CS 393 - Computer Forensics, Spring 2003
MWF 3:30 - 4:30 in Chapman 104

Announcements:

05/13 The results of the final exam and the final grades are available in pdf.

Student Presentations:

The presentations and writeups will be made available (in pdf form) after I receive them. These are copyrighted by the authors and are made available for the benefit of the class. Please respect this (and all) copyrights. If you wish to distribute or use any of these for another purpose, please contact the author(s) and ask permission.

DateTopic StudentsPDFs of presentation/writeup
3/26ECPA Hack, Lazarus Pres 1 Pres 2 Report 1 Report 2
3/26PATRIOT Act Keller, Kloepfer, Rushing Presentation Report
3/28PATRIOT - LEO Ma, Robinson, Skoog Presentation Report
3/28PATRIOT - Privacy Flora, Livengood, Mace Report 1
3/31DMCA Crewdson, Emerson, Migdal Presentation Report
4/02RIAA proposed amendment Duffy, Hazlett, Wolfe Presentation
4/02UA Policy Critique Brewster, Johnson, Kugler Presentation Report
4/04DMS Incident Response Barnes, Lawson, Michel Report
4/04PATRIOT II Perkins, Smith Presentation Report
4/07Legal Case Studies Cleary, Johnston, Mattie, Reiter, Webb
TBDElectronic Voting Williams

Articles/Links:

04/03 - The Legal Information Institute (Cornell Law School) has a searchable form of the U.S. Code online.
03/29 - SecurityFocus: Windows Forensics: A Case Study, Part Two (cached pdf)
03/29 - SecurityFocus: Windows Forensics: A Case Study, Part One (cached pdf)
02/26 - Salon.com: Hacking Democracy (cached pdf)
02/26 - CNET: Fingerprinting: P2P Pirates (cached pdf)
02/17 - SecurityFocus: Forensics on the Windows Platform, Part Two (cached pdf)
02/17 - SecurityFocus: Forensics on the Windows Platform, Part One (cached pdf)
01/27 - WIRED: RIAA Wants To Hack Your PC (cached pdf)
01/29 - FindLaw: New Monitoring Law Concerns Librarians (USA Patriot Act) (cached pdf)
01/27 - MSNBC: Senate limits Pentagon 'data-mining' (cached pdf)
01/24 - MSNBC: Profiling the Hackers (cached pdf)
01/24 - IEEE: High-tech Sleuthing: Following Digital Trails (cached pdf)

Course Materials:

02/25 - Smashing The Stack (text)
02/25 - 4.3 Password Flaw (text)
02/25 - Unix Password Security
02/25 - Password Security: A Case History (pdf)
02/21 - The Unix Filesystem
02/03 - DARPA statement on TIA (pdf)
01/31 - Class Schedule
01/29 - Regents' Policy on Information Resources
01/29 - University Regulation 02.07.01
01/29 - UAF Computing Policy
01/17 - Syllabus

Old Announcements:

05/02 The final exam is due on Friday May 9 by 5:00pm.
04/30 The final exam will be posted on Friday May 2 and will be due on Friday May 9 at 5pm.
04/14 HW #6 due Mon Apr 21 by 5pm. Research the "next-generation secure computing base for Windows" project by Microsoft. This was formerly known as "Palladium". Turn in a 2-3 page report that contains a summary of this project, the goals (stated and unstated), how this would help/hurt computer forensics, and any holes you can find (hint in my answer to the last mid-term question). As always, document where you find your information and include your assessment of its validity. (20 points)
03/25 The answers for the mid-term exam is available in MS Word or in PDF formats.
04/03 The dates for the presentations have been updated. Please let me know asap if there is any problem with a rescheduled time.
03/29 HW#5 summaries are available (in PDF) for Windows platforms, Linux platforms, MacOS platforms.
03/12 The mid-term exam (part 1) is Wednesday, March 12 and covers the networking material. Part 2 will be a take-home exam and is due by 4:30 on Friday March 14. You may pick up a copy in class or grab the MS Word or pdf version available here.
03/05 The student presentation schedule is given below. Assume you are an outside consultant giving a presentation to a UAF department that is about to create a computing lab. Explain what they need to know when they (eventually) have to deal with situations related to your topic. Plan for 20-25 minutes for your presentations and have each student in the group present a portion of your presentation. In addition, provide a 4-5 page report (1 page executive summary and 3-4 pages of main text). Turn in a printed copy before your talk and send an electronic version to me to post on the web page.
03/05 The mid-term exam will be on Wednesday, March 12. It will be in-class, closed-book, and be made up of short answer questions and 1 or 2 one-page answers. You are responsible for Casey Chaps 1-5, Mandia Chaps 1-6, the lectures, and the materials/articles on the web page.
02/26 The Center for Secure and Dependable Systems at U. of Idaho is accepting applications for their summer Research Experience for Undergraduates Program. It's open to students currently in their sophomore or junior year.
02/26 The mid-term exam will be on Wednesday, March 12. More details later.
02/25 The class schedule has been updated thru 04/07
02/19 HW#5 due Wed 02/26 by 5pm. Find at least 10 different types of files left on the disk after you logout. These are modifications to the filesystem that you did not explicity request (e.g. save paper.doc) and are often done without your knowledge. Two examples (which you may use) are browser cache files and "auto-recover" files used by MS Word. Pick an OS and application software and give the specifics in your write-up. This should include a list of each type of file created/modified, the process responsible, why it was created/modified and what the user can do (if anything) to stop this behavior. (20 points)
02/14 HW#4 due Wed 02/19 by 5pm. Find an MD5 implementation and get the checksum for the same text and binary files on 2 different systems. (Win98 <> Win2K) (10 points)
01/27 HW#3 due Mon 02/03 by 5pm. Read the Board of Regents' Policies and Regulations on Information Resources (links below). Consider the following uses: port scanning, storing "illegal" files on a firewire drive that might have been attached to a university computer, and lending your aurora username/password to somebody else. Give the appropriate university response the first, second, and third time each one of these uses happens. (15 points)
01/27 HW#2 due Fri 01/31 by 5pm. Give a 1 paragraph summary of the Pentagon's proposed TIA (data-mining) program. Also Summarize the good and bad points of the program as it relates to Computer Forensics. (10 points)
01/17 HW#1 due Tue 01/21 by 5pm. Give 20 examples of digital evidence/trails that you create/leave during an average day in Faribanks. (10 points)