I think this is actually a pretty nice course, but I strongly recommend not taking it alongside many other heavy courses, it’s demanding. If you’re into cybersecurity, this course is almost a must. If you’re not honestly, stay away.

Theoretical Classes

Honestly, I don’t think the theoretical classes are that important. There were two professors: Professor Ricardo Chaves was okay, nothing special. He mostly focused on cryptography and other topics and then Professor Miguel Correia focused more on the networking side, but was kind of left in the background. The main issue with Professor...

The course's teachings are interesting but the lab classes leave something to be desired and some concepts can be very confusing and not explained in the best way during the theory classes.

O conteúdo desta cadeira é mega interessante e parece bastante essencial na area de segurança (kinda parece que devia ser de licenciatura, se não fosse tão trabalhosa). Acaba por ser bastante útil, recomendo 👌.

Teóricas

Slides ok, kinda antigos mas relativamente bem organizados. Aulas com o David Rogério Póvoa de Matos eram um pouco mais monótonas e difíceis de ouvir. No caso do Ricardo Chaves, era mais intenso, chamava mais alunos a responder a perguntas e fazia muitas boas analogias. Cada um deu parte das aulas teóricas. Se eventualmente organizares o grande conteúdo dos...

Cadeira muito importante para a área de segurança. Aprende-se coisas que qualquer engenheiro informático devia saber sobre segurança. O projeto é bastante puxado e complexo, preparem-se para entregar umas boas semanas das vossas vidas, e o pior é que calha em cima da altura do natal. Mas depois de feito vale a pena. O chato do exame são as escolhas múltiplas a descontar. Duro de fazer, mas acho que vale a pena pelo conhecimento que se ganha.

SIRS is one of the most important courses in the degree, and in my opinion, it should've been placed in the final year of the undergraduate program. The course is a bit demanding, but I think it's worth the effort.

Project

This year, there were 4 project topics to choose from:

• Banking app
• Tripadvisor-like app
• Spotify-like app
• Medical records system

The goal was to implement these systems using cryptographic primitives to ensure security properties (authenticity, integrity, non-repudiation, etc).

The only annoying part is that we had to build the project from scratch, which...

One of the most 'realistic' courses I’ve taken.

Project

It had one of the most interesting projects I’ve done, but it was a lot of work: We had 3 weeks to complete it, and the assignment said it was expected that each group member would put in 48 hours per week. Depending on your topic choice, the project can be more or less extensive.

The project discussion is a presentation where the professors will try to tear apart everything you say and every decision you made. Your project grade depends on how well you handle that and how well you understand what your system does and doesn’t...

I'd say SIRS is one of the most important courses in the master's, since it teaches all the fundamentals of security. But it is still one of the harder ones.

The professors teach well, and the material is overall interesting. The tests are usually difficult, but that’s normal given what the course is about.

Project

The project is quite cool because you can pick from a set of predefined topics, but it's also one of the most complex and time-consuming.

Professors list a bunch of topics and you rank them by preference. Then you are assigned to one of them and have to...