2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Computing Major courses
Foundation of Cybersecurity
- Academic unit or major
- Major courses
- Instructor(s)
- Kenji Yasunaga / Masahiro Ishii / Tsuyoshi Isshiki / Wakaha Ogata / Yoshiaki Kitaguchi / Hideki Koike / Ryuichi Sakamoto / Hiroshi Sasaki / Keisuke Tanaka / Xavier Defago / Masahiko Tomoishi / Shin-Ya Nishizaki / Hidehiko Masuhara / Satoshi Matsuura / Yasuhiko Minamide / Jun Miyazaki / Sosuke Moriguchi / Katsunori Yamaoka / Ken Wakita / Takuo Watanabe
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue / 3-4 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- XCO.T473
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 25, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
With the advanced use of information and communications technology involving the internet, cybersecurity threats have become increasingly serious. Cyber attacks continue to have a serious impact on society, and the damage caused to society by the leakage of personal information and intellectual property due to cyber attacks is immeasurable. Despite the importance of the cybersecurity field, there is currently a significant shortage of human resources.
In response to such social needs, Tokyo Institute of Technology, the predecessor of Institute of Science Tokyo, has launched Progressive Graduate Minor in Cybersecurity in April 2016. In this minor, students will learn the practical contents of cybersecurity, in collaboration with NRI as core, Rakuten, NTT, and AIST, and at the same time acquire knowledge of the theoretical background by taking advantage of the strengths of the theoretical field, which is a distinctive feature of the information and communication research field at Institute of Science Tokyo.
The curriculum consists of the following six courses as core, offered at School of Computing.
Foundation of Cybersecurity (1Q, 2-0-0)
Theory of Cryptography for Cybersecurity (3Q, 2-0-0)
Cybersecurity Governance (4Q, 1-1-0)
Attack and Defense on Cybersecurity I (2Q, 1-1-0)
Attack and Defense on Cybersecurity II (2-3Q, 1-1-0)
Attack and Defense on Cybersecurity III (4Q, 1-1-0)
In this course, students will learn an overview of cybersecurity. Students will also learn about the theoretical background to understand cybersecurity. Specifically, we will discuss how theoretical computer science, mathematical science, cryptography, software science, and software engineering relate to cybersecurity, including network security, system security, and application security.
Course description and aims
By the end of this course, students will be able to understand:
1) the backgrounds of cybersecurity
2) the overview of cybersecurity
3) the relationships between cybersecurity and other research fields in computer science
4) the primitives and the tools used in cybersecurity.
Keywords
security, information security, cybersecurity, cryptography, network, software, programming, web application, algorithm, computational complexity
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
The class offers a standard type of lecture. The instructors give the small exams solved in classes or as homework assignments.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | The overview of this course (Kenji Yasunaga (School of Computing)) and the basic notions of cybersecurity (Satoshi Matsuura (Center for Information Infrastructure)) | Understand the basic notion of cybersecurity. |
| Class 2 | Foundation of network security (Yoshiaki Kitaguchi (Center for Information Infrastructure)) | Understand the notions of network security. |
| Class 3 | Theory of cryptography as a fundamental element of cybersecurity (Wakaha Ogata (School of Engineering)) | Understand the notion of cryptography. |
| Class 4 | Theory of cryptography and complexity as a foundation of cybersecurity (Kenji Yasunaga (School of Computing)) | Understand the notion of cryptography and complexity. |
| Class 5 | Identification and authentication for cybersecurity (Masahiko Tomoishi (Center for Information Infrastructure)) | Understand the notions of identification and authentication. |
| Class 6 | Concurrent systems and their security (Shin-ya Nishizaki (Center for Information Infrastructure)) | Understand the notion of concurrent systems. |
| Class 7 | Web security (Yasuhiko Minamide (School of Computing)) | Understand the web security. |
| Class 8 | Processor hardware security (Hiroshi Sasaki (School of Engineering)) | Understand processor hardware security. |
| Class 9 | Visualization of security information (Ken Wakita (School of Computing)) | Understand the techniques for visualization. |
| Class 10 | Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology and cybersecurity (Keisuke Tanaka (School of Computing)) | Understand the notion of cryptocurrency and blockchain. |
| Class 11 | Intrusion detection in cybersecurity (Hideki Koike (School of Computing)) | Understand the notion of intrusion detection. |
| Class 12 | Cyber physical security for supervisory control (Hideaki Ishii (School of Computing)) | Understand the notion of device security and network. |
| Class 13 | Intrusion-tolerant computer systems (Xavier Defago (School of Computing)) | Understand the notion of intrusion-tolerant computer systems. |
| Class 14 | Formal methods and secure computing (Takuo Watanabe (School of Computing)) | Understand the notion of formal methods and secure computing. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterward (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to course materials and references.
Textbook(s)
Textbooks will not be used in this course.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
References will be announced in each class.
Evaluation methods and criteria
The evaluation consists of the small exams solved in classes or as homework assignments. The weights of the scores of the small exams are equal. The total score is calculated by omitting the worst two scores.
Related courses
- XCO.T474 ： Theory of Cryptography for Cybersecurity
- XCO.T478 ： Cybersecurity Governance
- XCO.T475 ： Attack and Defense on Cybersecurity I
- XCO.T476 ： Attack and Defense on Cybersecurity II
- XCO.T477 ： Attack and Defense on Cybersecurity III
Prerequisites
None. However, knowledge of the basic notions of computer science can help students to understand the contents of the course smoothly.