Hi everyone,
Welcome to CITS3007 "Secure Coding". I'm your Unit Coordinator, Arran Stewart.
I'll be teaching the unit with the help of our facilitators, Carl, Nicodemus, and Santiago.
The first lecture of the unit is on Wednesday 28 February, at 12 noon in the Weatherburn Lecture Theatre (Maths Building, room G.40) – see the unit website for more details.
Note that lab sessions do not commence until week two – the only thing you need to attend in week 1 is the lecture.
The material for the unit isn't delivered using the Blackboard LMS. Instead, teaching materials are available from the unit website, at
https://cits3007.github.io/
I'll be discussing the unit structure in more detail in the first lecture.
Textbooks
There is no one textbook that covers all the unit topics, but the unit schedule lists recommended readings on various topics – I'll make some suggestions about getting access to these in the first lecture.
What you do need is access to a good C textbook. C is a fairly small language, but some of the details relating to security are subtle. The textbooks recommended for CITS2002 Systems Programming will all be suitable. I like Robert Seacord's Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming (No Starch Press, 2020), but you should pick a textbook that you feel comfortable with.
An operating systems textbook will also be helpful. Again, the textbooks recommended for CITS2002 Systems Programming will all be suitable – alternatively, I have some recommendations here.
Weekly teaching activities
Details of the weekly teaching activities are listed on the
unit website, but to recap:
-
Lectures. There's a 1 hour, 50 minute face-to-face lecture each week.
Echo360 recordings should normally be available within 2 hours of each lecture
finishing.
I recommend taking a look at the recommended reading for lectures before you come along, so that you can ask (and answer) questions about the topics covered.
-
Labs. From week 2, there'll normally be a lab sheet of practice exercises
to attempt each week. There'll be several "standard exercises", and potentially
some more difficult "challenge exercises" (which are there as a challenge for
students who already have some familiarity with secure coding – not everybody
is expected to attempt them).
Sample solutions to the standard exercises will be provided the following week.
If you can successfully complete the standard exercises, then that's a good sign you're keeping
up with the unit material.
-
Moodle exercises. Periodically, I'll post (unassessed) exercises on the school's Moodle server. You can complete these in your own time, and they will help you improve your understanding of secure coding concepts. (All assessments will be completed using the Moodle server, too.) More information about these will be available in the first lab.
Assessment
Dates and details for the assessments are on the
unit website, but to summarize:
the unit is assessed through an online quiz, a mid-semester test, a
practical project and a final exam.
All assessments are to be undertaken individually.
Announcements
All unit announcements will be made here on the help3007 forum, and
we will assume you are checking this forum regularly (at least once a week).
You can subscribe to email announcements of what has been posted on the forum –
see here for details.
Emergency announcements (e.g. sudden timetable or venue changes) will also get
sent out via email using the UWA Blackboard LMS.
Getting Help
If you have questions, please feel free to post here in the help3007
forum. Also, feel free to answer other students' questions if you
know the answer.
If you require personal communication with the unit coordinator, please use
the details listed on the unit
website.
Best wishes for your study this semester,
Arran
---
Arran Stewart
CITS3007 Unit Coordinator
