FCS News

Originally shared in the Fall 2013 CS Magazine.

Dr. Nur Zincir-Heywood has been teaching the graduate level course Network Design and Management CSCI 6706 for several years. Back in 2005, she had the idea that students might learn more by participating in an active environment where they could put their knowledge into action. So she challenged them to a friendly game and divided the students into two competing teams – the red team would attack and the blue team would defend.

If the red team could succeed in infiltrating the network of the blue team and either crash the blue team’s computer, or install their own user account on the blue team’s computer then the red team would win. If the blue team could prevent this, then they would win.

This proved to be very motivating – not only were students learning about the strengths and vulnerabilities of networks, but they were exercising creativity in devising new attacks or defences while learning about the hardware and software that they were using. Soon the undergraduates in one of her other courses (CSCI 3171 Computer Networking) heard about the game and wanted in. So, part way through the game, a mystery third team appeared. This team could attack any of the first two teams. In that first year, the undergrads won the game by a clever spoof email which coaxed passwords out of some of their older opponents. Fast forward to 2013 and the game has become an important teaching tool and an established part of the course. By this time, however, it had become apparent that a dedicated space was needed if the competitors were to be able to compete without disrupting the studies of other students. Up-to-date equipment was also needed to enable students to understand the strengths and weaknesses of today’s networks.

The Dean of Computer Science approached Cisco, one of the world’s leading companies in networking technologies and presented them with the problem. Instantly recognizing the importance and value of the Network Design and Management course, Cisco graciously contributed a range of equipment and technologies towards the new Cisco Network Security Lab at Dalhousie. With new routers, switches, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention systems, network management software and virus checkers, Cisco met and exceeded Dr. Zincir-Heywood’s wish list.

The equipment from Cisco has now arrived in Halifax. There will be an extensive installation period but we hope to have the lab up and running by Autumn 2014. As well as being used for the competitive games in the Network Design and Management course it will be an important tool for both research and education. The lab is open to anyone doing research in this field or teaching courses in networking. Dr. Srinivas Sampalli is another faculty member who is looking forward to using the new lab.

Thanks to the generous contribution from Cisco our students will have access to a unique environment in which they can learn with the most up-to-date tools. They will be motivated to think practically and creatively about security issues and they will form the next generation of people who will build the secure systems of the future.