#386 overall
6.857 Network and Computer Security
MIT OpenCourseWare
1 recommender · 1 thread · recommended in 1 year, 2012 · score 1.4
A graduate-level MIT course taught by Ron Rivest covering network and computer security, from cryptography (AES) and secure voting to firewalls, buffer overflows, SQL injection, and physical security. Assignments are hands-on programming problems and puzzles, and students finish with a research project.
Commenters call it probably the best class they've taken and say it is very hands-on, teaching students to build more secure systems.
Science & Engineeringintermediatefreevideo lectures#network security#cryptography#computer security#buffer overflow#rivest
Recommendations by year
20062026
I audited this class (just showed up on the first day of class, not an MIT student, not registered). This class is probably the best class I've ever taken. I went from knowing a little about cryptography and computer security to doing novel computer science research (as one of the problem sets I broke a SHA3 candidate http://ethanheilman.tumblr.com/post/16944272296/shash ).
It isn't particularity "heavy and hard into cryptography", but it is very hands-on with many programming problem sets and puzzles to solve. It covers security from AES to secure voting to firewalls to buffer overflows to sql injection to physical security. This class will teach you to build more secure systems.
To get a good idea of what the class is like check out the lecture list. http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2012/handouts
At the end of the course students present research projects. They are almost always worth taking a look at because they tend to be highly creative and fun (the MBTA "T" hacking talk at Defcon was originally a project for this class): http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2010/pitches.html
This class is excellent and Ron Rivest is very friendly and very approachable. If you have a chance I would recommend taking it (or watching it online). If you have a background in programming you can take this course.
They are excellent courses if your primary interest is elec engineering. 6.004 is prob the best course I took, all the lectures are online and course material from 2012. Of course you are missing recitation for many courses and TA access though. The assignments for 6.857 and lecture notes are really good for self learning too. As for a job you would have to prove your skills with a portfolio which is a repository of code you've done and develop for some open source project you are interested in. You might find job offers come to you by being helpful on their dev mailing list and somebody notices.