The best aspects of this course included the opportunity to work in a group and the hands-on experience. Some students felt the lectures were very difficult to attend. One suggestion was to have the department establish clear prerequisites to guarantee the students begin this course with a basic level of cryptographic and networking background. Another suggestion was to have the instructor engage the students in his lectures more. Prospective students should have some computer networking knowledge.

The highlight of this class was the PLAYGROUND project – a virtual network where the students had to develop security protocol, then defend against attacks and attack others. The combination of concept based lecture and hands on projects worked wel for most students. The worst aspect of the class was the workload which was weighted toward the start of the semester. Suggestions for improvement included making the PLAYGROUND more stable to avoid bugs and more network attack assignments. Students interested in this course should know basic cryptology, PYTHON, and UNIX. This class is highly recommended as one of the best security classes available.

The best aspects of the course included the responsive, knowledgeable and passionate instructor as well as the interesting material. Students noted that the assignments were effective for learning the material. While comments on assignments were detailed and instructive, feedback was untimely and left students with little idea as to how they were performing. Students also found the late-days policy to be excessively harsh in terms of point deductions. Suggestions for improvement included providing feedback on assignments more promptly, and making homework assignments less time consuming. Prospective students should be prepared for conceptually difficult material with few resources available outside of the course textbook. Students may benefit from experience with functional programming.