Computer Science 530 - Homework 2 -- Fall 2006

Due: Friday 27 October 2006 - 11:59 PM

Instructions for submitting the homework appear at the end of the assignment.
  1. In this report you are asked to explain the difference between the protections provided to email using SSL (or TLS) versus the protections provided by PGP, S/MIME or GPG (note that this question is asking about two approaches to protecting email). Please answer the specific questions in answering.
    1. Who needs to have keys registered as associated with their identity?
    2. Where and for how long is the email protected, and what kinds of protections are applied (e.g., confidentiality, integrity?).
    3. What are the issues associated with managing the security, and in particular, which approach is more easily managed?
    4. Consider several different attacks against email security, and explain which approach is most suitable for protecting email against several different kinds of attacks.

TO SUBMIT HOMEWORK 2:

Go to the assignment section of den.usc.edu You will see the message below:
  1. Please submit your work by attaching your file in either ASCII TEXTFILE or MS WORD format. (Acrobat, ps and latex formats are NOT accepted!!! )
  2. To submit your work, goto "View/Complete Assignment: Assignment 1" Then, attach your file using "File To Attach". Then, you MUST click submit button, NOT Save button. (NOTE: Save button only stores your file in the server, and TA has no access to your homework).
  3. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR NAME AND STUDENT ID APPEARS ON YOUR SUBMITTED FILE.
  4. FYI, assignment URL is: http://ccss.usc.edu/530/fall06/06-asg2.html

TO VIEW COMMENTS FROM TA and GRADER

  1. Login in to DEN, and select csci530 course.
  2. Select "Tools" in the menu. Then, select "My Grades".
  3. In the "Assignment 1" row, select "0" under Grade column. (Assuming the instructor has entered your score as "0")