Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: INTRO TO COMEPTITIVE HACKING (WILL RICE)

Department: College Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 1

Description: According to the FBI, over 2.2 million complaints of internet crimes were made to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center between 2015 and 2020. What is ``secure enough''? How can we spot and avoid vulnerabilities? Adopting a ``hacker mindset'' is a useful tool to find potential vulnerabilities in the digital systems that surround us. We can then apply the same tools and attitudes to protect these systems—from physical security to healthcare technology—from malicious actors. Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions allow hacking enthusiasts to put their skills to a test in a fun, competitive environment. Competitors are presented with challenges of varying difficulty; capturing the titular flag may require reverse engineering a compiled binary, cracking passwords, bypassing authentication mechanisms, and more. In 'Intro to Competitive Hacking', students will learn about CTF challenges and the concepts that underpin them. In class, they would be introduced to the theory behind networks, cryptography, the modern web, and more. Outside class, students will be assigned challenges from real CTFs to practice their hacking skills. Additionally, they will learn to watch for flaws in the software they write and to defend against vulnerabilities. Finally, they will be motivated to try to understand how digital black boxes work when they encounter them.