Teaching Spam and Spyware at the University of C@1g4ry

The University of Calgary is attacking the problems of spam and spyware from the angle of education. “Spam and Spyware” is a computer science course offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level, that objectively examines the legal, ethical, and technical aspects of spam and spyware and their countermeasures. We believe that this is the only course of its kind in the world. Furthermore, students are given hands-on experience in a secure laboratory, developing software for spamming, spyware, and defenses against them. This paper documents our course and its rationale.