Final State Exam Questions – N-PSKB_A Computer Systems, Communication, and Security

Common Compulsory Courses

  1. Principles of symmetric block cipher algorithms (Feistel ciphers, DES, AES) and asymmetric algorithms (RSA, Diffie-Hellman, DSA/ElGamal). Factorization and primality testing. Principles of hash function construction. Elliptic curve cryptosystems. (IA174, PV079)
  2. Application of symmetric block cipher algorithms – integrity and confidentiality, modes of operation. Application of other symmetric algorithms. Application of hash functions, MAC. Hybrid cryptosystems. (IA174, PV079)
  3. Computer networks. Network models and their layers, their functionality, interaction, standardization. Protocols at network layer, IPv4 features, advanced IPv6 features, address space. Routing: routers and their architecture, routing algorithms, families of routing algorithms, multicast routing, MPLS, TE. Transport protocols: UDP, properties of TCP and its variants, transport protocols for high-speed networks. (PA191)
  4. Descriptive statistics (measures of location and spread, order statistics, statistics of association, related figures). Discrete and continuous random variables (RV). Random sampling. Parametric probabilistic models (distributions) of RV. Central limit theorem. Likelihood principle, point and interval estimates. Statistical inference – hypotheses testing, significance level, confidence coefficient. Testing of hypotheses in one sample, two samples, more than two samples (including one sample, two sample and paired t-tests, ANOVA and post-hoc tests), goodness-of-fit tests. Linear regression model. (MV013)

Specialization - Hardware systems

  1. Combinational circuit design methods. Analyses combinational circuit assignments, minimization methods, and optimization based on maximizing the working frequency, based on minimizing the number of logics, or based on testability. Sequential circuit design methods. Forms and analyses assignments and design procedures of sequential circuits. Typical disturbances affect the proper operation of digital circuits. (PA174)
  2. Safety and dependability of embedded systems. Modelling digital systems reliability, structure redundancy, control, and digital systems reliability. Design fault tolerant systems, check and test digital systems, simulation, and design methodologies for digital circuits design. (PA175)
  3. Basic design blocks of embedded systems - processor (CPU), direct access to DMA memory, interrupt systems (IS), input and output subsystems (I / O), internal and external support circuits (UART, SPI, I2C), analogue-to-digital converters (ADC) and digital to analogue converters (DAC), timers and counters, width modulation (PWM), power management, memory. (PA176)
  4. Typical hardware of FPGA - embedded multipliers, PPC, ROM, RAM, PLL, NIOS, IP COREs and other modules. Implementation, simulation, testing and debugging of basic modules. Modelling of digital systems and digital circuits. (PA176)
  5. Analogue to digital converter (ADC) and digital to analogue converter (DAC), the spectrum of a signal, time sampling and amplitude quantization of a signal, discrete Fourier transform - DFT, fast Fourier transform - FFT, parametric and nonparametric spectral estimation in use, using DSP in audio and other application. (PA190)

Specialization - Software systems

  1. Software Engineering. SW development process. Unified Process (UP). Agile development. Testing phases and types of tests. Software metrics, refactoring. Effort estimation. Software maintenance and reusability. Software quality. (PA017)
  2. Object-oriented methods for design of information systems. Design patterns. Software architectures. Component interface and semantic constraints on object-oriented models, OCL. Component systems and models, qualitative aspects of services (QoS). Object-oriented methods for software development, RUP. (PA103)
  3. Enterprise software architectural styles. Principles of software enterprise development. Software dependency management. Enterprise patterns (e.g., Dependency Injection, Inversion of Control). Object-relational mapping (ORM). Testing enterprise software systems. Security. Observability. Continuous integration and deployment. Messaging systems. (PA165)
  4. Databases. Relational database management systems, terminology, principles. Data representation and storage. Query processing and optimization, statistics, table partitioning. Indexing and hashing, multi-attribute indexing. Transaction processing, recovery. Security, access control, SQL attacks. (PA152)

Specialization - Information security

  1. Audit, security management, risk management, threat countermeasures. Security evaluation, evaluation criteria and processes. Standards in IT security and cryptography, legislation related to cryptology. Digital signature – constructions, legislation, public key management, certification authorities and public-key infrastructures. Authentication of users in computer systems – secret information, tokens, biometrics. Identification systems and identity management. (PA018)
  2. Attacks on cryptographic systems and protocols. Use of hardware for protection of sensitive/cryptographic data and their operations. Smartcards and their role as a security mechanism. (PA018, PV079, PV204)
  3. Basics of coding theory, Shannon's theorem. Entropy. Generation of truly- and pseudo-random sequences. Cryptographic protocols, methods of key establishment, zero-knowledge protocols. Quantum cryptography. (IV054, PV079)
  4. Probability. Definition of probability space. Random variable, definition and applications, Markov and Chebyshev inequalities. Random processes, Markov chains (DTMC and CTMC), invariant distributions, ergodic theorem for DTMC. Information theory (entropy, mutual information), coding theory (Kraft and McMillan theorem, Huffman coding, noisy-channel coding theorem). (IV111)

Specialization - Computer networks and communications

  1. Graphs and graph algorithms. Formalization of basic graph concepts, graph representation. Connected and disconnected graphs, isomorphism, colouring, planar graphs. Algorithms (including complexity): depths-first and breads-first graph search, shortest path problem, minimum spanning tree, flows in graphs. (MA010)
  2. Distributed systems. Synchronous and asynchronous systems, consensus problem, crash and Byzantine failures, consensus protocols. Parallel and distributed computers, basic principles, superscalar and streaming (GPU) processors, interconnection networks and their structure. Memory, cache coherence. Basic principles of efficient programming in parallel and distributed environments, task decomposition. (PA039, PA053, PA160)
  3. Security, authentication and authorization. User authentication in computer and networked (distributed) systems. IPsec protocol and its features. Key distribution problem and its solutions. PKI and CA, strength and weaknesses. Wireless network security, basic protocols WEP, WPA, 802.1x. General security in the Internet. Authorization, principles, relationship between authentication and authorization. Security policies, security control. (PA160, PV234)
  4. Multimedia and collaborative environments. Multimedia technologies. Input/output multimedia devices, analogue/digital conversion and its principles. Collaborative environments, audio/video interaction between humans, content sharing. Audio and video distribution, multicast, security problems of multimedia transfers. Videoconferences, principles and tools. (PV188)