Cyber SecuritySemester 3-2 syllabus

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.