This semester concentrates the program’s security specialization — cyber crime and digital forensics alongside cryptography and network security — while adding machine learning and two Professional Elective slots that let students branch into testing, systems, or applied security topics. A mandatory industry internship follows over the summer, alongside soft-skills/IELTS and technical writing preparation.
Subjects
Cyber Crimes & Digital Forensics
- Unit 1: Nature, scope, and categories of cybercrime.
- Unit 2: Specific cybercrime issues — unauthorized access, malicious code, and intellectual property violations.
- Unit 3: Cybercrime investigation techniques, including email and IP tracking and evidence recovery.
- Unit 4: Digital forensics tools and techniques across Windows, Linux, and network environments.
- Unit 5: Legal and regulatory frameworks governing digital evidence and cybercrime.
- Credit structure: L-T-P-C = 3-0-0-3.
Cryptography & Network Security
- Unit 1: Core security concepts, classical encryption techniques, and security service models.
- Unit 2: The algebraic and number-theoretic foundations underlying symmetric and asymmetric cryptography.
- Unit 3: Symmetric ciphers (DES, AES, RC4/RC5) and asymmetric ciphers (RSA, Diffie-Hellman, elliptic curve cryptography).
- Unit 4: Cryptographic hash functions, message authentication codes, and digital signature schemes.
- Unit 5: Applied network and internet security — transport-level security, IPsec, and email security (S/MIME, PGP).
- Credit structure: L-T-P-C = 3-0-0-3.
Machine Learning
- Unit 1: The evolution and paradigms of machine learning and the stages of a typical ML pipeline.
- Unit 2: Nearest-neighbor based models and distance/proximity measures.
- Unit 3: Decision-tree models and Bayesian classification.
- Unit 4: Linear discriminants, support vector machines, and multi-layer perceptrons.
- Unit 5: Clustering techniques, including k-means and spectral clustering.
- Credit structure: L-T-P-C = 3-0-0-3.
Professional Elective-II
(student selects one)
- Software Testing Methodologies — covers testing fundamentals, transaction-flow and data-flow testing, path-based and logic-based testing, and state-graph/graph-matrix testing approaches.
- DevOps — covers the DevOps lifecycle, source-code management with Git, CI/CD build automation with Jenkins, containerization with Docker, and configuration management with Ansible/Kubernetes.
- Microprocessors & Microcontrollers — covers 8086 architecture and programming, memory/peripheral interfacing, and 8051 microcontroller architecture and interfacing.
- Applied Cryptography — covers cryptographic protocol foundations, key-length and cipher-mode considerations, public-key algorithms and signature schemes, and real-world protocol deployments like PGP and Kerberos.
- A 12-week MOOC (SWAYAM/NPTEL) recommended by the Board of Studies may substitute for any of the above.
Professional Elective-III
(student selects one)
- Software Project Management — covers conventional and iterative software management approaches, project life-cycle phases, iterative planning, and agile/DevOps adoption.
- Mobile Adhoc Networks — covers MANET characteristics and MAC/routing protocols, transport-layer solutions, security in ad hoc networks, and wireless sensor network fundamentals.
- Natural Language Processing — covers language modeling and morphology, word-level analysis and POS tagging, syntactic parsing, semantics/word-sense disambiguation, and discourse analysis.
- Security Assessment and Risk Analysis — covers secure software design principles, risk management frameworks, enterprise authentication and cryptography, and security development frameworks for e-commerce systems.
- A 12-week MOOC (SWAYAM/NPTEL) recommended by the Board of Studies may substitute for any of the above.
Open Elective-II
chosen from the university’s open elective basket for this semester.
Cryptography & Network Security Lab
- Focus: implementing classical and modern cryptographic algorithms in code.
- Representative exercises: Caesar/substitution/Hill ciphers, DES/Blowfish/Rijndael implementations, RSA and Diffie-Hellman key exchange, and SHA-1 message digest computation.
- Credit structure: L-T-P-C = 0-0-3-1.5.
Cyber Crimes & Digital Forensics Lab
- Focus: applying forensic evidence-collection procedures to disk and memory images.
- Representative exercises: RAM/disk capture with FTK Imager, memory analysis with Volatility, live incident response, email/mobile/network forensic case work.
- Credit structure: L-T-P-C = 0-0-3-1.5.
Soft Skills OR IELTS
(Skill Enhancement Course)
- Focus: workplace communication, interview readiness, and interpersonal skills (Soft Skills track) or English proficiency test preparation (IELTS track).
- Representative topics: self-analysis and communication styles, self-management etiquette, grammar and correspondence, group discussion/interview practice, and interpersonal relationship dynamics.
- Credit structure: L-T-P-C = 0-1-2-2.
Technical Paper Writing & IPR
(Audit Course)
- Unit 1: Fundamentals of technical report writing and structuring.
- Unit 2: Drafting, editing, and plain-English writing practices.
- Unit 3: Proofreading, summarizing, and presenting technical reports.
- Unit 4: Word-processing tools for producing polished technical documents.
- Unit 5: Intellectual property fundamentals — patents, designs, trademarks, and copyright.
- Credit structure: L-T-P-C = 2-0-0-0 (audit, non-credit bearing).
Semester load: 20-1-8 contact hours, 23 credits total, plus a mandatory 8-week industry internship during the following summer vacation.