Security for Smart-devices:
COMPSCI 702
Semester 1, City Campus

Times and venues:

• Wed 3-4pm 421W-501 (Architecture - West, Room 501)
• Thu 10-11am 201N-370 (Human Sciences - North,Rm 370)
• Friday 4-5pm 114-G13 (Commerce A, Room G13)

This course will focus on the security features supported by the different platforms for smart-devices (smartphones and tablets). The course will provide an overview of the most popular OS platforms in the market (that is iOS and Android). Following, the course will concentrate on the security models that each platform supports highlighting the choices that developers have made for balancing security versus usability.

The second part of the course will focus on the state-of-the-art in security for Android. Given that Android is an open-source project, several security extensions have been proposed by researchers. We will analyse the security limitations of each platform and the vulnerabilities exploited for performing attacks. This second part will be concluded by providing an overview of several research approaches proposed to overcome those limitations and mitigate the attacks.

The last part of the course consists of students giving seminars based on research papers. The course also has a practical component where students will self-organise in teams and operate as a start-up to deliver a software artifact.