everyone learns more. That's
the idea behind Assistant
Network Security course, which was one of
only two innovative educational initiatives
recognized at the annual Colloquium for
Information Systems Security Education
(NCISSE) for its approach to security
curriculum development.
universities, including Northeastern, that
have been named Centers of Academic
Excellence in Information Assurance
Education by the National Security Agency.
The conference was established to encour-
age collaboration among government,
industry, and academia to strengthen and
expand information security education.
network security and culminates with
a two-day competition that pits student
teams against one another to see who can
create the most hacker-resistant network.
to defeat the opponents," Noubir says.
of security groups, ranging from national
professional organizations to Northeastern's
own Crew (the volunteer systems group).
What sets the course apart is the high
level of instruction students get before
the competition begins.
try to institute known attacks or protect
their networks against them. They com-
plete mathematics-based homework
assignments to better understand the
theoretical underpinnings of security
information system problems.
travel arrangement systems. Most of these applications contain huge volumes of data.
Zhang plans to examine efficient query processing systems for selection query,
aggregation query, and proximity query.
region, such as the total number of restaurants in a given region or the total rainfall
in New York state over the past year. The actual objects do not have to be named, but
simply quantified. The proximity query finds results based on the closeness of objects.
For instance, the hotel/library pair that is closest to one another, the location for a
potential supermarket that will be close to the maximum number of residents, or an
apartment whose total distance to a supermarket and a subway station is minimal.
instant messaging program that will
become part of the network they protect
during the competition.
request course materials. The response
has been so strong that Noubir is
planning to set up a Web site where
registered instructors can download
new laboratory assignments and share
their experiences.
For instance, students last year didn't
compete until the final week of class.
This year, they will get a not-for-credit
trial run during the tenth week so
that everyone better understands the
demands of the contest environment.
Noubir will also require students to
post their code by the tenth week so
that the teams have adequate time to
analyze one another's work for strengths
and weaknesses.
says. "I don't want that to happen."
"Competition is motivating. I think it
will be good for undergraduate students
to know that they can participate in this
kind of competition."