Cyber Forensics Workshop
On Tuesday 6th of February, the Computer Scientists of Year 11, 12 and ICT students of Year 13 were fortunate enough to receive a lecture from a Cyber Security and Digital Forensics expert from Birmingham City University. It was a truly inspiring and informative talk, as Mr Shabbir discussed the dynamic nature of the world as we know it: ever-changing due to innovation and increasingly powerful technology, and (as always) the demerits of this change – hacking, viruses, ransomware and so on. The seminar engaged the students in various activities, such as spotting out the seemingly meaningless digital devices in a home that can be used to find out the causes of a death. For example, the smartwatch worn by the deceased measures their heartrate and therefore could show the time of death. He talked about Steganography – the art of hiding data within other data: for example, using bit manipulation to hide a name, number or even another picture within a picture. Data hidden using steganography is extremely difficult as it is nearly impossible to know what you are looking for. For this reason, Mr Shabbir explained, this technique is being increasingly used by criminals worldwide. However, new and exciting technology is being introduced every day to help combat this issue. He also explained how digital forensics involves more than just cyber crime and it can be used in conjunction with normal crime e.g. a bank robbery, or even in civil cases like determining who receives custody of children in a divorce. The soon-to-be professor summed up the talk by informing the students of the various undergraduate (BSc) and postgraduate degrees available at BCU: Big Data Analytics, Computer Forensics and Advanced Computer Science (postgraduate only). Overall, it was a fascinating experience that the students, as well as staff, quite thoroughly enjoyed.
Wriiten by:
Britney Okhiria, 12AFI
