Future of Cybersecurity Reading Group (FCRG)

Info 290 Section 004 (Course no. 46669)
Mondays, 12:40–1:30pm
South Hall Room 205
Lunch provided by CLTC (come at 12:30 for lunch)

Law students: please note that Berkeley Law starts classes on Monday, August 21, but campus starts Wednesday the 23rd. Our first class will be on Monday, August 28th. We will make up the missed class.

Instructors: Betsy Cooper, Executive Director, Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity & Chris Jay Hoofnagle, Adjunct Professor of Information and Law

This one-credit reading group, sponsored by the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, will discuss contemporary cybersecurity policy problems. The seminar will focus on future trends in technology, as well as the economy and politics, and how those are affecting cybersecurity policy. Topics may include encryption, autonomous vehicles, and the ethics of artificial intelligence.

Assessment

Students are required to attend weekly 50-minute sessions, lead paper discussions (50%), and write two short response pieces (2-3 pages) to be circulated in advance of class (50%). We will circulate a sign up sheet for discussion leadership duties; you will circulate your response piece in advance of class on the discussion board. Here is a good template to use for your assignments.

For your response pieces, you have several options. Although you may summarize a reading, your response piece should be more than that. You could analyze a major theme or problem in the readings and tie it to challenges in cybersecurity generally. Or perhaps you could show the linkages among multiple themes/readings in the course. The best response pieces integrate themes of the course, raise high-level discussion questions, and/or present original arguments and the limitations of those arguments.  

APM-015 Part II statement

This course will deal with material concerning current events and exploration of government actions and their possible consequences. Class discussion will feature such material.

BCLT Certificate

Law students: Hoofnagle's courses count toward's BCLT's certificate program.

Course Materials

Please purchase:

• P.W. Singer, Allan Friedman, Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2014) 978-0199918119
• Cliff Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage (this book originally published in 1990--that version or a reprint is sufficient).

In addition to these books, we will read academic articles and policy papers. Some readings will be behind paywalls. In order to get the readings at no cost, you will have to use the Berkeley Library VPN or the Library Proxy. These tools enable you to obtain all UCB-subscribed journals and books from your home computer. If you have problems, see your helpdesk. 

Readings