The field of Computer Security is vast and ever changing. New attacks are discovered, and old attacks are exploited almost every day. Being able to follow the current state of the art exploits will better prepare you for a future that will (inevitably) deal with some security issues.
Your final assignment for this semester will be an examination of some currently know attack or security vulnerability. You will write a relatively short paper, and perform a 15-20 minute presentation on your research results.
Pick some topic from the field of Computer Security. I have mentioned a handful of topics in class, which you may chose from. If you have ideas that have not been discussed in class, you may pursue them as well. However, I have final approval over what topics can and cannot be covered.
Since it is pointless to have two people present on the same topic, we will rely on topic sign-ups. The table below shows who is currently signed up for what topic. These will be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.
You will write a 3-4 page paper, which details the in depth, technical details about the topic you have chosen. You must provide citations for all sources referenced.
For certain topics, finding scholarly articles might be difficult. You are allowed to use non peer-reviewed sources for this project, however you must make sure that those sources are trustworthy and valid.
The true content for each paper will likely be different, but your high-level goals should be:
You will also prepare a 15-20 minute presentation on the same topic of your paper. While technical details are still required, you must make sure that your presentation is accessible to someone unfamiliar with the hardware/software systems (even simply the math) involved with your topic.
You should cover the same basic information as the paper (listed above), but in slightly less detail. Your presentation should serve as a selling point for the paper you wrote. Someone who is interested in the full details of your topic can pick up the rest of the information from your paper, if necessary.
You should also be ready to field questions from the audience in your presentations. We will spend about 5 minutes discussing each topic once the presentation is complete.
Contact me, either by email, before or after class, or in my office hours to sign up for a topic. Be prepared to explain why you think the topic is interesting, and how it relates to the field in general.
| Student | Topic | Student | Topic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louis Alvarez | "Bot Nets" | Randall Pittman | Trojan Circuits | |
| David Crush | TOR and FreedomHosting | Paul Relkin | ||
| Bennu Guntoro | Wireless Security | Caleb Johnson | "Something You Are" Authentication | |
| Allen Kirby | GitHub Attack | Drew Bowers | Skype Steganography | |
| Alex Gravely | DDOS Economic Impact | John Guidry | Anonymous DDOS tools | |
| Melissa Rickman | Automobile Hacking | Sean Reed | CAPTCHAs | |
| Thomas Lux | Cellphone Data Stealing |
Your paper will be due before class on the above deadline. Submit a PDF document on cseval Before the deadline. You will also be required to submit your presentation slides on cseval as a PDF document on the same day the paper is due.