The Security Project: Introduction
So this week is the beginning of the final year project for IT and compsci students: since I’m still an undergraduate in the final throes of my degree I get to participate.
After being divided up by specialty last week (Software Development, Networking, Security) we had a brief meeting with our supervisor whereby several things were iterated:
- This is a relatively small project: around 40 man hours per student.
- We may choose to be involved in an existing project listed on the research page subject to eligibility for undergrads and number of others interested, or we may generate a new proposal to be presented at the next meeting. This may include one-man projects. I am in the Security stream which means my options are generally forensics or log-analysis related.
- We are now granted access to the forensics / security research lab and if we mess with anybody elses lab work they will be allowed to destroy us in retribution. (Not particularly groundbreaking for me since I am a staff member with all areas access to this building anyway).
Several basic project management dos and don’ts were covered very briefly, amongst which the supervisor strongly recommended we maintain a journal of activities throughout: both to track our own progress and provide support for any case against potentially slack team members further down the road.
To that end I will be maintaining my progress journal via wordpress – probably via glenscott.net, but possibly also on another site dedicated to the task.
I am more of less decided to progress with my original choice of PDA / Mobile Phone / SIM card forensics, especially as there seem to be a number of others in the group interested and we can form a team at the outset. The possibility of proposing my own project is interesting though, and I am giving it some thought over the next few days before the next Thursday morning meeting. I would like to do something involving researching / investigating user psychology and how it affects system security, but at short notice and for a small starter project I think it may be a little ambitious. Possibly something best left to the postgraduate treatment.
