Class Time: MON 6-9pm @ Westgate E202
Instructor: Dongwon Lee (dul13)
Office Hour: MON 4-6pm @ https://psu.zoom.us/j/6076950926
TA: Tracy Shen (jqs5443)
Office Hour: FRI 1-3pm @ https://psu.zoom.us/j/92128812886
As computer systems and information technologies rapidly advance, various abusive and fraudulent activities in cyber world proliferate as well. The examples of frauds include spam emails, malicious virus, junk conferences/journals, fake online reviews, manipulated Like preferences, fake news, and virtual phone numbers. As these fraudulent activities seriously undermine the eco-system of entire information systems and society, it is critically important for students to be aware of popular online frauds in cyber world, and possible solutions toward the frauds.
In this course, therefore, we select representative examples of modern frauds in cyber world of significant importance, understand the backbone technologies behind those frauds, and study various computational and data-driven solutions, especially Machine Learning based ones, toward the detection or prevention of such frauds. Compared to regular security classes, this class focus more on the intersection of data science and security—the so-called "data-enabled" or "data-intensive" security issues.
Following topics will be discussed:
Information Frauds and Fakes
Clickbaits
Fake News and Mis/Disinformation
Social Media Frauds and Fakes
False Identities
Fake Reviews and LIKEs
Social Engineering Frauds and Fakes
Phishing
Spam
Neural Frauds and Fakes
Deepfakes
Neural Text Generation
Reverse Turing Test
Security Frauds and Fakes
Malware
Network Intrusion
As the course covers a variety of real "fraud" cases and their detection/prevention solutions using data analytics techniques, following two skills will be useful in this course:
Please note that while we will review basic data science skills (to the extent needed for this course) in the beginning, we will NOT be able to teach students a programming language.
Throughout the semester, students need to READ a lot of articles on frauds and fakes, digest the methods used therein, understand the findings and implications, and write/present reviews.
There is a NO required textbook for this course and materials will be mostly drawn from recent research literature, news articles, and social media.
Attendance & Participation: 5%
Presentation: 10%
Homework and Lab: 15% 25%
Project #1 (Individual or Team-of-2): 25%
Project #2 (Individual or Team-of-2): 25%
Final Exam: 20%
Students can submit late with the penalty of 25% deduction for every 12 hours late (up to 2 days)
After 2 days, no more late submission is allowed
Penn State University requires everyone to wear a face mask in all university buildings, including classrooms, regardless of vaccination status. ALL STUDENTS MUST wear a mask appropriately (i.e., covering both your mouth and nose) while you are indoors on campus. This is to protect your health and safety as well as the health and safety of your classmates, instructor, and the university community. Anyone attending class without a mask will be asked to put one on or leave. Instructors may end class if anyone present refuses to appropriately wear a mask for the duration of class. Students who refuse to wear masks appropriately may face disciplinary action for Code of Conduct violations. If you feel you cannot wear a mask during class, please speak with your adviser immediately about your options for altering your schedule.
According to the Penn State Principles and University Code of Conduct: Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at Penn State University, allowing the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest, and responsible manner. In according with the University’s Code of Conduct, you must not engage in or tolerate academic dishonesty. This includes, but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person, or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Any violation of academic integrity will be investigated, and where warranted, punitive action will be taken. For every incident when a penalty of any kind is assessed, a report must be filed.
Plagiarism (Cheating): Talking over your ideas and getting comments on your writing from friends are NOT examples of plagiarism. Taking someone else's words (published or not) and calling them your own IS plagiarism. Plagiarism has dire consequences, including flunking the paper in question, flunking the course, and university disciplinary action, depending on the circumstances of the office. The simplest way to avoid plagiarism is to document the sources of your information carefully.
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In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation: See documentation guidelines (http://equity.psu.edu/sdr/guidelines). If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.