Foundations of IT Security
In a time where cyber threats are constantly evolving and getting more sophisticated, staying informed about the best IT security practices is crucial to maintaining a resilient and secure digital environment. Effective IT security measures not only protect your organization from cyberattacks but also ensures the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of your digital assets. To help professionals to stay ahead the University of Amsterdam offers a comprehensive 5-session lecture series on foundational aspects of IT security covering a wide range of essential topics in order to equip professionals with essential knowledge in IT security.
State-of-the-art information
Expert insights
Broad scope
For whom?
This lecture series is designed for a wide range of IT professionals. For those that are interested in learning about computer security and have a background in computer science, engineering or any similar degree, but also for those who learned coding on the job (with no formal background in informatics or security). This series aims to elevate the attendants’ IT security expertise to a higher level and to deepen their understanding of security concepts. Thus, the lecture series can be useful to:
- IT specialists who want to learn the various attack surfaces and be able to assess vulnerabilities
- Information security officers who want to comprehend and implement data protection policies
- Decision-makers in IT technology who want to understand how security issues impact products
- Network engineers/technicians who want to learn more about security & intrusion detection
- Coders & software developers who want to learn the fundamentals of cryptography and secure coding practices
- IoT device developers who want to learn more about secure hardware
Programme:
During five lectures we will focus on foundational aspects of security, providing a well-rounded understanding of different principles and techniques such as data protection, cryptographic techniques, software security, network security, intrusion detection and IoT security. Theory and newest insights based on academic and industrial experience will be alternated with real-world use cases.
The primary aim of this lecture series is to equip a professional with essential knowledge into how you can elevate the IT security within your organization.
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05 November 2024 | Lecture 1: Security Concepts, Cryptography and Threat Models
This session wil focus on:
▪ The theoretical frameworks that form the basis of security, including confidentiality, integrity, availability, and beyond.
▪ Introduction to symmetric and public key cryptography.
▪ Cybersecurity threats and threat modelling.
Dr. Kostas Papagiannopoulos is researcher at the University of Amsterdam. His research interest are applied cryptography, efficient cryptographic implementations in software and hardware, side-channel analysis, fault injection and countermeasures. -
12 November 2024 | Lecture 2: Network Security and Intrusion Detection Systems
This session wil focus on:
▪ Firewalling, stateless and stateful
▪ AI driven analytics
▪ Programmable network devices for security
▪ Theory and practice of Intrusion Detection Systems
Prof.dr. Paola Grosso is professor of Multiscale networks and Scientific Director of the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam
Dr. Kostas Papagiannopoulos is an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam. His research interest are applied cryptography, efficient cryptographic implementations in software and hardware, side-channel analysis, fault injection and countermeasures. -
19 November 2024 | Lecture 3: Software Security
This session wil focus on:
▪ Common Software Vulnerabilities: Injection attacks, buffer overflows, cross-site scripting (XSS), insecure deserialization, and more.
▪ Secure Coding Practices: Input validation, output encoding, authentication, authorization, session management, and error handling.
▪ Security in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC): Integrating security from design to deployment, threat modelling, code reviews, and penetration testing.
▪ Web Application Security: OWASP Top 10, secure configuration, protecting against common attacks like SQL injection and XSS.
▪ Software Security Tools: Static code analysis, dynamic code analysis, software composition analysis (SCA), and fuzzing.
Dr. Vas Mavroudis is a Principal Research Scientist with a deep understanding of cyber threats. He co-leads the AI for Cyberdefence Center at the Alan Turing Institute in London, focusing on applying cutting-edge Machine Learning (ML) techniques to real-world security problems. His expertise spans areas like autonomous network defense, large-scale traffic analysis, and countering intelligent adversaries. -
26 November 2024 | Lecture 4: Data Protection Technologies and Privacy-Enhancing Techniques
This session wil focus on:
▪ explain the context of data protection technologies from multiple angles.
▪ In-depth knowledge on fundamental data protection technologies such as cryptographic algorithms for Secure Multi-party Computation.
▪ Selected applications of Data Protection Technologies like privacy-preserving machine learning.
Dr. Divya Ravi is an assistant professor in the Complex Cyber Infrastructure Group at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests primarily include Secure Multi-party Computation and Distributed Computing.
Dr. Lisa Kohl is a researcher in the Cryptology Group at CWI Amsterdam. Her research focuses on exploring new directions in secure computation with the goal of developing practical post-quantum secure protocols. -
03 December 2024 | Lecture 5: IoT/Hardware Security
This session wil focus on:
▪ Gain insight into practical solutions, emerging technologies, and best practices to secure IoT devices.
▪ Learn the common threats and vulnerabilities in IoT, including side-channel analysis and fault attack techniques.
▪ Device countermeasures against hardware attacks.
Dr. Kostas Papagiannopoulos is an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam. His research interest are applied cryptography, efficient cryptographic implementations in software and hardware, side-channel analysis, fault injection and countermeasures.
Contact
Do you have questions about this lecture series? Please contact us:
E: professionaleducation-ivi@uva.nl