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
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