This module of the course on Cybercrime, Cyberespionage and Cyberconflicts examines the topic of why cyberspace is such a hostile environment. It provides a short introduction to the history of the Internet and its major themes. It then discusses types of threats and abuse (the what), opponents (the who) and their intent (the why). The module concludes with a debate on how we got here and why security is hard.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the history and development of the Internet and its security and privacy problems.
- Recognize different types of security incidents as classified by taxonomies used by CSIRTs.
- Know the different types of opponents and their intent, motivations, and means.
- Discuss and analyze the technical, legal, and ethical challenges relating to security and privacy in cyberspace.
- History of the Internet
- Barry M. Leiner, Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Lawrence G. Roberts, Stephen Wolff. A Brief History of the Internet. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Volume 39, Number 5, October 2009.
- Robert H. Zakon. Hobbes' Internet Timeline 25.
- Internet Society's A Short History of the Internet series.
- Types of Threats
- Opponents
- Ross Anderson. Security Engineering, 3rd Edition. Chapter 2: Who is the Opponent?
- Why Security is Hard
- No mandatory reading
The slides used in class for this module are available here.
The list of questions for this module is available here.
- Juan Tapiador. A book list on the computer underground culture. 24 March 2021.
- K. Thomas, et al. SoK: Hate, Harassment, and the Changing Landscape of Online Abuse. 2021 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp. 247-267.
- Dan Geer. Cybersecurity as Realpolitik. Black Hat USA 2014.
- Kevin Mandia. The State of Cybersecurity – Year in Review. RSA Conference 2022.