/// Goals of the course ///
At the end of the course, students will be able to

• analyze the technical merits of specific developments within the field of IT-security,
• substantiate their analyses using existing and scientific documented knowledge,
• clearly write up those analyses in a concise scientific report, and
• further develop an attitude in which being able to clearly explain matters is geared to optimize the quality of feedback.

/// Course contents ///
The course contents consist of studying and assessing a specific topic in the field of IT-security. There will be multiple topics, and each topic is to be tackled by an individual student; individually supervised by the teaching staff. Students will be handed out material such as scientific articles to help them understand the topic at hand. Part of the course consists of discovering additional material. Students will dig deep into the selected topic and will analyze it according to topic-specific criteria (to be defined in consultation with the individual supervisor). Students will present their analyses and findings in two ways: in a concise scientific report as well as in a 30 min. presentation, which is followed by a discussion and a round of feedback. In the start of the course, all available topics will be introduced to the students so that they can pick a for them suitable topic.

/// Assessment ///
Students will be assessed on the basis of their written scientific report (40%), their presentation and consequent discussion (40%), and the general process (20%; includes: independence, planning, active involvement, …)

/// Possible topics (incomplete; final list will be presented in the first lecture) ///
More details and a first academic reference on each topic can be found on this course's Stud.IP page under "Schedule (Ablaufplan)" --> "Topics (Themen)".

• (Semi-)Automated Security Event Handling in Security Operations Centers
• Attacks on Searchable Encrypted Databases and Countermeasures
• Automated Extraction of Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures from Cyber Threat Reports
• Explainable Machine Learning in Security
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs
• Mobile-App Fingerprinting on Encrypted Network Traffic
• The Right to be Forgotten: Machine Unlearning and its Implications
• Privacy-Preserving Wi-Fi-based Crowd Monitoring
• Your Own Topic