Digital Image Forensics Lab

Secure Passwords

If you have a strong password, you are headed in the right direction to prevent cyber criminals.  By a strong password, it does not mean a long password with a lot of numbers.  It is important to use a variety of characters, letters, numbers, and symbols to ensure your password is secure.  While many passwords require a minimum of 8 characters, it is better to use more than this to prevent criminals from easily guessing your password.  In addition, you should not use common passwords such as your name, social security, pets name, last name, and hometown.

In order to make a secure password, you should use symbols such as !, @, #, etc.  Also, you should use a variety of letters such as capitals and lowercase.  You should also alternate from lowercase to uppercase and back.  A good way to think of a password is to use a random assortment of letters that do not even spell a word while incorporating numbers and symbols in the mix.  If the password has meaning to you or is considered a common fact about you, the password is most likely not a secure password and your accounts will be easily hacked.  In addition, if you use the same password for every account you would think it would be a good idea because you will not forget the password.  However, this is not a good idea because once a cyber criminal finds out your one password they then have access to all of your accounts.  If you are worried about forgetting your password, you can write them down and store them in a safe place.

http://www.security-faqs.com/how-do-i-deal-with-a-web-site-that-limits-the-type-of-password-i-can-use.html
http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/passwords/
https://howsecureismypassword.net
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net

Wireless Networking Precautions

Wireless networking is set up by using radio signal frequency to communicate among computers and other network devices.  Wireless networking can be beneficial because you can do work anywhere you would like, even if it is outside on the patio.  If the person is within the transmission distance, they can work wherever they feel comfortable and have be in an enjoyable environment while getting the job done.  Today, there are many places that offer free Wi-Fi to their customers including Starbucks and Barnes and Noble.  Both of these places are very relaxing and you can even get a cup of coffee while studying for a major exam.  One major precaution that people must take when using wireless networking is  to make sure your computer has a firewall so that viruses are prevented.  It also prevents people from hacking into your computer as well because it will be protected.  For extra protection, you should install and run personal firewall software on each computer connected to the software.

Although using Wi-Fi could seem beneficial at the time, it can also be detrimental.  Connecting to an open Wi-Fi network exposes your computer to other security risks.  Therefore, it is important to have your computer settings set to "do not auto connect to open Wi-Fi networks."  Other people could be at the same place as you and in the same hotspot so they can be reading and receiving your messages and as a result, hacking into your computer account.  The only thing that Wi-Fi should be used for is solely internet browsing.  If you plan on purchasing something on your credit card or singing up for a bank account and typing your social security number into your computer, someone could get this information and as a result, steal your identity.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisecurity.htm
http://www.itlist.com/security-precautions-for-wireless-internet-users/
http://www.home-network-help.com/wireless-network.html

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a combination of software and computing delivered as a networked service that provides a model for anytime access to a shared pool of applications and resources.  Computing is how a variety of computers come together and are connected through a communication network like the Internet.  Cloud computing relies on sharing information by delivering it to different services.  The cloud portion of cloud computing is the hardware, networks, storage, and services.  Cloud services can be how information is delivered and storage over the Internet.  The four characteristics of cloud computing are elasticity and its ability to scale up and down, self service provisioning, application programming interfaces, and billing and metering of service usage (pay as you go).

Cloud computing is offered in a variety of manners to satisfy its customers.  There are private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid clouds (both public and private).  Cloud computing is beginning to become a major part of companies because they have began to realize how beneficial it is to their company.  It can completely change the way people view their company as well as change the way they respond to their customers.  Many major companies such as Google and Amazon have already used cloud computing and found that it eliminated many major constraints that they had to previously deal with including space, time, and cost.

http://www.synergygs.com/Solutions/CloudServices/
http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/

Internet Filters and Parental Control Software

In today's society, many young children are using the internet in a way that their parents have no idea what they are specifically doing.  There is a way to prevent children from looking up in appropriate things which is not hard to do.  There is a software designed to restrict or control the content of the reader over the internet or email.  Content control software determines what content will be able to be viewed and what content will be blocked.  One way to block information available to minors is by implementing internet filters.  Filters can be implemented by a software on a personal computer or firewalls that provide Internet.

Some types of filters are the following:  e-mail filters, content-limited, and search-engine filters.  E-mail filters can control what information is being sent out in the body, the header, and even who the e-mail is being sent to.  If the person receiving the e-mail has this type of filter, the e-mail server will check the information that is being received and if it is inappropriate the email will be rejected.  Content-limited filters are Internet service providers that only allow access to a certain amount of information.  The search-engine filter can be used by parents to prevent their children from searching all forms of inappropriate information.  If a website features inappropriate, explicit, or adult information the children will not be able to preview it.  Instead, a webpage will show that access has been denied.

http://www1.k9webprotection.com
http://www.netnanny.com
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/how-does-the-parental-controls-web-filter-work

Digital Image Steganography

Digital Image Steganography like any other science can be both beneficial and detrimental to oneself.  The whole idea behind steganography is that people can communicate with one another in a secret manner.  Some common examples include using images, audio, and video files to portray their secretive information.  Along with digital image steganography there are physical steganography, network steganography, and printed steganography.  The main objectives of doing this is to resist various image processing methods and its capacity of hidden data.  This process is similar yet different from watermarking and cryptography.

Currently, there are no methods for stopping this from occurring in a reasonable period of time.  To send a message, an image should be embedded in the text.  In addition, you need a key to aid in encryption and it helps you decide where the information and image should be hidden.  Another image or text can be used as a disguise which can be used as a key.  In order to receive a message, you need to have the source image as well as a key to help decode the information.  The decoded information will show up in a new tab if it can read it properly.  There are two common forms of internet-friendly formats which are the algorithm for GIF images and and the JPEG algorithm.  JPEG is more experimental because that is what the designers of JPEG wanted to avoid, hiding information.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165168409003648
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~eberdahl/Projects/Paranoia/

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID)

Radio Frequency Identification is used by many companies, distribution centers, and warehouses.  The companies are over reliant on this form of new technology so it is important to know what its main objective are and how it operates.  Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is a technology used by warehouses which uses radio waves to identify an item.  Warehouses use radio signals to exchange data between handheld devices and an RFID tag.  The tag can be a vital form of information depending on what the company decides to put on the tag.  Tags can only hold a specific amount of information, so companies have to pick the information they wish to store wisely.

RFID's are mainly used by warehousing companies because they have a high volume of products coming in to their facilities and they ship out a lot of products as well.  Therefore, they need a system to effectively track where their goods are because a warehouse can be big so products can be easily misplaced.  This system allows warehouses to track their good in an efficient manner where they can easily locate them.  Not only can they track the goods easily, but the entire warehouse can run smoothly overall.  When an item is scanned, the company's warehouse management or ERP system is automatically updated which is also a plus.  The tags of the products can store information such as the items location, history, and number of items in the warehouse which is important because it can help the workers be more responsive to their customer's questions.

http://think.blytheco.com/industry-news-2/what-is-radio-frequency-identification-rfid/
http://forumblog.org/tag/radio-frequency-identification/

Computer Forensics

Computers are primarily used conduct research and find out new information.  But they can also be used to commit computer-based crimes or violations.  Using a computer to commit a crime is also known as cyber forensics.  Computer forensics helps figure out who committed the crime by collection, preservation, analysis and presentation of computer-related evidence.  The goal of computer forensics is to use investigation techniques to analyze information from a computer device to solve the problem, who is responsible for the actions that were committed.

To be more accurate, investigators usually follow a specific procedure when conducting the investigation.  First, they isolate the computer device to make sure that no one can get access to the media and hack into it and change the evidence.  Therefore, the evidence will remain the same throughout the entire process.  Then they make a digital copy of the evidence so that it is safe and documented.  After it is copied onto a media device, they use this to perform the investigation.  The investigators use a multitude of proprietary software forensic applications to examine the digital copy, search hidden folders, and deleted or damaged files.  The evidence that is found is documented in a "finding folder" and verified with its original findings.  As crime rates continue to increase, computer forensics has become a huge area of scientific expertise which the investigators strive to make a better place for internet users.  It is mainly an issue because computers are becoming more powerful and they have hard drives that are capable of holding gigabytes and even terabytes of data.  This is frightening because detectives have to figure out a way to search for evidence without using too many resources in doing so.

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/computer-forensics
http://www.howstuffworks.com/computer-forensic.htm

Packet Analyzer

A packet analyzer is used to monitor, intercept, and decode data packets as they are transmitted across networks.  Some packet analyzers can be software while some of them can be hardware.  Other names for a packet analyzer are network analyzer, protocol analyzer, and packet sniffer.  As data is flowing through networks, the sniffer can look at each individual packet and decode the data.  By decoding the data, the sniffer can view the information in the packet and therefore analyze the information.

One example of a powerful network monitor and analyzer is CommView.  CommView is an easy network monitor and it is very flexible.  This application "captures every packet on the wire to display important information such as a list of packets and network connections, vital statistics, protocol distribution charts, and so on."  Since CommView gives a full analysis, it can help find network problems and troubleshoot software and hardware.  Network analyzers are important because they maintain efficient network data transmission, test firewalls, and identify problems.  In addition, CommView decodes network traffic which allows you to see what, where, and how the information you are sending leaves your computer.  Some of the many things that CommView is capable of doing are view detailed IP connections statistics, reconstruct TCP sessions, map packets to the application that is sending/receiving them, and view protocol distribution. 

http://www.veracode.com/security/packet-analyzer
http://www.tamos.com/products/commview/