Information Security Commons^™

A New Efficient Optimistic Fair Exchange Protocol Without Random Oracles, Qiong Huang, Guomin Yang, Duncan S. Wong, Willy Susilo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Optimistic fair exchange (OFE) is a kind of protocols to solve the problem of fair exchange between two parties. Most of the previous work on this topic are provably secure in the random oracle model. In this work, we propose a new construction of OFE from another cryptographic primitive, called time capsule signature. The construction is efficient and brings almost no overhead other than the primitive itself. The security of our new construction is based on that of the underlying primitive without relying on the random oracle heuristic. Applying our generic construction to the time capsule signature scheme recently proposed …

A Survey On Privacy Frameworks For Rfid Authentication, Chunhua Su, Yingjiu Li, Yunlei Zhao, Robert H. Deng, Yiming Zhao, Jianying Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Due to rapid growth of RFID system applications, the security and privacy problems become more and more important to guarantee the validity of RFID systems. Without introducing proper privacy protection mechanisms, widespread deployment of RFID could raise privacy concerns to both companies and individuals. As a fundamental issue for the design and analysis of secure RFID systems, some formal RFID privacy frameworks were proposed in recent years to give the principles for evaluating the security and privacy in RFID system. However, readers can be confused with so many proposed frameworks. In this paper, we make a comparative and survey study …

Corporate Security: Using Knowledge Construction To Define A Practising Body Of Knowledge, David Brooks

Research outputs 2012

Security is a multidimensional concept, with many meanings, practising domains, and heterogeneous occupations. Therefore, it is difficult to define security as a singular concept, although understanding may be achieved by its applied context in presenting a domicile body of knowledge. There have been studies that have presented a number of corporate security bodies of knowledge; however, there is still restricted consensus. From these past body of knowledge studies, and supported by multidimensional scaling knowledge mapping, a body of knowledge framework is put forward, integrating core and allied knowledge categories. The core knowledge categories include practise areas such as risk management, …

Column: Factors Affecting Data Decay, Kevin Fairbanks, Simson Garfinkel

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In nuclear physics, the phrase decay rate is used to denote the rate that atoms and other particles spontaneously decompose. Uranium-235 famously decays into a variety of daughter isotopes including Thorium and Neptunium, which themselves decay to others. Decay rates are widely observed and wildly different depending on many factors, both internal and external. U-235 has a half-life of 703,800,000 years, for example, while free neutrons have a half-life of 611 seconds and neutrons in an atomic nucleus are stable.

Technology Corner Automated Data Extraction Using Facebook, Nick V. Flor

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Because of Facebook’s popularity, law enforcement agents often use it as a key source of evidence. But like many user digital trails, there can be a large amount of data to extract for analysis. In this paper, we explore the basics of extracting data programmatically from a user’s Facebook via a Web app. A data extraction app requests data using the Facebook Graph API, and Facebook returns a JSON object containing the data. Before an app can access a user’s Facebook data, the user must log into Facebook and give permission. Thus, this approach is limited to situations where users …

Book Review: Mastering Windows Network Forensics And Investigation, 2/E, John C. Ebert

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The book is available as a paperback and e-book. The e-book versions allow you to preview several chapters at any of a number of online vendors. The e-book prices vary from the same as the soft cover version ($59.99) to about $38.99. Some of the vendor's e-books retain the color illustrations found in the print version, but others produce them in grey scale, so you might want to look out for that. The book is divided into four parts (17 chapters) plus two appendices.

I am compelled to give the book illustrations a highly unfavorable assessment regarding their readability qualities. …

Column: Analysis Of Digital Traces, Fred Cohen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In part 1 of this series (Cohen, 2011a), Analysis of digital traces is a foundational process by which the examiner, typically using computer software tools, comes to understand and answer basic questions regarding digital traces.

An Australian Perspective On The Challenges For Computer And Network Security For Novice Endusers, Patryk Szewczyk

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

It is common for end-users to have difficulty in using computer or network security appropriately and thus have often been ridiculed when misinterpreting instructions or procedures. This discussion paper details the outcomes of research undertaken over the past six years on why security is overly complex for endusers. The results indicate that multiple issues may render end-users vulnerable to security threats and that there is no single solution to address these problems. Studies on a small group of senior citizens has shown that educational seminars can be beneficial in ensuring that simple security aspects are understood and used appropriately.

Automated Identification And Reconstruction Of Youtube Video Access, Jonathan Patterson, Christopher Hargreaves

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

YouTube is one of the most popular video-sharing websites on the Internet, allowing users to upload, view and share videos with other users all over the world. YouTube contains many different types of videos, from homemade sketches to instructional and educational tutorials, and therefore attracts a wide variety of users with different interests. The majority of YouTube visits are perfectly innocent, but there may be circumstances where YouTube video access is related to a digital investigation, e.g. viewing instructional videos on how to perform potentially unlawful actions or how to make unlawful articles. When a user accesses a YouTube video …

Book Review: System Forensics, Investigation, And Response, Nate Keith

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

I recently expressed an interest to a respected colleague in finding a way to “give back” to the forensic community. He suggested writing a review for a text he recently received and provide feedback to the community. It is my intent to present an objective analysis of System Forensics, Investigation, and Response.

Identifying Trace Evidence From Target-Specific Data Wiping Application Software, Gregory H. Carlton, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

One area of particular concern for computer forensics examiners involves situations in which someone utilized software applications to destroy evidence. There are products available in the marketplace that are relatively inexpensive and advertised as being able to destroy targeted portions of data stored within a computer system. This study was undertaken to analyze a subset of these tools in order to identify trace evidence, if any, left behind on disk media after executing these applications. We evaluated five Windows 7 compatible software products whose advertised features include the ability for users to wipe targeted files, folders, or evidence of selected …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Technology Corner: A Regular Expression Training App, Nick V. Flor

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Regular expressions enable digital forensic analysts to find information in files. The best way for an analyst to become proficient in writing regular expressions is to practice. This paper presents the code for an app that allows an analyst to practice writing regular expressions.

Back Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Extraction Of Electronic Evidence From Voip: Identification & Analysis Of Digital Speech, David Irwin, Arek Dadej, Jill Slay

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is increasing in popularity as a cost effective and efficient means of making telephone calls via the Internet. However, VoIP may also be an attractive method of communication to criminals as their true identity may be hidden and voice and video communications are encrypted as they are deployed across the Internet. This produces a new set of challenges for forensic analysts compared with traditional wire-tapping of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) infrastructure, which is not applicable to VoIP. Therefore, other methods of recovering electronic evidence from VoIP are required. This research investigates the …

Book Review: Dispute Resolution And E-Discovery, Milton Luoma

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

As is apparent from its title, this book tackles two very current and difficult legal issues – electronic discovery and dispute resolution. The authors tie the two legal concepts together in an effort to provide litigants and practitioners a less expensive and less time consuming alternative than is typically the case with traditional litigation and court proceedings. By including electronic discovery in the discussions, the authors recognize the importance and significance of electronic discovery in mediation and arbitration as it is in traditional litigation.

On The Development Of A Digital Forensics Curriculum, Manghui Tu, Dianxiang Xu, Samsuddin Wira, Cristian Balan, Kyle Cronin

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Computer Crime and computer related incidents continue their prevalence and frequency, resulting in losses approaching billions of dollars. To fight against these crimes and frauds, it is urgent to develop digital forensics education programs to train a suitable workforce that can effectively investigate computer crimes and incidents. There is presently no standard to guide the design of digital forensics curriculum for an academic program. In this research, previous work on digital forensics curriculum design and existing education programs are thoroughly investigated. Both digital forensics educators and practitioners were surveyed and results were analyzed to determine the industry and law enforcement …

The Science Of Digital Forensics: Recovery Of Data From Overwritten Areas Of Magnetic Media, Fred Cohen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The first time I encountered data loss and recovery effects of magnetic memory was as a night and weekend computer operator for the computer science department of Carnegie-Mellon University in the 1973-1974 time frame. Part of my job involved dealing directly with outages and failures associated with magnetic memory components used in what, at the time, were large computer systems. On occasions, portions of magnetic core memory or disk drives would encounter various failure modes and the systems using these devices would have to be reconfigured to operate without the failed components until repair personnel could come in to repair …

Automatic Crash Recovery: Internet Explorer's Black Box, John Moran, Douglas Orr

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

A good portion of today's investigations include, at least in part, an examination of the user's web history. Although it has lost ground over the past several years, Microsoft's Internet Explorer still accounts for a large portion of the web browser market share. Most users are now aware that Internet Explorer will save browsing history, user names, passwords and form history. Consequently some users seek to eliminate these artifacts, leaving behind less evidence for examiners to discover during investigations. However, most users, and probably a good portion of examiners are unaware Automatic Crash Recovery can leave a gold mine of …