursday) for students to work on assignments and ask questions to tutors who will be present. 

 

Exam

The exam will consist of knowledge questions and scenarios that you are expected to solve. Only those who fail the written exam will be able to take a re-take exam. 

Exam: 31 March 2023, 10:00-12:00 in CISPA Lecture Hall
(Registration in HISPOS LSF until March 28th, end of day)

 

Lecture Overview & Topics

Please note that this a tentative timetable. Changes will be announced as news posts.

Date	Topic
13.03.23	Introduction & Qualitative research methods
15.03.23	Quantitative research methods & statistics
17.03.23	User study design & ethics
20.03.23	Design methods
22.03.23	Surveillance & privacy
24.03.23	Authentication

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this the right course for me?

This course is intended for all computer scientists who would like to take an interdisciplinary perspective on the origins of security vulnerabilities. It will also be interesting for everyone who is interested in a societal discourse about the security and privacy of the systems we interact with. In this course you will have the chance to conduct interdisciplinary research - which means that you will be designing user studies and collecting and analyzing data. You will also have to write code and use statistical testing. Please make sure to take our ungraded statistics self assessment test to understand if your knowledge in statistics is sufficient for this course. You can find the test here.
 

Mental Health

Being a student can be challenging and might be very overwhelming at times. If you need support during times of struggle, reach out to friends, family or faculty you trust. The student union at UdS also offers a counselling service that you may contact. You do not have to go through this alone! If for whatever reason (e.g. a personal emergency) you cannot attend the lecture, tutorial, or deliver your work in time please let us know and we will make appropriate arrangements.