Utilizing the Common Criteria for Advanced Student Research Projects

Abstract

In most computer science graduate programs, students must complete an advanced research project that demonstrates the students technical competence in both the theory and practice of the field. Information security is a specialization area of computer science whose research results have direct benefits to real world problems. The Common Criteria (CC) is an international standard for security evaluation of products. This paper describes the utilization of the CC paradigmatic framework for advanced student research projects focused on security engineering. Three CC-based efforts of varying levels of difficulty are presented and the suitability and benefits of applying the CC in this context are discussed.