Spring 2018 Course Descriptions

COMP 150-08 Cyber in the Civil Sector

S. Landau
MW 11:05-12:20, Room To Be Announced

There is a myth that the Internet erases borders. But as Internet companies' ability to place localized ads show, that's false. What's more accurate is that the Internet complicates a nation's ability to control of the flow of information within its borders. (This is not a new challenge for sovereign nations; consider the telegraph.) This fluidity has created great economic opportunity and simplified trans-border access, the latter potentially threatening security and other basic state functions. With bits increasingly controlling the world around us, the Digital Revolution poses a highly disruptive threat. In this course, well explore cyber clashes in the civilian sector: from jurisdictional issues and the challenges posed by new technologies to criminal activities and impacts on civil infrastructures. While several of the topics are also covered in International Cyber Conflict: An Introduction to Power and Conflict in Cyberspace, DHP P249, the intersection between the two courses will be relatively minimal. Cyber in the Civilian Sector will have a greater focus on technology and, naturally enough, on the civilian, as opposed to national-security, side of the house.

This course is cross listed in Computer Science, but their primary home is Fletcher. That means it will be taught on the Fletcher academic calendar. It is limited enrollment (thirty students), with half the enrollment from Fletcher and half from AS&E. Students from AS&E admitted by permission of the instructor, with preference for students majoring in computer science and/or political science/IR. If you would like to take Cyber in the Civil Sector, please send a paragraph to Professor Susan Landau, susan.landau@tufts.edu, explaining your interest in the course and your background. You'll be informed of admittance on November 21.


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