Integrate information security with internetworking

This paper presents a nontraditional approach to incorporate the concept of information security with the course entitled 'Internetworking with TCP/IP'. Traditionally, the internetworking course mainly concentrated on the interconnection of homogeneous and heterogeneous machines. Very little attention was focused on information security issues. After the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, information security suddenly came under the spotlight. To raise the awareness of students on information security, the internetworking course was modified. For example, a Cyber Defense/Attack Lab was established; the pedagogical approach was modified to add a Cyber War as part of the course activities. In this paper, the general concept of an integrated curriculum is introduced first. Then the course content is described in detail followed by the hands-on labs. The layout of the Cyber Lab and some tools used by students to hack computer systems are discussed. Finally, the experiences learned are described.