Course Schedule

This course is a practical and practitioner’s introduction to cybersecurity and how Governments have tried to respond to cyber threats, risks and harms. It covers structural insecurities in the Internet, the main threat actors (both state and criminal), and the nature and method of harms in cyber space. It then covers how Governments have attempted, with varying success, to develop policies and frameworks to deal with emerging cyber threats. This covers both the domestic response: improving security of Government networks and regulating and/or incentivising the private sector, and the international response, covering attempts to develop strategies to deter and punish hostile state action as well as the pursuit of globally accepted norms. It is led by a former senior practitioner who set up and then led the National Cyber Security Centre in the United Kingdom.

This course will provide a glimpse into the fascinating but complicated realm of jurisdiction over criminal cases in "Indian Country." The course begins by providing an historical context from colonial times to passage of the Major Crimes Act of 1885. Then we consider the Code of Indian Offenses and other developments up to passage of Public Law 280 in 1953. With that background, the course explores recent developments including the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in McGirt v. Oklahoma, 591 U.S. 894 (2020), and Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, 597 U.S. 629 (2022), as well as the practical impact of enhancements to Indian Tribal Court criminal jurisdiction provided by amendments to the Violence Against Women Act.

This course will consider recent developments in federal Indian law, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Haaland v. Brackeen and McGirt v. Oklahoma, and the ongoing litigation in Apache Stronghold v. USA through the lens of selected treaties, Acts of Congress, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions from 1763 to the present.

This course will introduce the technical aspects of computer network security and how organizations plan for and respond to cyberattacks. We will also discuss the basics of digital forensic technology. Though this course is intended to be a continuation of Technology of Cybersecurity, motivated students with even a rudimentary understanding of programming are welcome. The course is designed for graduate students in law, public affairs, and other non-technical disciplines. We will explore topics like denial of service attacks, intrusion detection, digital forensics, reverse engineering, mobile security, side-channel attacks, machine learning, VPNs, TOR, and The Dark Web.

Note that this course does not address legal or policy questions, as those are the subject of the separate Cybersecurity Foundations course taught by Professor Chesney. Both courses are part of the larger Strauss Center program promoting cross-disciplinary training related to cybersecurity across the graduate school community at UT.

The term “dignitary torts” is sometimes used to encompass defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and perhaps also certain instances of battery, assault, and false imprisonment. The label is meant to reflect that in these areas tort law protects not only against more concrete forms of injury and loss, but also against various infringements of individual dignity simply as such.

This course will be organized around two objectives. The first is to acquire a deeper understanding of the doctrinal structure and current state of development of the dignitary torts, with particular attention to defamation and invasion of privacy.

The second objective is to consider a puzzle posed by Kenneth Abraham and Edward White, who have observed: “The absence of a robustly-articulated conception of the interest in dignity that tort law protects is puzzling. Why have notions of dignity and dignitary torts been little more than labels, reflecting a value that has gone unanalyzed and undebated, despite its obvious and growing importance?” We will investigate the nature of the interest in dignity that tort law purportedly protects, and consider whether the concept of dignity is suited to serve as a point of reference for understanding the “dignitary torts” and guiding their future development.