Syllabus

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Lecture Schedule

Lecture	Date	Theme	Assignment
Week 1
1.1	January 13	Course Introduction	Syllabus, René Carmille
1.2	January 15	Course Introduction	Levy 1984 Chpts. 1 & 2
Week 2
2.1	January 20	Anthropological Theory + Methods	Gell 1988; Writing Reflection 00; Group Formation Deadline
2.2	January 22	Computer Science Theory + Methods	Ross and Gow 1999 Chpt. 1
Week 3
3.1	January 27	Phone Phreaking	Lapsley 2013 Chpts. 1, 2, 4, 5 & 9; Technical Homework 00
3.2	January 29	Information Networks	Minor Threat and Mucho Maas mid-90s, Stoll 1988
Week 4
4.1	February 3	Bulletin Board Systems	Driscoll 2022, Kneese et al. 2022; Writing Reflection 01; Project Deliverable 00
4.2	February 5	Textfiles	The Mentor 1988
Week 5
5.1	February 10	Zines	Phrack 31 1990, Thomas 2002 Chpt. 4; Technical Homework 01
5.2	February 12	Social Engineering	Gehl and Lawson 2022, Malefactor 1980s/1990s
Week 6
6.1	February 17	Video Game Hacking	Levy 1984 Chpt. 3; Writing Reflection 02
6.2	February 19	Government and Law Enforcement	Sterling 1992 Part 3
Week 7
7.1	February 24	Internet Relay Chat	Söderberg and Maxigas 2022 Chpt. 6; Technical Homework 02
7.2	February 26	The Internet	Klaus 1995, Fyodor 1997, Fyodor 1998
Week 8
8.1	March 3	Hacker Conventions	Coleman 2010; Film Reflection 00
8.2	March 5	Windows Security Vulnerabilities	Thompson 1984, Menn 2019 Chpt. 5
Spring Break
	March 10
	March 12
Week 9
9.1	March 17	Unix Security Vulnerabilities	Cheswick 1992, Aleph One 1996; Technical Homework 03
9.2	March 19	Exploit Development Suites	Goerzen and Coleman 2022
Week 10
10.1	March 24	Cryptography	Levy 2002 Chpt. 3; Writing Reflection 03
10.2	March 26	Virii	Dibbell 1995, Eve 2021 Chpts. 1 & 2; Project Deliverable 01
Week 11
11.1	March 31	Open Source Software	Coleman 2012 Chpt. 2; Technical Homework 04
11.2	April 2	Free Software	Kelty 2008 Chpt. 7
Week 12
12.1	April 7	Cyberwarfare	Zetter 2014 Chpts. 1-4; Writing Reflection 04
12.2	April 8	Hardware Hacking Workshop	6-9pm, Stinson-Remick 205, led by Joe Grand (a.k.a. Kingpin)
12.2	April 9	Hardware Hacking	Gottlieb 1999; Joe Grand Guest Lecture
Week 13
13.1	April 14	The Computer Security Industry	Decipher Security News 2025 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4; Katie Moussouris Guest Lecture; Technical Homework 05
13.2	April 16	Hackerspaces	Hackerspace Design Patterns
Week 14
14.1	April 21	Hacking AI	Schneier 2023; Film Reflection 01
14.2	April 23	Hacktivism	Coleman 2017
Week 15
15.1	April 28	Future Hacking	Phrack Staff 2025; Technical Homework 06
Final
	May 5		Project Deliverable 02; Writing Reflection 05

Coursework

Component	Points
In-Class Quick Takes	25 x 5
Writing Reflections	6 x 100
Film Reflections	2 x 200
Technical Homeworks	7 x 100
Group Project	1000
Participation	175
Total	3000

Grading

Grade	Points	Grade	Points	Grade	Points
		A	2790-3000	A-	2700-2789
B+	2601-2699	B	2499-2600	B-	2400-2498
C+	2301-2399	C	2199-2300	C-	2100-2198
D	1950-2099	F	0-1949

Due Dates

In-Class Quick Takes: These short written responses will be provided at the beginning of each class starting the third week of classes, which is after the last date for all class changes at the beginning of the semester.

Writing Reflections, Film Reflections and Technical Homeworks: All three of these individual homework categories are due Tuesdays at 5pm.

Group Projects: Group project deliverables are due at the date and time specified in the assignment.

Policies

Participation

Students are expected to attend and contribute regularly in class. This means answering questions in class, participating in discussions, and helping other students.

Foreseeable absences should be discussed with the instructors ahead of time.

In-Class Quick Takes

All in-class quick takes must be completed individually in-person and submitted at the beginning of each class they are assigned in.

Writing Reflections

Each writing reflection should be prepared as a Google Doc. At the time of the first assignment, share a Google drive for this class with our TA Rex. For each assignment, prepare a doc named using this convention: lastname_firstname_duedate. Rex will collect each assignment directly from your drive after it is due.

Film Reflections

Each film reflection should be prepared as a Google Doc. At the time of the first assignment, share a Google drive for this class with our TA Rex. For each assignment, prepare a doc named using this convention: lastname_firstname_duedate. Rex will collect each assignment directly from your drive after it is due.

Technical Homeworks

Each technical homework will have its own submission instructions, but will also be turned in via your shared Google drive. Rex will collect each assignment directly from your drive after it is due.

Group Projects

Group project deliverables should be placed in a Google drive and shared with Rex by one member of your group. After you form your group, nominate one of the members as the scribe who will handle deliverables for the semester. 

Students with Disabilities

Any student who has a documented disability and is registered with Sara Bea Accessibility Services should speak with the professor as soon as possible regarding accommodations. Students who are not registered should contact the Sara Bea Accessibility Services.

Academic Honesty

Any academic misconduct in this course is considered a serious offense, and the strongest possible academic penalties will be pursued for such behavior. Students may discuss high-level ideas with other students, but at the time of implementation (i.e., programming), each person must do his/her own work. Use of the Internet as a reference is allowed but directly copying code or other information is cheating. It is cheating to copy, to allow another person to copy, all or part of an exam or a assignment, or to fake program output. Use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to produce text and/or other media for writing reflections, technical homeworks and project deliverables is strictly prohibited unless the output is for demonstration purposes relevant to the context of the assignment and clearly noted as such. It is also a violation of the Undergraduate Academic Code of Honor to observe and then fail to report academic dishonesty. You are responsible for the security and integrity of your own work.

Late Work

In the case of a serious illness or other excused absence, as defined by university policies, coursework submissions will be accepted late by the same number of days as the excused absence.

Otherwise, a late penalty, as determined by the instructor, will be assessed to any late submission of an assignment. In general, the late penalty is 25% off for less than a week and 50% off for more than a week. The instructor reserves the right to refuse any unexcused late work.

Classroom Recording

Notre Dame has implemented a classroom recording system. This system allows us to record and distribute lectures to you in a secure environment. You can watch these recordings on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. The recordings can be accessed via a request made to the instructor.

Because we will be recording in the classroom on select occasions, your questions and comments may be recorded. (Video recordings typically only capture the front of the classroom.) If you have any concerns about your voice or image being recorded, please speak to the instructors to determine an alternative means of participating. No content will be shared with individuals outside of your course without your permission except for faculty and staff that need access for support or specific academic purposes.

These recordings are jointly copyrighted by the University of Notre Dame and your instructors. Posting them to other websites, including YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Tiktok or elsewhere without express, written permission is not permitted.

Guide to the Honor Code

For the assignments in this class, you may discuss with other students and consult printed and online resources. You may quote from books and online sources as long as you cite them properly. However, you may not look at another student's solution, and you may not copy solutions.

The following table summarizes how you may work with other students and use print/online sources:

	Resources	Solutions
Consulting	Allowed	Not Allowed
Copying	Cite	Not Allowed

For further guidance please refer to the CSE Honor Code, which we will be following this semester, or ask the instructors.