Curtin Teaches Students Real-World Application of Forensic Computing and Cryptography

On November 16, Interhack founder Matt Curtin goes to Edison Community College in Piqua, Ohio, to conduct three sessions with students on topics dealing with forensic computing and cryptography.

Forensic Computing

Sometimes known as digital forensics, forensic computing is the process of analyzing data to answer specific questions for legal proceedings. In some cases, these lines of inquiry can be used to establish facts, to reconstruct information that might otherwise have been destroyed, or to offer expert opinion to the court about how to interpret certain technical facts. Matt will introduce students to an investigation conducted under his direction that identified how one company had critical information about its business stolen by an employee who was leaving the company to go to work for a competitor.

Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice of converting information in human readable form, called "cleartext," into unreadable coded format, called "ciphertext." Cryptography also concerns itself with the protection of of such information.

Since ancient Egypt, cryptography has been used by diplomats and armies to protect secrets. The twentieth century saw tremendous upheaval in the technology, moving away from mechanical to mathematical systems. Today, cryptography is used by organizations of all types to protect trade secrets, customer records, and other important information. In this session, Matt Curtin will walk students through the process of helping a large retailing company to identify sensitive customer information, and how to use cryptography to protect customers from identity theft and related fraud.

About Interhack

 Based in Columbus, Ohio, Interhack Corporation is a professional services firm with clients all over North America. Founded in 1997 by a team of information security researchers, Interhack accepted the mission to make global computing and communications infrastructures worthy of trust. Interhack's two practice areas, Information Assurance and Forensic Computing, support that mission. The company is a supporting member of The Usenix Association. Additional information about Interhack is available at web.interhack.com.