Help needed on project topic for college...

Keyzer

Currently in third year of cyber sec and digital forensics and struggling to come up with a project topic.

Ideally we'd like to implement something and it doesn't have to be security related (although the group would like to stay with a security aspect).

Any ideas greatly welcomed...

wil

Keyzer wrote: »

Currently in third year of cyber sec and digital forensics and struggling to come up with a project topic.

Ideally we'd like to implement something and it doesn't have to be security related (although the group would like to stay with a security aspect).

Any ideas greatly welcomed...

What, absolutely no inspiration at all from recent news?

How about
The role of caves in the prevention of data acquisition loss.:)

ifah

How many people in the project group ?
What overall % of the year is the project portion ?
What are the strengths of the group - tech/legal/process etc ?
What is the weighting of Forensics versus Security ?
What are you more interested in ? (forensics / security)

Personally I would look at some type of process driven model to manage Threat Evaluation / Incident Response / Initial Incident Triage Best Practices within an organisation. The number of organisations who just decide they (do/do not) need security services is frightening - I've seen large corporations processing very sensitive data who don't even have a mechanism of data classification, never mind pen testing/incident response processes. Then at the other end of the scale small businesses are getting involved in Pen Testing of static information sites because they don't understand their obligations under PCI-DSS.

ZeroBarry

As on occasion having been a supervisor of student projects relating to these fields of study:

I'm fairly sure part of the assessment/grade for a 3rd year group project is based on the groups ability to research and develop a topic from the review of past literature and the review of issues/difficulties currently ongoing within the industry in which your field of study will lead into.

For these reasons I will not be explicitly recommending any topics as doing so may impede your groups ability to conform to the HETAC outlined learning standards for a level 7 student (3rd year is about that level), but I would suggest looking at issues relating of system administration, this way you can still implement something, be it a project that includes an implementation based on some type of secure network topology or access control methodologies.

You could also look at something that slightly borders on the topic of e-learning and use coding or scripting skills to develop an application that demonstrates aspects of security implementation or forensic procedure.

Its really up to the group to decide, spend a few hours in front of your laptops doing some research as a group and write down the different issues based on the strengths and even the weaknesses of the group members. Following the common weaknesses of the group can sometimes be the key to discovering a great topic as the group will develop new skills from researching/implementing based on an area that they have not previously covered in the course.

infodox

Perhaps try your hand at writing a rootkit that uses anti-forensic techniques? Or pick a malware family and analyse what artifacts they leave behind on owned boxes?

Fun stuff like that is not only fun, but super educational.

sawdoubters

rsa in bed with nsa

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/how-the-nsa-may-have-put-a-backdoor-in-rsas-cryptography-a-technical-primer/


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-usa-security-rsa-idUSBRE9BJ1C220131220

Dermot Illogical

I had a similar decision to make a few years back. A couple of the topics that came to mind were:
Virtualisation of a forensic lab using open source tools and custom Linux distributions.
Mitigation of risk to customers/business and best practise in implementing public wireless networks.
Whatever you decide I'd recommend picking something challenging so that you maximise both learning and your CV.

industrialhorse

How about working on a project or product that will automatically blast away all those annoying ads on the free football sites:)

syklops

industrialhorse wrote: »

How about working on a project or product that will automatically blast away all those annoying ads on the free football sites:)

It already exists. Ad Block Pro.

Keyzer

Thanks guys !!! some good food for thought there.