ICS0018 Course Guide
Aims of the Course
The course is primarily meant to the students of Cyber Security Engineering Bachelor's programme at Tallinn University of Technology to cover the more human-oriented aspects of cybersecurity. It is also offered to the students of partner universities under the aegis of EuroTEQ. In the 2025 Spring term it is on its third iteration (it has also been run once earlier, within the programme of the earlier independent IT College).
The main goal is to introduce social engineering (in the cybersecurity sense - the term has different meanings in other disciplines) or non-technical attacks targeting PIBKAC, or the "problem between the keyboard and the chair". The course uses the books by Christopher Hadnagy as its foundation, complementing them with writings of several other authors (see the course library) as well as the lecturer's own notes and experiences. As a mixture of technology, training/education, policy-making and some applied psychology (the list of main topics can be found at the front page, the course is relatively non-technical and can be handled without specific IT background (various experiences from the online world do help though).
According to the official learning outcomes of the course, the students will - know the essence of social engineering and its main forms and techniques; - recognize main social engineering attacks and react appropriately; - know main measures of prevention and mitigation (in technology, training and policy).
Tools / environments
In the Spring 2025 term, we will once again run the course in the e-learning mode (due to a number of distance participants from EuroTEQ). We will use the IT College wiki (where you are now) for documentation, and the University's MS Teams for contact sessions (lectures/discussions and seminars). At the beginning of the course, all participants should be added to the Social Engineering group at Teams (visiting students should be provided with the Uni-ID as well!).
There are some recommendations to help keep the online communication smooth - please see the university regulations page (section "Online learning good practice") as well as some of our own points here. The contact sessions will run according to the official schedule (see the timetable below).
Note: the university's Uni-ID works for both Teams and this wiki (wiki editing is needed to register yourself into the seminars, but e.g. suggestions to the course library are definitely appreciated!). If you need help with editing, please ask the lecturer.
How do we work
Lectures/discussions
The course will blend traditional lectures with MS Teams text chat discussions. In addition to the lecture-wide text chat, in each lecture there will be some (typically 2-4) ~5-6-minute discussion breaks when Kaido will display some points for discussion and join the chat by himself as well. The text chat will be open throughout the lecture (everyone can add comments and questions), but Kaido will only be able to respond during the discussion breaks.
As attendance also counts towards passing the course (5 out of 8 need to be attended; see the Grading section below), the best way to ensure that you get registered is to take active part in the discussion. :)
Lectures/discussions will run throughout the course (weekly, see the timetable).
Hands-on seminars
Unfortunately, this time we don't have Kristjan whose kingdom the practical tricks are - but Kaido will try to stand in for him. We will receive some practical tasks in social engineering and discuss the results at these seminars. Doing the tasks successfully will result in passing the course (if your attendance level is sufficient). Yet there is another way to pass as well (read on).
The hands-on seminars will be held in the second half of the course (4 in total, see the timetable below).
CotW seminars
The acronym stands for "Crook of the Week" - these seminars are meant for learning about some good historical examples of social engineering. At each of the four seminars, up to four students will present the rest of the crowd some infamous historical figures (so there will actually be even four CotW-s!). Each presentation (~15 minutes) will be followed by discussion of the person, his or her feats, methods etc. A successful presentation will result in passing the course (if your attendance level is sufficient), so this is an alternate way. NB! As there are only 16 slots for presentations, the faster applicants will get them - so if you want to do a CotW presentation, either register yourself on the CotW page here in the wiki, or let Kaido know ASAP!
Note: you need to attend 5 seminars out of 8 - whether it is 2+3, 4+1 etc (hands-on vs CotW) is up to you. Of course, you could in fact attend all of them too... :)
Grading
The course uses the pass/fail grading, so if you
- do the practical tasks at the hands-on seminars or
- do a CotW presentation, and
- attend at least 5 lectures/discussions and 5 seminars (regardless of type),
the 3 credit points will be yours.
Timetable
- Lectures/discussions: on Wednesdays 10:00-11:30 Tallinn time, from February 5 to March 26 (8 weeks)
- CotW seminars: on Tuesdays 10:00-11:30 Tallinn time, from March 4 to March 25 (4 weeks)
- Hands-on seminars: on Thursdays 12:00-13:30 Tallinn time, from March 6 to March 27 (4 weeks)
All these will take place online in MS Teams.
Final notes
A major point in the course is to try to learn together. The lecturer will learn with you. And should you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
