Computer Security Administration at UNF with F. Layne Wallace
Our information security work started at UNF in 1988 with several students
examining PC viruses. It has grown to an Information Technology
track in Computer Security Administration and numerous independent study
projects.
All of the classes in Computer Security Administration use equipment solely dedicated to
that class so that
the students maare able to get a broader experience than students who are
limited to general purpose labs.
During the late 1980s I presented several applied talks
about how to practically avoid computer viruses to the UNF community. At that
time, computer viruses were all but unknown among the general computing
population. Ann Freudenthal
joined me for these presentations in 1991 and expanded the talks to
include Apple computers. The presentations to the UNF community
continued until 1994 and were requested by a number of different groups
outside UNF (for example, CSX, Barnett Bank, City of Jacksonville, Computer
Power, along with media outlets like TV and radio stations as well as the
Jacksonville Times-Union newspaper).
Individual students have been involved with me in educational computer
security activities at UNF since the late 1980s.
- John Patterson completed a computer security project about automated
Unix security scans in 1989 based on some automated security analysis programs I
wrote while at the University of North Texas. John later did an excellent
project creating new
encryption/authentication algorithms that are still being used today
(MegaCrypt).
- In 1991, Kathleen Minnis completed an excellent project about
computer security administration and its place in the general computing
curriculum. Her work was used in in special topics courses taught in 1993 and
in a proposal for an undergraduate computer security course in 1995.
- In 1993, Janice Engberg developed a computer policy and
procedures system for Human
Resource departments that focused on the ethics of computer data privacy along
with a software template for automating the policy management process. The
automation processes developed in this project were made available on the
Internet and are still being used by organizations.
- Also in 1993, Hal Garyn developed a description of an undergraduate
course about ethics and security complete with examples and computer demos.
- In 1999, Natalie Hartley examined secure software development within the
guidelines of professional ethics standards using software developed and
provided by local businesses. Her final product was a compendium of
prevalent software errors that could lead to security vulnerabilities. The
material from this project was used whenever I taught the School of
Computing's Senior Project courses.
- Frank Cyr, in 2000, developed a framework for Information Security
Policies and
Procedures for health organizations combining practical issues with
professional ethical concerns. This work was used by regional hospitals as
recently as 2007.
- Tom Collinge, in 2002, completed a project to develop a template for
computer systems administration policies. These formal policies are difficult
to automate in a realistic way. This project was one of the first of its type.
- In 2003, John Price completed a project about the legal issues of wireless
network vulnerabilities regarding intellectual property. The results from this
study were used by regional health and insurance organizations for
information assurance policy development.
Group classes in computer security started with a legal and ethical issues
special topics class in the summer of 1993. A number of special topics classes
about computer security have been offered since then. Courses that have become
the current Computer Security Administration track of the
Information Technology program started in 2001.
Recent Security Projects
Honeypot Configuration Efficiency - Richard Soehner - 2008
New Approaches to Rootkit Detection - Christopher Rogers - 2008
Security Testing 1st Tier Components of Web Applications - Stephen
Jones - 2008
