Protecting the digital ecosystem that surrounds us and plays a more and more essential part in our lives is a pressing need that modern society can no longer ignore. The discipline studying the tools and technology that can be used to this aim is usually, and rather vaguely, referred to as cybersecurity. Such a term broadly encompasses a wide and diverse set of techniques including classical cryptographic tools, security protocols for user authentication, end-to-end communication, network monitoring and protection, intrusion detection, malware recognition, authentication and protection of multimedia contents. 

In this framework, the goal of this course is to give an overview of some of the most common threats and security measures affecting end-to-end communications and networks. The first part of the course focuses on cryptography, since cryptographic tools are the main ingredient behind most security protocols and information protection systems. Then the course passes to review the main threats to cyber-systems and present the main classes of countermeasures security engineers can take to defend against the cyber-threats. 

The second part of the course consists of laboratory classes during which the concepts introduced in the first part are put at work in some specific settings. 

The third and last part of the course will adopt a different perspective and introduce the students to the problems related to the protection of multimedia contents, including methods for copyright protection, media authentication and covert communication by means of image steganography. We will also briefly touch upon the security issues related to the use of AI techniques in adversarial settings.