This blog has moved to WordPress

## PLEASE NOTE I HAVE MOVED THIS BLOG TO WORDPRESS ##

Today I finally decided to make the switch to WordPress official. I actually set up the account a while ago but was dithering a little as to whether I should make the switch or not. My old blog page is still live but all the posts and comments have been moved over to WordPress
I changed because I just didn’t like the interface of Blogger, and felt that WordPress was more feature rich.
On the subject of blogs I use RSSBandit to keep track of the blogs and news feeds I like, this grown to a rather extensive list since starting Forensic Computing. I figured I would pass on some of the most useful links.
Forensic Focus (Forum, News, Blog)
The Register (Odds and Sods, The Public Sector, Security:Crime)
LifeHacker
No Comments » Blogs, feedback, learning Permalink Posted by Dominic Nielen-Groen

Google cracked my password!

While reading my many RSS feeds I stumbled across an interesting article about the ubiquitous google.

Google have come under fire in the past for caching too much. Perhaps this article highlights why. For me it also highlights just how easy it is for people who wish to cause harm, to obtain the information that they want.

Knowing that you can just punch in an MD5 hash into google and have a high probability that you will get a positive result is scary.

This also reminded me of a book I read recently, Hacking Exposed, a book well worth reading.

Hashes and how passwords are encrypted into such hashes has been the subject of several Forensics labs and to be honest I am starting to think that passwords, although cheap to implement, are fast becoming obselete, but what is making it obselete? because as far as I know there is no direct replacement technology out there.

So what should replace it? This is an open question as I would like to hear other peoples ideas.

Cryptography

Came across an interesting article today. A judge in the U.S has ruled that it is unlawful to run hash analysis on a suspects computer without an additional warrent. The Drive was imaged using EnCase and hashed from a completely seperate hard drive, leaving the original intact.

The full story can be read at the registry.

It worries me that Judges are making it so difficult for law enforcement agencies to do their jobs, it also worries me that this could happen here, and probably already has.

Insurance Companies

Ok the title of todays post may not appear to relate very much to the purpose of this blog, but it does.

Yesterday (Tuesday 11th Nov) my significant other was involved in a road accident. So as a matter of urgency I have had to travel down to Southampton. Thankfully not as serious as it could have been.

It does mean however that I am here for the rest of the week dealing with the insurance company and providing a shoulder to cry on.

Missing 6 lectures is not ideal so will have to make use of my spare time here. For example At 1pm (the time of my Networking lab) I sat down and followed the lab pack relating to what I would have been doing. Similarly I will read through the slides from Electronics and do any background reading needed.

Organisational (lack of) skills

Uni has been a pretty steep learning curve so far. I don't anticipate the curve levelling out anytime time soon. The last 6 weeks have really been about learning to to organise my self. By that I mean how do I keep track of my assignments, hand outs, what I need to remember just in case or what I must include in something.

It has taken me a few weeks to work this out. The first 3 weeks everything was all over the place. I had no filing system or any way to track anything. I couldn't even workout what week certain work was part of!

What did I do? I began to seperate things into a logical (to me) filing system.

Firstly I purchased 3 folders 1 for each of my logbooks.
Secondly I purchased a divided notepad.

This was a good start, I now have somewhere to put logbook work. and somewhere to easily refer back to notes. This still wasn't enough though. I still couldn't work out what went where and what needed to be included or not.

Back to the drawing board.

I need to know what to do with;

handouts
lab packs
notes
assignments
logbooks

Handouts
I now mark these with the week number and date and file them in a divided folder (one divider for each module).

Lab packs
I do the same as above for these, except for electronics as the packs have to be included in the final log book. Once I have completed a pack I mark it as such.

Notes
I have two note books now one for 4 modules and one for Systems Programming (I write more for some reason). I then type up my notes as I find this helps me to remember it.

Assignments
These wll be kept on my PC. I have a folder with all my Uni work seperated by module. A hard copy will be kept in the same folder with my handouts (maybe).

Logbooks
I noticed that in both Electronics and Systems Programming there was a tendency for the lecturers to leak certain information. For example Systems Programming we are told what will potentially be in the exam and what must categorically be in the logbook. So I got some exercise books and use these to jot these things down.

Learning journey

To start off I would like to apologise for the length of this entry. I fear it will be a long one.

During Fridays ICT lecture the group was asked to explain what their short (1 year), medium (5 years) and long term (10 years) learning goals were.

I have been working through this process since last year when I have an earth shattering realisation (I think that is te best way to put it without going into to much detail). The outcome was that I realised just how much I disliked my job and the career path I had chosen and was effectively locking myself into. The next phase of this thought process was to actually decide where I wanted to go from here. So I began to formulate my short, medium and long term plan. Beginning this time last year, here it goes;

Short term goals 1 year.
September last year I saw that I needed a significant change in my life so I hatched a plan to return to education. University to be specific. The course I chose, Forensic Computing. So everything I did was essentially geared towards achieving this goal. Something I am proud to say I achieved. Lastly I have enrolled on two short courses this academic year and plan to continue this every year.

Medium term goals 5 years
Being on a 3 year course my primary goal here is to obtain my Bsc (Hons), and embark on an Msc. However my biggest medium term goal is to learn as best I can from my past mistakes. Ofcourse none of my future learning could be achieved without first finding a stable job. This of course will involve its own learning curve.

Long term goals 10 years
This is a tough one to sit and think about. 10 years in the IT industry is more or less equivalent to 30 'real' years, such is the pace of new technology. Thankfully I recognise the need for life long learning and so intend to keep abrest new developments and take courses in order to keep my qualifications up to date.
Somewhere between the later part of my 5 year plan and the early part of my 10 year plan I hope to have a family of my own. This will be the focus of my 10 year learning plan.

Languages from hell

So it is the start of week 5. I feel like I am really settling into uni life and I finally feel like I made a really great decision when I applied for Forensic Computing. Like pretty much everyone I have spoken to so far I feel like I am struggling a bit in one major area.

..... You guessed it, systems programming. Judging by the mumber of people fervently working on their log books this afternoon and listening to some of the comments being made it struck me that i'm not all that far behind on it. So why do I feel as though I am at the bottom of a very long very steep mountain?

My solution to this problem? I set up a meeting with my tutor to go over what I have so far. I hope that it goes one of two ways.

He either says "no thats not what I am looking for", or "yes you are on the right track, but..."

I don't want a pat on the back for job well done I really want to know where I am going wrong, so I can do better.