CSCE 727 – Information Warfare

Spring 2017

Project Information

 

1.      Evaluate your professional and personal strength and weaknesses

·         List your strengths that influence your professional performance in the field of computing.  These may include skills, knowledge, personal traits, such as diligence, focus on details, etc. 

·         Provide one or more objective justification for each strength you’ve identified, such as completed project and client satisfaction, awards, etc.

·         List your weaknesses (both personal and professional) that may influence your performance. For example, limited coding experience outside of class projects, tend to wait for the last minute to work on the assignments, etc.

·         Provide one or more strategies that you plan to apply to limit the effect of the weaknesses on your performance, e.g., set up a schedule to start project on time, seek the collaboration of an experienced developer, etc.

Be as thorough as possible!  Your gain is to understand your current capabilities and limitations!

       Ask a friend who knows you well to compose the same lists and their justifications.  Do not give suggestions!

·         Compare your and your friend’s evaluation. 

·         Clarify your conflicts and similarities

·         Rank your strengths and weaknesses

       Use your own lists and your friend’s lists to write an “honest” resume that includes your selected strengths and weaknesses and their corresponding justifications and mitigation strategies. 

·         Have the standard resume format and information (Name, address, contact info, education, work experiences, activities, awards, etc.)

·         Include a detailed Strengths and Weaknesses section discussing the highest ranked characteristics

       Submit your resume only.

                   Due Date:  February 7, 2017

2.      Project proposal: 2-3 pages, double spaced, 11 pt. 

Sources for IW activities:

Search current research/legislation/government/military/etc. topics in the larger field of Information Warfare.  Based on the dynamic aspect IW research, you need to use resources available on web, journals, and conference publications.  Journal publications are in general the highest quality ones, on the other hand, they have a long turn around time, thus may miss out on some very recent achievements.  Use references in the main textbook and online resources of government (e.g., Department of Defense, National Security Agency, Department of Justice, etc.)  and specific organizations.

 

Potential  sources:

·         ACM and IEEE conferences and journals, USC has site license for ACM Digital Library, http://dl.acm.org/   (You can access the files from USC computers)

·         Homeland Security News Wire, http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/

·         Digital Forensic Investigator News, http://www.dfinews.com/

·         CERT, http://www.cert.org/

·         Institute for the Advanced Study of Information Warfare, http://www.psycom.net/iwar.1.html

·         IWS - The Information Warfare Site, UK, http://www.iwar.org.uk/

·         Infowar Monitor, http://www.infowar-monitor.net/

·         Air Power Australia, http://www.ausairpower.net/iw.html

               

     Proposal content:

                                      i.      Main area of the proposed project

                                    ii.      Goal of the project and importance of the goal

                                  iii.      Initial list of relevant materials

                                  iv.      Your qualification for making the project successful (use your detailed lists of Strength and Weakness to compose your qualifications)

 

      The aim of the research paper is that you gain understanding of a specific topic in Information Warfare, and identify future directions of the field.  Try to answer questions like “Are the current legislations sufficient to address IW topic?”, “How national and international law and policy deals with topic …?”, “Is the current technology used effectively to address IW problem …?”, etc.

       Submit your proposal

                   Due Date: February14, 2017

 

 

3.      Perform detailed research of the chosen topic

·         Gather additional publications on the chosen topic.  In general, you’ll read around 10-20 papers, depending on the depth and coverage of the materials.  The aim is to gain a clear understanding of the current state of research on the chosen topic and related issues. 

 

You are also required to identify current and future needs, organizational responsibilities, risks, roles of policy makers, enforcers, and technology developers.  Formulate your vision on the direction your chosen field is moving.  Give supporting argument of your vision. 

Submit: Draft project proposal, including

                                                                        v.      Problem description and motivating example

                                                                      vi.      Complete overview of related work

                                                                    vii.      Brief outline of the proposed project and expected results

 

·         Your solution to the chosen problem.   

Submit Proposal with all sections fully included except budget

Due date: April 11, 2017

 

 

4.      Reviews and defense

Each proposal will be shared by a panel of 3 students.  During the last 1-2 weeks of the semester, the panel will evaluate the received proposal and the proposal writers will have a chance to address questions.

 Due date: April 18, 2017 (all reviews are due by 11 am on April 18th

 

 

5.      Submit your updated proposal based on the reviews

Due date: May 2, 2017 12:30 pm

 

Percentage of final project grade per components

                                   

1          :           10%

2.         :           10%

3.         :           25%

4.         :           10%

5.         :           45%    

 

 

 

Sample Topics

 

1.      Open Source Intelligence and Intelligent Web Agents

2.      Deception detection – need and technology

3.      Self-Defense against Cyber Attacks – national and international legislations, armed forces?

4.      Privacy and Anonymity – legislations, policy, and technology

5.      Malicious code and national security

6.      Case study of policy and enforcement of USC/Department of Computer Science and Engineering on Information Systems Security and Privacy.

7.      Criminal investigations and law enforcement agencies – needs and resources.  Legal interoperation.

8.      Political and economic coercion, IW operations (offense/defense), and legislation.

9.      Signal Security: Secure telecommunication system: technology, legislation, current directions.

10.  Fraud

11.  Surveillance system and legal evidence

 

 

Final report Format

 

Abstract (1 page, single spaced, 11 points)

 

Introduction

<Brief overview of

            a.        Problem description, its importance

b.        Representative example

c.        Brief description of related works

d.        What is missing?

e.        Your work addressing the research gap (BS students do not need to add this portion)

> 

 

Related Works and their Limitations

 

      <Make sure include all relevant works and be factual about the limitations.

        e.g., “XY proposed a methods that is limited.” Is not enough.  Give specifics

        on what these limitations are.>

 

Description of project

     

      <Several chapters on the proposed project, initial results, expectations, etc. 

        You need to convince the reader that the work is important, needed and that

              you’re capable of performing the proposed work. >

 

 Conclusion

 References