Syllabus
Course Description
Welcome to the Practicum in Enterprise Security! This is a twelve-week course in enterprise and network security, set in the context of C-Bay, a fictional online real estate auction firm. C-Bay has employed you and your teammates as IT staff, and asked you to refine and implement a new security policy for the company's expanding network.
Your supervisor at C-Bay (who is also your classroom mentor) will assign your group tasks through the course website and review and provide feedback on your work. In addition, you will attend classroom sessions in which you will work with your team, make group presentations, and participate in discussion and reflection sessions. You should also plan to meet with your group outside of the classroom on a regular basis. Working on a security policy in a realistic business setting will allow you to explore the many risks and trade-offs associated with securing an enterprise without interfering with its operations.
You will need to employ your knowledge of enterprise and network technology to make decisions that achieve a balance between business and security needs. In doing so, you will learn how enterprise security is achieved and maintained in the real world.
You can read more about the course and explore its features using the links on the left, or you can start working on the tasks, beginning with Task 1 - Policy Critique.
Course Format
This is taught in a hybrid format (online time and required meetings). The work for this course is divided into six tasks, each of which requires one or more “deliverables” (submitted assignments). Your team will work through them consecutively until you have finished the entire course program. These tasks will exercise your knowledge of network security, as well as your skills in research, writing, and presenting. Your mentor will review your work in each task before allowing you to move onto the next one. Some tasks require written deliverables that you will submit by e-mail; others require your team to give a presentation to your mentor (and sometimes your colleagues/classmates as well).
Though your mentor will determine when tasks are due, the responsibility of deciding how to finish is your own. On the first day of class, your mentor will assign you a group of teammates with whom you will work for the duration of the course. Within your group, you will have to determine how to tackle the work: who will research different parts of the task, who will take notes at meetings, who will present the final product, etc. This structure allows you to expand your skills in teamwork and management, and it also gives you a peek into the world of IT in a business context, where employees typically work in teams.
Prerequisites and Advisories
Learners are expected to:
- Communicate in English effectively, verbally and in writing.
- Have knowledge of networking technologies (TCP/IP, LAN) and networking hardware (routers, firewalls). A Networking Fundamentals course is recommended as a prerequisite.
- Be able to configure a server Operating System such as Windows Server or Unix.
- Know Network Security topics such as Cryptography, Firewalls, VPN’s, Denial of Service, and Access
Controls.
Required Texts and Materials
There are no required textbooks for this course.
You will need to download Acrobat Reader to view the pdf files in the course.
Succeeding in This Course
Because this isn't a typical learning model, here are some tips about how to succeed in this course:
Be proactive!
- You must schedule meetings with your faculty members; don't expect us to come to you or to tell you what to do. (In general, you should come to us if you can't find the answer on your own. The more you put into the process yourself, the more you'll get out of it.)
- You are responsible for checking your email regularly; official announcements will be made this way, and we will assume that you have read them.
Manage your time!
Time management is essential to your success in the program. Students should commit roughly 10 - 12 total hours per week to the course. You should reserve up to 50% of your total time for basic educational activities such as reading and research.
Form study groups!
We highly recommend forming study groups larger than your teams. When given a new assignment, the group should meet to identify learning issues, identify educational resources that address them, divide them up according to individual interests, study them individually, and come back together to share what was learned. Your goal is to teach each other. (This is not to say, of course, that more than one person cannot review the same material.)
Address performance issues in your team!
Since you won't initially know the full extent of your team's capabilities, negotiate the initial scope of work for each member carefully (i.e., what concrete piece(s) of the task s/he is responsible for). If problems emerge, surface them as soon as possible so that you can negotiate them within your team and complete your task on schedule. (This may be socially uncomfortable, but you've got to do it.)
If you ever have a problem you don't know how to solve, discuss it with the head faculty member. Of course you should generally start by talking to your team and to your mentor/coach; however, for sensitive issues, it's fine to start with the head faculty member.
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Suggested Grading
When evaluating your work, consider the following areas:
- Does it meet the scope set up in the scenario e-mail?
- Does it satisfy the requirements set in the checklist?
- Is it professionally produced? (e.g., Is it well-written with no careless errors? Does the language of the presentation reflect an appropriate understanding of the intended audience?)
- In addition, your grade will be affected by peer evaluation feedback sessions that will be conducted regularly during the course, as well as your interactions with the faculty. Thus, you are graded both for your work as a group and as an individual within the group.
Below is a general guideline of the grades:
A Grade: Turns in everything agreed to with acceptable quality and shows good effort.
B Grade: Missing deliverables or minor quality issues but still shows good effort.
C Grade: “Doesn't do A or B work.” This grade is unlikely in an instructor-led course because the faculty member and/or mentor will help you as soon as you drop to this level.
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