Studiegids

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Security and Technology

Vak
2017-2018

Admission requirements

This course is part of the minor Security, Safety and Justice, taught at TU Delft by a lecturer from TU Delft. The course can only be taken within the framework of participation in the minor SSJ.

Description

Our current society is intrinsically linked with and dependent on technology. Safety and security threats are often associated with these technologies, such as earthquakes associated with gas extraction, the dangers of nuclear waste, drones, self-driving cars, or cybercrime on the internet. This causes society to be constantly exposed to “risk”. Often, the risk level only becomes known after the technologies have been deployed and undesired events occur. Contrary to relatively well-understood risk in organisations, the introduction of new technologies in society may imply uncertain and ambiguous safety and security risk, and may give rise to heavy political debate.

In this course, you will learn to use the technology assessment framework to identify possible safety and security threats associated with new technologies, and provide suggestions for responsible design and deployment. In addition, you will learn to investigate side-effects of technologies aimed specifically at increasing security or safety, such as surveillance technologies and their effects on privacy. The main focus of the course will be on security issues in cyberspace, but we will also discuss other cases such as nuclear safety/security and drones. You work with a group on a technology assessment report for your own case.

Course objectives

After this course, you are able to:

  • Explain the goals and methods of technology assessment

  • Describe safety and security implications of different technologies

  • Analyse possible safety and security implications of a new technology

  • Provide suggestions for responsible design and deployment of a new technology with respect to safety and security

  • Critically evaluate technologies proposed with the purpose of improving safety and/or security

  • Write a technology assessment report in a team

Timetable

To be announced

Mode of instruction

Lectures (mandatory)
Group discussions
Writing a report in groups

Course Load

Total work load: 140 hours
Lectures: 21 hours
Self study: 119 hours

Assessment method

  • Students are expected to actively participate in class.

  • The grade is based on a technology assessment report / paper written in groups (100%). Individual contributions should be listed in an appendix. Problems with group cooperation should be reported and will be taken into account if necessary.

  • Participation in lectures, discussions and exercises is required in order to obtain a grade. Student presence and participation is required and all assignments/exercises have to be fulfilled. One lecture can be missed. If a second lecture is missed, an assignment will be given to compensate. If a third lecture is missed, a passing grade can no longer be obtained, unless permission is granted from the Board of Examiners (with consent of the lecturer).

  • A resit in block 3 consists of rewriting the paper (at least 50% new text).

Blackboard

Lecturer uses Blackboard
Blackboard will be made available one week before the start of classes

Reading list

Will be made available via Blackboard.

Registration

To be announced

Contact

Dr. ir. Wolter Pieters
Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management
Values, Technology & Innovation
Safety & Security Science
Room: b2.240 (building 31 TU Delft)
+31 15 27 88989
w.pieters@tudelft.nl

Remarks

All sessions will be in English.
The paper needs to be written in English.
Lectures take place at TU Delft and are mandatory. You can miss one of the lectures without consequences (see also: assessment) , as long as you comply with the other requirements.