Computer Science 461 - Secure Distributed Systems

This is a class devoted to the study of securing distributed systems, with blockchain-based cryptocurrencies serving as our real platform of interest. We'll start with the fundamentals of Lamport's, Fischer's, and Douceur's results that fence-in all consensus system, and discuss Byzantine fault tolerance. We'll also look at the efficiency of the network architectures for peer-to-peer/distributed system communication and attacks on their security, such as denial of service attacks. And we'll review relevant applied cryptography such as elliptic curves. We'll discuss in detail the mechanisms of Bitcoin and Ethereum and we'll program distributed applications for Ethereum. Other topics include economics and finance. The course is based on a flipped classroom. This course counts as a CS Elective toward the CS major (BA or BS), as well an any 2 menu choice for the former Security & Privacy track.

Open to Senior and Junior Computer Science majors only. COMPSCI326,345,377,453,497PwC THE COURSE IS BASED ON A FLIPPED CLASSROOM AND USES A HYBRID INSTRUCTION MODEL. SOME OF THE COURSE CONTENT IS DELIVERED ONLINE, HOWEVER STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND WEEKLY CLASS MEETINGS. SENIOR AND JUNIOR CSENG MAJORS WITH APPROPRIATE BACKGROUND, IF AVAILABLE SEATS. STUDENTS NEEDING SPECIAL PERMISSION MUST REQUEST OVERRIDES VIA THE ON-LINE FORM: https://www.cics.umass.edu/overrides