Good: got to play hands on with new stuff to me like breaking hashes, browsing tor network and so on.
Not so good: forcing homework to be published on a web site did not bring any additional value, caused unnecessary confusion and scared at least one person away from the course.
To improve: personally I prefer bit more structured implementation and more precise communication and schedules.
I was afraid, that could I follow the course since at first it seemed quite "technical" for me, but I am so happy that I participated. It was nice and useful to see everybody´s well prepared presentations, and different points of views participants brought to this course based on their individual interests and also challenge's they have met in real life.
— Aino Koukkunen, 2021-05-17I really liked Tero's hands-on approach during this course. This gives good basis for further studying blockchain and cryptography/Tor.
Highly recommended!
This course was very informative and required active participation which promoted learning. Now I know so much more about blockchain and other technologies that were completely new to me before this course. Thanks Tero!
— Kati R, 2021-05-17The topics were extremely interesting. I had very light knowledge on technologies such as Blockchain, digital signatures, breaking-hashes etc. This course gave me very good fundamental knowledge on how modern technologies are build.
It would be great if sharing screen could be improved. For example demoing breaking hashes, creating blockchain could easier to understand with seamless
Presentation from other students were also great. Learn from students from different background too.
Thank you very much for the course and i would definitely recommend friends/colleagues
At first, I was not sure where this course is going, what are the expectations from me and what kind of skills are needed.
However, I approached the exercises and each week so that I tried everything and was open to learn but was not discouraged if I could not finish all of those. I just kept going along.
I ended up learning a lot - I have prior knowledge of the concepts but had never used Bitcoin Explorer, PGP commands, hash functions, browsed in TOR network nor heard about Darknet Diaries. Even though it might sound weird combination of things or messy, I think I got great hands-on skills that I can use in the future and those will help me understanding the world of Cyber and the minds of attackers. I also liked that we did not try to cover everything related to ICT Security, but instead were focused on certain topics more deeply.
From the presentation "Forensic Analyses with Andrej" I also got a possible topic for my Thesis, so this was pretty nice addition to the course. Good combination of lectures and exercises as well as reading.
Good overview of a broad range of topics.
Tried many things for the first time, such as:
- breaking hashes
- using the TOR-network
- reading the bitcoin whitepaper
There are pros in keeping the schedule flexible, but it would be easier for the students to follow along if the schedule was more fixed.
Thanks for the course! I have learnt a lot of new things and try on hands many concepts which I heard but have not had time for it. I enhanced my knowledge about security and encryption, found new things in hashes. Got a good knowledge of blockchain. It was nice to try TOR and browse there just out of curiosity. In my opinion, flipped classroom approach can improve the course, I would prefer to make assignments before the lecture and then go through them in class.
I really liked this course - it was full of interesting information and at times challenging tasks.
My suggestion for the course development would be to spend less time going through homework, since we all spend time doing it. Instead, I would rather have more time for the new information.
Additionally, I think it would be great to have a small pre-assignment to prepare for a new subject, so students would be already more or less familiar with what they are going to learn and, perhaps, have time to prepare some questions.
Overall, it is a great course and definitely worth taking.
The world of blockchain was quite unknown for me. This course opened up the basics and how the world of cryptocurrency uses Blockchain technologies.
Learnt about hashes, TOR, cracking the hashes and the hands-on experience gave a different level of understanding.
As an improvement area, probably couple of group lessons would have opened up the topics further.
I recommend the course for all the Haaga-Helia Masters students who are trying to solve practical issues in the industry.