Final Year Project Sharing: Social Media Analyzer

Project Title: Social Media Analyzer

Categories: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Social Media, EXIF Analysis
Students: Goh Zhiyan (Team Leader), Kyaw Win Shwe, Lee Xin En and Pang Jing Hui

Synopsis: The purpose of this project is to come out with a social network analyzing application.



Aim: The application will be able to perform route tracing from a given set of photos before displaying on an interactive map where details of the photos are displayed as well as to data-mine the data from social media into insightful information for cyber investigators and the curious alike.
The main aim of the project is to give the user an edge in information analysis from the set of given existing data that they never thought of getting anything useful from. This will be done in the area of social media, more specifically Facebook and Flickr in our case.

Objectives of the Project:

• To gather and analyse information that is available on social networking sites
• To aid law enforcement or cyber/forensic investigators in their investigation
• Can also benefits any parents who want to know the places their children previously went, through photographs that are geotagged
   

Pang Jing Hui,  Kyaw Win Shwe, Lee Xin En and Goh Zhiyan (Team Leader).

 

“Starting of the Final Year Project (FYP) journey was hard. But when time goes by, I realized that working on this topic for FYP is enjoyable and I have gained a great deal of knowledge on how social media works, at the same time, how marketing can be done on social media.” said Zhiyan, student leader of the project.

Another student, Kyaw said, "It has been a tiring but a fruitful and eventful journey. I learnt the fact that when everything seems all dead and buried, hold on to the very thing called faith. Overall, I have nothing but sheer delight and immense pride for being part of the FYP team."

For Xin En, it was quite a good learning experience, he said, "Through this final year project, I have learnt a great deal of things. Many things are not taught to us but we have to learn it independently and use resources like the internet to help us."

"During my FYP I have learned a lot on java programming language as we did our project in java. I also managed to learn how to use Application Programming Interface (API) for a few social media websites. Ultimately to me, my FYP is a meaning full one as it can be used out there in the IT world to help criminal investigator to solve their cases." said Jing Hui.

Final Year Project Sharing: Twitter Study

Project Title: Twitter Study

Categories: Twitter study, data mining and data analysis
Students: Gangadevi Balakrishnan (Team Leader), Siti Norfaeqah Binte Powzan, Angie Ng Chu Yi and Kok June Mun Derek

Synopsis: The purpose of the project is to develop a twitter client program and also conduct a security investigation on the twitter platform. A c# program that interacts with the twitter platform to gather and store tweets will be developed. Furthermore, a security investigation will be conducted on twitter and the findings will be shared as a report.



Aim: The aim of the project is to create a command console using Microsoft visual studios. Users will be using various commands to interact with the console. The information that is gathered using the program will be displayed on a website. This website acts as a form of interface and users can browse through the downloaded information.

 

Objectives of the Project:

• Bring a group of interesting people into one common platform and share their topics of interest
• Facilitate the study of trends and favourite topics among these people
• Promote investigation and the use of data analysis 






(From L to R) Derek, Gangadevi (Team Leader), Siti and Angie

 
“The entire process of completing this project was a very interesting and fruitful experience. Apart from learning a new programming language and gaining a better understanding of the twitter API, I have also learnt about the value of teamwork. Without my team’s cooperation and encouragement, completing this project would have been a very difficult task.” said Gangadevi, student leader of the project.

 

Another student, Fae said, "Inexperienced in doing project involving clients, FYP has been an enriching journey for me. Working closely with my teammates had also been a great experience. I gained much more from this than I ever thought I would. I have learnt more about web designing and database. I faced some difficulties while I was trying to display the tweets on the webpage, but I overcame these problems with the help from my team mates and supervisors."

For Angie, it was entirely a different experience, she said, "The past 6 months has been an amazing journey working with my teammates and with the client's organization. Learning a new programming language on our own was not an easy task since we had other modules.Being a twitter user, I've learnt the importance of security in Twitter, and also to think twice before I post any information or click on any links. It was an awesome experience overall."

"I have picked up a few things from FYP such as oAuth and C# programming, which are not taught in school. I have also realised what we learn in school is nothing but the tip of an iceberg. It was a bit difficult as it was our first time developing something we don't even have any knowledge about, but with enough time we managed to pick up the basics and developed from there. Overall, it has been fruitful as we learned something new and have been able to make a practical proof-of-concept." said Derek.

Finanl Year Project Sharing: ForenSistant

Project Title: Image Acquisition using Mobile Devices with EXIF Information Analysis
Categories: Computer Forensics, Mobile Forensics, Digital Forensics, EXIF
Students: Yang Xudong (Leader), Lin Zi Ying and Loon Ngai Fong
Organization: Singapore Polytechnic

Synopsis: The purpose of the project is to make a system that can capture photo with mobile device and synchronize it with central server for analysis of EXIF metadata as well as generation of various report formats.

Aim: The system ForenSistant comprises of a mobile application, a web service and a communication channel which are all designed and implemented in accordance with essential security considerations. It is expected to be useful in ensuring the chain of custody for forensic photography during police investigation, which could indirectly improve admissibility of the photo evidence.

 

Use of ForenSistant software suite will help establish heightened evidence security, proper access control, improved synergy with lab examination and greater convenience for the investigator. For further development, areas of focus include photo quality enhancement, cross platform stability and higher degree of encryption..

Final Year Project: The FYP intends to provide students an opportunity to integrate knowledge and technical skills they have acquired from the course and experience problem solving, communication and working as a team to work on an Infosec Security Project. In the project, the students are expected to perform problem analysis, investigation, solution design and implementation of security related project. The students usually spent one semester to complete the project.

  

Overview of the system (ForenSistant).

 

A group photograph taken at their display booth during the ITSP Showcase Day.
(From L to R) Lin Zi Ying, Loon Ngai Fong and Yang Xudong (Leader)
 

“Aside from gaining profound exposure and learning journey in terms of forensic photography and cross-platform mobile application development, there are two other crucial areas in which I have taken this ITSP as an opportunity to really hone my skills. The first would be effective communication and project management as the team lead, whilst the other is adversity handling in order to deliver results. It is my belief that knowledge can be picked up promptly but soft skills come only through prolonged practice.” said Xudong, student leader of the project.

 

Another student, Ngai Fong said, "In this project, I have learnt several things such as simple information stored in EXIF tags (e.g. GPS, Date Created and Date modified) with aid from relevant APIs, can actually help the Investigators during the image analysis. And also the importance of implementing the proper security controls like using UAC and cryptography to maintain the Chain of Custody and the CIA of the image, during the transmission or storage at the server. Overall, it has been a fruitful experience as I have learned a lot not only from the team members, but also from the research we did."

 

EHD Mini-Competition 4

26 Nov 2012. This morning, we conducted another min-competition for the Ethical Hacking and Defences (EHD) module at the Cyber Wargame Centre. Students were required to explore and exploit the vulnerabilities of the systems deployed in the infrastructure network. They were able to find and get into the systems within the first hour. Subsequently, they were required to obtain and crack the password file, part of the challenges given to the students.

It was interesting to note that the students were quite familiar with the drills by now and therefore, they were able to work through the scenarios given to them, and achieved the ultimate aim of the mini-competition.

 

 

 

 

Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Conference 2012

DISM Students Promote Cyber Wellness and 

Positive Use of Social Media Among Peers

About 450 primary school, secondary school and junior college students have come together over two days from 20th Nov to 21st Nov to learn how they can be advocates for the positive use of social media among their peers at the Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Conference 2012, held at Damai Secondary School.

The Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors' Conference is a key annual event under the Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Programme (CWSAP). The CWSAP is an initiative under BackPackLIVE!, a collaboration between the Ministry of Education (MOE), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Microsoft Singapore to inspire, explore and promote safe and responsible use of information and communications technology among students.

The theme for this year’s conference is "Be the change". It focuses on how student ambassadors can take the lead in helping their peers use social media positively and responsibly. 

Student leaders studying Diploma in Infocomm Security Management from Singapore Polytechnic have been actively involved in organizing and shaping the programme.

Some forty SP students facilitated workshops to deepen the student ambassadors' understanding of the impact of social media and practical tips that they can employ to help themselves or their friends tackle potential social media issues.

......

[Adapted from MOE Website]

Facilitator Benedict Thia Jia Jun with Primary School Ambassadors

The amiable DISM student leaders Maverick Yong and Lim Jun Liang

Kevin Chee helping young ambassadors in ideation process

Year 2 Cyber Wellness facilitator Ong Guan Wei in action!

Edmund Tang and Roxane Chan explaining about one activity

Red Hat Certifications

Two more DISM students attempted and passed Red Hat certification exams. Congratulations to them!

Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) : Chia Ching Chuen
Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) : Yang Xudong

PoliCTF 2012

[ Adapted from Team NandyNarwhals Blog Site ]

For the PoliCTF 2012 which took place on last Sunday, team Nandy Narwhals which is made up entirely of DISM SIG members and team Denial of Zervice (Doz) of industrial professionals teamed up to form Singapore Group, a collection of the only two regular CTF teams located in Singapore.

Official web page of PoliCTF 2012, which is organized by Politecnico di Milano, Italy

After 24 hours of online collaboration, the combined team managed to solve four of the challenges:

1) bin-pwn100  

2) binpwn-200  

3) binpwn-400  

4) grabbag-300 

Team "Singapore Group" finished at 19th position, with various puzzles solved

The final place of the team on the scoreboard was 19th with 1000 points, a higher ranking than famous international teams such as PPP and FluxFingers.

That is no doubt another great achievement by our DISM students. Keep up the good work, fellas!

Catch Me If You Can @ Cyber Wargame Centre

12 Nov 2012. An IT Security Game was conducted this morning at the Cyber Wargame Centre. The theme is entitled as "Catch Me If You Can". Students were required to "investigate" a crime scenario and use tools to perform the analysis of collected evidences.

It was an interesting and exciting exercise as students worked very  closely and under pressure to find/locate the culprits. Eventually, the winning team emerged and walk away with free "sweets" from the DISM Chair, Mr Liew.

The briefing by Miss Yeo.

 

Students actively engaged in the game.

 

Students from another class working hard through the scenario.

 

The scoreboard.

 

The students with the game master, Jia Sheng, a DISM Year 3 student.

 

DISM Chair, Mr Liew with the winning team.

 

Special Mention Prize, Clinton received prize from Mr Liew.
Clinton managed to get access into the scoreboard server.