Ethical Hacking
This is an applied course on information security. It gives you the skills needed to become a security analyst or penetration tester: you learn advanced tools for software analysis and exploitation, and you learn about the ethics and legality of hacking and the responsible disclosure process. Earlier versions of the course also covered elements of cryptanalysis and digital forensics.
The course follows a project-based approach. The first part consists of lectures and exercises covering the theoretical foundations. In the second part you choose a target and analyse it with the techniques and methodologies learned, then document your findings in a report. A mandatory activity is drafting a vulnerability disclosure policy, which is later used when conducting the experiment for the final project.
About the course
The course is part of the Security specialisation of the MSc in Computer Science at the IT University of Copenhagen (7.5 ECTS, taught in spring). It is also open to guest students, exchange students and single-subject students. Students are expected to have taken an introductory course on information security beforehand.
Learning objectives
After taking this course, students will be able to:
- discuss ethical and legal issues in computer security
- apply penetration testing and software analysis techniques to find vulnerabilities
- follow a responsible disclosure process
- plan, carry out and report a security assessment of a chosen target
Topics
- Ethics, legality and responsible disclosure
- Penetration testing methodology
- Software analysis and exploitation
- Vulnerability disclosure policies
- Security assessment project and reporting