SCSC 455 Study Guide
Note: This is a list of KEY topics of each chapter. However, this list does NOT cover all topics covered in
this course.
Chapter 1
1. Model for network security
2. Some key objectives of information security
3. The importance of computer security to both companies and nations
4. Passive attack vs. active attack
5. Categories of security service
6. Two specific authentication services
7. Information security standards
8. Risk and risk assessment
9. Is “Security through obscurity” a good approach to information security? Why?
10. Definition of backdoor
11. social engineering
12. insider vs. outsider
13. IT security certifications introduced in this course
14. Ten domains of Common Body of Knowledge defined in CISSP
Chapter2
1. Kerckhoff’s Principle
2. Different ways of classify Cryptographic systems
3. Five types of attacks on encrypted messages
4. Notation of Computationally Secure
5. Feistel Cipher Structure
6. DES history, basics and controversy
7. Modes of operation in DES: especially CBC mode, CFB mode, and CTR mode
8. Meet-in-the-middle attack
9. 3DES and its operation modes
10. AES history and basics
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11. The basics of encryption methods in history covered in lectures
12. Mono-alphabetic vs Poly-alphabetic substitution cipher
13. Correlation in statistical attack
14. Key space in Exhaustive search
15. password cracking tool and method (Lab)
16. Frequency analysis
17. Method that breaks Vigènere Cipher
18. Basics of Enigma Machine
19. Requirements for Random and Pseudorandom Numbers
20. TRNG, PRNG, and PRF
21. stream cipher basics, pros and cons
22. RC4 procedure and pseudocode
23. OTP
24. Why OTP is not used as primary cryptosystem
25. Steganography basics
26. null cipher
27. digital watermark
28. LSB method (Lab)
Chapter 3
1. Message authentication code
2. Message authentication using conventional encryption, using public-key encryption, and using
secret value
3. The difference between authentication algorithm and encryption
4. Six properties of hash function
5. Birthday paradox and its implication in hash function
6. Two simple Hash functions
7. Basics of MD5 and SHA
8. Message digest generation using SHA-512 (append padding bits and append length are required.
The detail of F module is not required)
9. Basics of asymmetric cryptography
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10. pros and cons of asymmetric and symmetric cryptography
11. Diffie-Hellman algorithm in detail
12. The basics of RSA algorithm
13. Man-in-the-middle attack
14. Hybrid cryptosystem, which include digital signature
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