Other Computer Sciences Commons^™

Digital Scholarship: Applying Digital Tools To Undergraduate Student Research Papers, A Proposal For A Freshman Seminar. Part I: Definition Of Student Research Methodology, Charles W. Kann

Computer Science Faculty Publications

There are many digital tools that can be used for research and presentation in nearly every college discipline, including the social sciences and humanities. These tools hold the promise to radically change both the process and products of research. But in their application these tools have failed miserably to live up to their promise.

This paper is based on the hypothesis that one reason these tools do reach their potential is that there is no systemic way to include them in research process, resulting in the tools being seen as ways to improve the final research product. This results in …

Overcoming Roadblocks In Introducing Virtual World Technology To High Schools, Casey Dylan Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The EAST (Environmental And Spatial Technology) Initiative is a non-profit educational organization that provides students in over two hundred schools in eight states with access to advanced computing technologies for the purpose of enabling students to develop technical skills early and to produce solutions to local community problems. Although many high-end technologies are available through EAST, they are desktop solutions that individual students use and there are none that enable students within a school or between schools to collaborate.

This thesis is a saga that documents the identification and removal of many roadblocks to introducing a 3D multi-user virtual simulation …

A Knowledge Discovery Approach For The Detection Of Power Grid State Variable Attacks, Nathan Wallace

Doctoral Dissertations

As the level of sophistication in power system technologies increases, the amount of system state parameters being recorded also increases. This data not only provides an opportunity for monitoring and diagnostics of a power system, but it also creates an environment wherein security can be maintained. Being able to extract relevant information from this pool of data is one of the key challenges still yet to be obtained in the smart grid. The potential exists for the creation of innovative power grid cybersecurity applications, which harness the information gained from advanced analytics. Such analytics can be based on the extraction …

Structure Preserving Large Imagery Reconstruction, Ju Shen, Jianjun Yang, Sami Taha Abu Sneineh, Bryson Payne, Markus Hitz

Computer Science Faculty Publications

With the explosive growth of web-based cameras and mobile devices, billions of photographs are uploaded to the internet. We can trivially collect a huge number of photo streams for various goals, such as image clustering, 3D scene reconstruction, and other big data applications. However, such tasks are not easy due to the fact the retrieved photos can have large variations in their view perspectives, resolutions, lighting, noises, and distortions. Furthermore, with the occlusion of unexpected objects like people, vehicles, it is even more challenging to find feature correspondences and reconstruct realistic scenes. In this paper, we propose a structure-based image …

Designing A Goal Journaling Application, Kevin Lufkin

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

Achieving a personal goal and making a positive change in one’s life can be a difficult and elusive task. Everyday people are creating and setting new goals for themselves, but more often than not these goals are never realized. Motivation, determination, and discipline are all key elements when it comes to accomplishing a goal, but if there is no clear idea as to how to connect the dots from where one is to where one wants to be these important qualities lose their effectiveness.

The applications that exist today largely fit in the realm of goal/task management and planners. This …

Regen: Optimizing Genetic Selection Algorithms For Heterogeneous Computing, Scott Kenneth Swinkleb Winkleblack

Master's Theses

GenSel is a genetic selection analysis tool used to determine which genetic markers are informational for a given trait. Performing genetic selection related analyses is a time consuming and computationally expensive task. Due to an expected increase in the number of genotyped individuals, analysis times will increase dramatically. Therefore, optimization efforts must be made to keep analysis times reasonable.

This thesis focuses on optimizing one of GenSel’s underlying algorithms for heterogeneous computing. The resulting algorithm exposes task-level parallelism and data-level parallelism present but inaccessible in the original algorithm. The heterogeneous computing solution, ReGen, outperforms the optimized CPU implementation achieving a …

T.O.A.D: Tower Offense Android Development, Jeffrey Bryan

Computer Science and Software Engineering

TOAD is a tower offense game developed for Android smart phones and tablets. TOAD was developed to demonstrate applied principles of computer science and the software design process. The game engine was written as several components to handle various functions and allow for portability to other platforms. The end result is a fully functional game that can be used as a base to further expand on the idea and be showcased on Google Play.

A Comparison Of Image Processing Techniques For Bird Detection, Elsa Reyes

Master's Theses

Orchard fruits and vegetable crops are vulnerable to wild birds and animals. These wild birds and animals can cause critical damage to the produce. Traditional methods of scaring away birds such as scarecrows are not long-term solutions but short-term solutions. This is a huge problem especially near areas like San Luis Obispo where there are vineyards. Bird damage can be as high as 50% for grapes being grown in vineyards. The total estimated revenue lost annually in the 10 counties in California due to bird and rodent damage to 22 selected crops ranged from $168 million to $504 million (in …

A Proof Of Concept For Crowdsourcing Color Perception Experiments, Ryan Nathaniel Mcleod

Master's Theses

Accurately quantifying the human perception of color is an unsolved prob- lem. There are dozens of numerical systems for quantifying colors and how we as humans perceive them, but as a whole, they are far from perfect. The ability to accurately measure color for reproduction and verification is critical to indus- tries that work with textiles, paints, food and beverages, displays, and media compression algorithms. Because the science of color deals with the body, mind, and the subjective study of perception, building models of color requires largely empirical data over pure analytical science. Much of this data is extremely dated, …

Hot Zone Identification: Analyzing Effects Of Data Sampling On Spam Clustering, Rasib Khan, Mainul Mizan, Ragib Hasan, Alan Sprague

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Email is the most common and comparatively the most efficient means of exchanging information in today's world. However, given the widespread use of emails in all sectors, they have been the target of spammers since the beginning. Filtering spam emails has now led to critical actions such as forensic activities based on mining spam email. The data mine for spam emails at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is considered to be one of the most prominent resources for mining and identifying spam sources. It is a widely researched repository used by researchers from different global organizations. The usual process …

Investigative Techniques Of N-Way Vendor Agreement And Network Analysis Demonstrated With Fake Antivirus, Gary Warner, Mike Nagy, Kyle Jones, Kevin Mitchem

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Fake AntiVirus (FakeAV) malware experienced a resurgence in the fall of 2013 after falling out of favor after several high profile arrests. FakeAV presents two unique challenges to investigators. First, because each criminal organization running a FakeAV affiliate system regularly alters the appearance of their system, it is sometimes difficult to know whether an incoming criminal complaint or malware sample is related to one ring or the other. Secondly, because FakeAV is delivered in a “Pay Per Install” affiliate model, in addition to the ring-leaders of each major ring, there are many high-volume malware infection rings who are all using …

Work In Progress: An Architecture For Network Path Reconstruction Via Backtraced Ospf Lsdb Synchronization, Raymond A. Hansen

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

There has been extensive work in crime scene reconstruction of physical locations, and much is known in terms of digital forensics of computing devices. However, the network has remained a nebulous combination of entities that are largely ignored during an investigation due to the transient nature of the data that flows through the networks. This paper introduces an architecture for network path reconstruction using the network layer reachability information shared via OSPF Link State Advertisements and the routines and functions of OSPF::rt_sched() as applied to the construction of identical Link State Databases for all routers within an Area.

Application Of Toral Automorphisms To Preserve Confidentiality Principle In Video Live Streaming, Enrique García-Carbajal, Clara Cruz-Ramos, Mariko Nakano-Miyatake

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Most of the Live Video Systems do not preserve the Confidentiality principle, and send all frames of the video without any protection, allowing an easy “man in the middle” attack. But when it does, it uses cryptographic techniques over streaming data or makes use of secure channel systems. This generates low frame rate and demands many processor resources. In fact native Live Video Streaming demands many resources of all System.

In this paper we propose a technique to preserve confidentiality in Video Live Streaming applying a confusing visual method making use of the Toral Automorphism Spatial Transformation over each frame. …

Visualizing Instant Messaging Author Writeprints For Forensic Analysis, Angela Orebaugh, Jason Kinser, Jeremy Allnutt

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

As cybercrime continues to increase, new cyber forensics techniques are needed to combat the constant challenge of Internet anonymity. In instant messaging (IM) communications, criminals use virtual identities to hide their true identity, which hinders social accountability and facilitates cybercrime. Current instant messaging products are not addressing the anonymity and ease of impersonation over instant messaging. It is necessary to have IM cyber forensics techniques to assist in identifying cyber criminals as part of the criminal investigation. Instant messaging behavioral biometrics include online writing habits, which may be used to create an author writeprint to assist in identifying an author …

Botnet Forensic Investigation Techniques And Cost Evaluation, Brian Cusack

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Botnets are responsible for a large percentage of damages and criminal activity on the Internet. They have shifted attacks from push activities to pull techniques for the distribution of malwares and continue to provide economic advantages to the exploiters at the expense of other legitimate Internet service users. In our research we asked; what is the cost of the procedural steps for forensically investigating a Botnet attack? The research method applies investigation guidelines provided by other researchers and evaluates these guidelines in terms of the cost to a digital forensic investigator. We conclude that investigation of Botnet attacks is both …

Development And Dissemination Of A New Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Curriculum In Digital Forensics, Masooda Bashir, Jenny A. Applequist, Roy H. Campbell, Lizanne Destefano, Gabriela L. Garcia, Anthony Lang

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Information Trust Institute (ITI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is developing an entirely new multidisciplinary undergraduate curriculum on the topic of digital forensics, and this paper presents the findings of the development process, including initial results and evaluation of a pilot offering of the coursework to students. The curriculum consists of a four-course sequence, including introductory and advanced lecture courses with parallel laboratory courses, followed by an advanced course. The content has been designed to reflect both the emerging national standards and the strong multidisciplinary character of the profession of digital forensics, and includes modules developed collaboratively …

Computer Forensics For Accountants, Grover S. Kearns

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital attacks on organizations are becoming more common and more sophisticated. Firms are interested in providing data security and having an effective means to respond to attacks. Accountants possess important investigative and analytical skills that serve to uncover fraud in forensic investigations. Some accounting students take courses in forensic accounting but few colleges offer a course in computer forensics for accountants. Educators wishing to develop such a course may find developing the curriculum daunting. A major element of such a course is the use of forensic software. This paper argues the importance of computer forensics to accounting students and offers …

Applying Memory Forensics To Rootkit Detection, Igor Korkin, Ivan Nesterov

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Volatile memory dump and its analysis is an essential part of digital forensics. Among a number of various software and hardware approaches for memory dumping there are authors who point out that some of these approaches are not resilient to various anti-forensic techniques, and others that require a reboot or are highly platform dependent. New resilient tools have certain disadvantages such as low speed or vulnerability to rootkits which directly manipulate kernel structures, e.g., page tables. A new memory forensic system – Malware Analysis System for Hidden Knotty Anomalies (MASHKA) is described in this paper. It is resilient to popular …

The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure: Politics In The 2013-2014 Revision, John W. Bagby, Byron Granda, Emily Benoit, Alexander Logan, Ryan Snell, Joseph J. Schwerha

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Pre-trial discovery is perpetually controversial. Parties advantaged by strict privacy can often avoid justice when this is disadvantageous to their interests. Contrawise, parties advantaged by relaxed litigation privacy can achieve justice when all facts are accessible irrespective of their repositories, ownership or control. American-style pre-trial discovery in civil and regulatory enforcement is relatively rare around the world. U.S. discovery rules open nearly all relevant and non-privileged data for use by opposing parties. The traditional discovery process was costly and time consuming in the world of tangible paper data. However, these burdens have increased, rather than diminished as often predicted, as …

Testing And Evaluating The Harmonised Digital Forensic Investigation Process In Post Mortem Digital Investigation, Emilio R. Mumba, H. S. Venter

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Existing digital forensic investigation process models have provided guidelines for identifying and preserving potential digital evidence captured from a crime scene. However, for any of the digital forensic investigation process models developed across the world to be adopted and fully applied by the scientific community, it has to be tested. For this reason, the Harmonized Digital Forensic Investigation Process (HDFIP) model, currently a working draft towards becoming an international standard for digital forensic investigations (ISO/IEC 27043), needs to be tested.

This paper, therefore, presents the findings of a case study used to test the HDFIP model implemented in the ISO/IEC …

Generation And Handling Of Hard Drive Duplicates As Piece Of Evidence, T. Kemmerich, F. Junge, N. Kuntze, C. Rudolph, B. Endicott-Popovsky, L. Großkopf

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

An important area in digital forensics is images of hard disks. The correct production of the images as well as the integrity and authenticity of each hard disk image is essential for the probative force of the image to be used at court. Integrity and authenticity are under suspicion as digital evidence is stored and used by software based systems. Modifications to digital objects are hard or even impossible to track and can occur even accidentally. Even worse, vulnerabilities occur for all current computing systems. Therefore, it is difficult to guarantee a secure environment for forensic investigations. But intended deletions …

Internet Addiction To Child Pornography, Rachel Sitarz, Marcus Rogers, Lonnie Bentley, Eugene Jackson

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

During the present age and time, it seems as though people in society have become addicted to nearly anything and everything, whether it be to a substance, an activity or an object. The Internet and pornography is no exception. While commonly thought of as a deviant behavior, many are displaying addictions towards the Internet and pornography. More alarming, however, are those who are viewing, downloading, or trading child pornography and displaying addictive Internet behaviors, for they are spending excessive amounts of time engaging in the proliferation of child pornographic materials. For this reason, addiction to the Internet and usage of …

Using Internet Artifacts To Profile A Child Pornography Suspect, Marcus K. Rogers, Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital evidence plays a crucial role in child pornography investigations. However, in the following case study, the authors argue that the behavioral analysis or “profiling” of digital evidence can also play a vital role in child pornography investigations. The following case study assessed the Internet Browsing History (Internet Explorer Bookmarks, Mozilla Bookmarks, and Mozilla History) from a suspected child pornography user’s computer. The suspect in this case claimed to be conducting an ad hoc law enforcement investigation. After the URLs were classified (Neutral; Adult Porn; Child Porn; Adult Dating sites; Pictures from Social Networking Profiles; Chat Sessions; Bestiality; Data Cleaning; …

Life (Logical Iosforensics Examiner): An Open Source Iosbackup Forensics Examination Tool, Ibrahim Baggili, Shadi Al Awawdeh, Jason Moore

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In this paper, we present LiFE (Logical iOS Forensics Examiner), an open source iOS backup forensics examination tool. This tool helps both researchers and practitioners alike in both understanding the backup structures of iOS devices and forensically examining iOS backups. The tool is currently capable of parsing device information, call history, voice messages, GPS locations, conversations, notes, images, address books, calendar entries, SMS messages, Aux locations, facebook data and e-mails. The tool consists of both a manual interface (where the user is able to manually examine the backup structures) and an automated examination interface (where the tool pulls out evidence …

Why Penetration Testing Is A Limited Use Choice For Sound Cyber Security Practice, Craig Valli, Andrew Woodward, Peter Hannay, Mike Johnstone

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Penetration testing of networks is a process that is overused when demonstrating or evaluating the cyber security posture of an organisation. Most penetration testing is not aligned with the actual intent of the testing, but rather is driven by a management directive of wanting to be seen to be addressing the issue of cyber security. The use of penetration testing is commonly a reaction to an adverse audit outcome or as a result of being penetrated in the first place. Penetration testing used in this fashion delivers little or no value to the organisation being tested for a number of …

Awareness Of Scam E-Mails: An Exploratory Research Study, Tejashree D. Datar, Kelly A. Cole, Marcus K. Rogers

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The goal of this research was to find the factors that influence a user’s ability to identify e-mail scams. It also aimed to understand user’s awareness regarding e-mail scams and actions that need to be taken if and when victimized. This study was conducted on a university campus with 163 participants. This study presented the participants with two scam e-mails and two legitimate e-mails and asked the participants to correctly identify these e-mails as scam or legitimate. The study focused on the ability of people to differentiate between scam and legitimate e-mails. The study attempted to determine factors that influence …

Qr Codes For The Dead, Tamara Kneese

Media Studies

Graveyards are becoming smart spaces, but will today's technology last for eternity?

A Comparison Of Dropout And Weight Decay For Regularizing Deep Neural Networks, Thomas Grant Slatton

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In recent years, deep neural networks have become the state-of-the art in many machine learning domains. Despite many advances, these networks are still extremely prone to overfit. In neural networks, a main cause of overfit is coadaptation of neurons which allows noise in the data to be interpreted as meaningful features. Dropout is a technique to mitigate coadaptation of neurons, and thus stymie overfit. In this paper, we present data that suggests dropout is not always universally applicable. In particular, we show that dropout is useful when the ratio of network complexity to training data is very high, otherwise traditional …

Tapjacking Threats And Mitigation Techniques For Android Applications, Vanessa Cooper

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

With the increased dependency on web applications through mobile devices, malicious attack techniques have now shifted from traditional web applications running on desktop or laptop (allowing mouse click- based interactions) to mobile applications running on mobile devices (allowing touch-based interactions). Clickjacking is a type of malicious attack originating in web applications, where victims are lured to click on seemingly benign objects in web pages. However, when clicked, unintended actions are performed without the user’s knowledge. In particular, it is shown that users are lured to touch an object of an application triggering unintended actions not actually intended by victims. This …

Development Of Etsu Student Life Android Application, Tyler L. Cox

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, the author gives a description his journey creating and developing a Student Life Application for East Tennessee State University. This thesis will document his process with development as well as reflect on the struggles and victories in creation of this application.