Sienna
siennabates.com ∙ github ∙ mastodon ∙ twittersecurity and privacy enthusiast, researcher, AMC A-lister
Election Readiness
This paper explores previous tabletop exercises and election research conducted on Election Day issues such as line length, accessibility accommodations, and reliability of internet and voting machines. Previous articles discuss the importance of voter turnout and the impact election committees have on it. To address these challenges of Election Day planning, a tabletop exercise was developed for the Tippecanoe County Election Committee in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. This tabletop exercise explores multiple phases of Election Day as well as examples paths designers can use for the phases. ...Master's Thesis: Cybersecurity Industry Needs and the CSEC ABET Curriculum Analysis
In the recent years, companies in the IT/cybersecurity industry have expressed their concerns about the lack of knowledge entry level cybersecurity employees are experiencing after graduating from a four-year cybersecurity program. Organizations such as National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) which is led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a framework to map certain knowledge, skills, and tasks that have provided a way for universities to build their cybersecurity course curriculums. By following this framework at the competency level, it can be used to ensure students are adequately prepared for industry level jobs upon graduation from a four-year cybersecurity program. The goal of this study was to explore if there are gaps in terms of workforce development for cybersecurity competencies that graduates from ABET-accredited four-year bachelor’s cybersecurity -IT programs (Degrees and Majors) have? For this research, there were three phases: a gap analysis, a survey, and a comparison. A gap analysis was conducted to assess the current cybersecurity curriculum for Purdue University’s undergraduate four-year program. The survey was conducted amongst a list of companies, obtained from Purdue University’s Center for Career Opportunities (CCO) who have previously hired students from the four-year cybersecurity program in the Polytechnic Institute. Finally, a comparison was done to show what the gap analysis was, what was originally thought to be missing from the current curriculum, what industry said was missing, what was the same and what was different. It has been determined that a gap does exist, and this survey’s results concluded there were three common issues with hiring new cybersecurity talent as well as identified what competencies were originally thought to be missing based on the gap analysis and the industry survey. Also, while industry certifications are not required to secure entry level positions at the companies who responded to the survey, they certainly are preferred. This research can help make students from the four-year undergraduate cybersecurity program at Purdue University be more competitive when applying for entry-level cybersecurity industry positions upon graduation. ...Snapchat Forensics for iOS
Snapchat is a widely known and commonly used app amongst social media users. This application was one of the first to introduce the concept of disappearing messages, photos, or videos after viewing. Forensic analysis has been performed on different aspects of the application, typically on Android devices, such as messaging, and photo and video sharing based on whether the message or photo really is “deleted” after the allotted 10 seconds. However, since such few analyses have been done on the forensics of this application on iOS devices, the aim of this study is to focus primarily on the application of forensics on Snapchat for iOS using Cellebrite and Magnet AXIOM and comparing the results of the analyzed data to see what can be recovered. Forensic analysis will be performed by the creation and population of user data on an iPhone using the latest version of Snapchat. The gap that will be addressed is assessing how messages and photos on the iOS Snapchat application are deleted as intended and if they are not, where they would be stored. The digital artifacts such as messages, photos, videos, stories, and location data were able to be recovered and where they were found during our analysis is also discussed. A comparison was made between the software used and which was able to recover the most amount of useful data that could be used during an investigation. ...