SLOP4979: Side Channels: What Machines Say Without Meaning To
A semester on what computers reveal about themselves without meaning to: the sound, current, heat, timing and light a machine leaks while it works, and what a defender does once they've noticed. No electronics or cryptography background assumed; the course builds what it needs as it goes.
What you will do
Seven channels, one a week: acoustic, electrical, timing, electromagnetic, cache, optical, thermal. Each week you read the disclosure that established the channel is real, then work with a captured trace, a decay curve, a threat model or a piece of code written to leak (or not to). The remaining weeks turn that list into something usable — a rubric that scores the channels, a discipline for closing one, and a design review: given a device and an adversary, say which channels apply, in what order, and what closing each one actually costs.
Who it is for
Anyone who wants to know what a machine reveals about its computation without being asked. No electronics or cryptography background is assumed — the course builds the arithmetic and circuitry it needs as each channel requires it. What it does assume is patience for a slow, cumulative argument: each week only makes sense against the ones before it.