Offered: Fall and Spring, Monday 4:00 - 6:00 PM.
Instructor: Prof. Dorothy E. Denning, denning@cs.georgetown.edu, 202-687-5703, Reiss 240.
Prerequisite: None.
Description: This course will study the nature of information warfare, including computer crime and information terrorism, as it relates to national, economic, organizational , and personal security. Students will gain an understanding of the threats to information resources, including military and economic espionage, communications eavesdropping, computer break-ins, denial-of-service, destruction and modification of data, distortion and fabrication of information, forgery, control and disruption of information flow, electronic bombs, and psyops and perception management. They will learn about countermeasures, including authentication, encryption, auditing, monitoring, intrusion detection, and firewalls, and the limitations of those countermeasures. They will learn about cyberspace law and law enforcement, information warfare and the military, and intelligence in the information age. Information warfare policy and ethical issues will be examined.
Assumed background/knowledge: Students must have some familiarity with computers and the Internet. They must have access to electronic mail and the World Wide Web.
Course focus and methods. The course is mainly conceptual and analytical. Classes will consist of presentations (often by an outside expert in the field) and discussions. Students will be given weekly reading assignments in preparation for each class.
Course requirements and grading. Course evaluation is based on class participation and weekly writing assignments (50%) and a research paper (50%).
Main Texts. The texts will be supplemented with other readings.
Alan D. Campen and Douglas H. Dearth, Cyberwar 2.0: Myths, Mysteries and Realities, AFCEA Press, 1998.
James Adams, The Next World War, Simon & Schuster, 1998.