EUIST

As every medical student discovers, biology plays an important part in his or her education and for some, specialization requires work going into virology, namely the study of viruses and viral diseases.

When virology entered computer science programs in North America in 2003, the anti-virus industry was not amused. At that time, the University of Calgary (U of C) launched a course for 4^th year computing science majors. Admission was restricted to computer science majors that had to meet various course pre-requisites to apply for

CPSC 527 – Computer Viruses and Malware (was CPSC 599.48)

The U of C press release described the course in Summer 2003 (taught first time in Fall 2003) as:

“Once again, the University of Calgary’s department of computer science explores new territory as it becomes the first institution in Canada to offer a course in computer viruses and malware as part of its undergraduate program. This course is unique – along with covering legal, ethical and computer security issues, it will focus on developing malicious software, such as computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses, that are known to wreak havoc to the tune of billions of dollars worldwide on an annual basis.”

The U of C announcement in summer 2003 created a stir in anti-virus vendor circles at the time. Several vendors chose to misquote material and get excited about nothing spectacular. In fact, the teaching objectives in this course are very much in line, with what one would expect from an advanced undergraduate course for computer science majors (Aycock, J., & Barker, K. (2005). Viruses 101. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 37(1), 152-155)).

In France, however, one would be surprised to hear such a fuss made bout the U of C’s course regarding viruses and it was followed with an anti-spam course about a year later. Most computing science programs in France offer a so-called virology course and students are selected very carefully since the courses do not intend to promote computer virology at all. A typical syllabus might look as follows:

- Mathematical foundations of computer virology

- Algorithmic aspects of computer virology

- The problem of detection (mathematical and algorithmic approach)

- Technical analysis of the different classes of malware.

- Advanced computer virology:

Polymorphism/metamorphism: a theoretical analysis
Stealth: a information-theoretic approach
Armored malware and obfuscation

- Legal and ethics – Practical work and experiments

See also IN421 : Cryptologie opérationnelle et Virologie Informatique