Computer Security & Privacy Educational Resources and Modules
Computer Security & Privacy Research Lab
Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington
Computer Security Mindset & Threat Modeling Homework
We have used the following assignment to help students practice developing the security mindset. This assignment also helps students think about the relationship between computing technologies, security & privacy, and society. The assignment has evolved over time.
At UW, we often include the assignment early in the quarter. Sometimes we ask students to do the same assignment again (different technology) later in the quarter.
The following is a popular-press article about the value of this assignment and assignments that help students practice the security mindset:
Computer Security and Ethics Homework (Option 1)
We have used the following assignment to help students explore ethics and computer security. This assignment also helps students think about the relationship between computing technologies, security & privacy, and society. This version of the ethics assignment focuses on existing approaches to ethical considerations: The Menlo Report, the Capabilities Framework, and the Manifest-no. The assignment has also evolved over time.
At UW, we may include the assignment early in the quarter.
The following academic paper discusses this assignment in more detail:
Computer Security and Ethics Homework (Option 2)
We have used the following assignment to help students explore ethics and computer security. This assignment also helps students think about the relationship between computing technologies, security & privacy, and society. This version of the ethics assignment builds upon several foundations from the field of ethics & moral philosophy, including trolley problems and consequentialist and deontological ethics.
At UW, we may include the assignment early in the quarter.
The following academic paper discusses this assignment in more detail:
Example slides and other materials are available at:
Computer Security & the (Non) Default Person In-class Activity
We developed the following in-class activity to help students practice thinking about computer security & privacy and the non-default persona. (The “default persona”, in the US, is often white, a man, and so on.)
The following academic paper discusses the in-class activity in more detail:
Computer Security Mindset & Science Fiction Homework
We have used the following assignment to help students practice developing the security mindset. This assignment also helps students think about the relationship between computing technologies, security & privacy, and society. The assignment has also evolved over time.
At UW, we occasionally include this assignment in the undergraduate computer security course. We prioritize the inclusion of the first two assignments listed above.
The following academic paper discusses this assignment in more detail:
Computer Security Quarter-Long Capstone Course and Design Document
In 2017, we (Franziska Roesner & Yoshi Kohno) introduced a quarter-long computer security capstone course (CSE 481S). The capstone course includes the design of a system that includes computer security components as well as consulting-like analyses of peer projects.
Students work to complete the design document over the course of the quarter. Our design document has since been adopted by other capstone courses.