Teaching Computer Security with a Hands-On Component

To address national needs for computer security education, many universities have incorporated computer and security courses into their undergraduate and graduate curricula. Our department has introduced computer security courses at both the undergraduate and the graduate level. This paper describes our approach, our experiences, and lessons learned in teaching a Computer Security Overview course. There are two key elements in the course: Studying computer security topics from a current textbook and online and experimenting with security tools. While the textbook and online material expose students to current security topics, projects that involve experimenting with security tools motivate students to explore computersecurity techniques, providing a framework for a better understanding of the security topics and strengthening students’ ability to put what they learnt in the classroom into practice in their organizations tomorrow.