Course Syllabus

Course Introduction

Introductory course on digital forensics with the objective to introduce the processes, concepts, and tools used to identify, preserve, acquire, analyze, and report digital evidence. Topics include the forensic workflow and chain of custody, legal and ethical considerations, forensic imaging and evidence integrity (hashing), fundamentals of file systems and operating system artifacts, basics of disk, memory, mobile, and network forensics, timeline and log analysis, and communicating findings through clear documentation and reports.

Course Designer: Dave Nevin (2:09)

Course Instructor: Eric Muhati (4:17)

Introduce Yourself

Hop on over to Ed Discussions (the link on the navigation sidebar will take you straight there) and introduce yourself!

Course Syllabus

Click here to download a pdf version of the syllabus.

When you need to get additional help on concepts in this course, we recommend the following priority, though of course this will also depend on your own preference!

1. Search/Post on Ed Discussions (Ed Privacy Policy) and/or Teams (MS Teams Privacy Information)
2. Participate in Office Hours. No scheduling necessary, just drop in! Details follow.
3. Schedule free personalized tutoring with our College of Engineering student tutors. Make an appointment by navigating to https://engineering.oregonstate.edu/current-students/academic-support/undergraduate-tutoring.

Help Sessions

TA Help Sessions/Office Hours are held via the class-specific Microsoft Teams Team. For details on getting set up on Teams, please go Start Here - Accessing Teams. This will walk you through getting logged in to the class Team. If you need to chat with the instructor, check the Communication Policy, below.

Listing by Day (all times U.S. Pacific Time). Check Current Time Here.

Tuesday

Friday

Saturday

• Office Hours for this course will be held on our Teams channel and/or on Zoom (links here).
• Office Hours are developed during the first week and start the second week but may need to change as we get settled into our schedules.
• Office Hours will not be held during Finals Week, or on days that the University has off (holidays, inclement weather days, etc.).
• The General channel in the Teams space will include office hour announcements by the instructional staff, details such as Zoom links, and any last minute time changes.
• The TAs reserve the right to cancel or move office hours, but will give appropriate warning, if possible.
• Office Hours with the Instructor is available by appointment - reach out to by email or Teams message to schedule!

Communication Policy

I am committed to creating a digital classroom of safety and respect for all. Everyone's perspective, culture, and experience is invaluable. I will ensure everyone feels acknowledged and cherished. Should you ever need to communicate a perspective/concern, please reach out. It's crucial I get this right! I'm committed to getting it right. I will be logging into the course on a regular basis, approximately 3-5 times each week just to keep close contact.

Please post all course-related questions in the Q&A Ed Discussions board so the whole class may benefit from our conversation. Not all posts require a reply from the instructor or TAs, and often it is better for students to work on an answer to a question themselves, helping cement understanding or locate resources to answer questions. If you have a question, then it is likely that others might have similar questions or ideas to contribute to the conversation. Actually thinking about it, there's no way one can do security as a 'lone ranger'. Even in real life security agencies collaborate right? We need each other :)

For any personal questions please send an email to me or DM on Teams. I might be slow to respond on weekends and holidays but otherwise I'm pretty fast :). Also, I've noticed the Canvas comment section does not send a notifications. Maybe we don't use that right? Right!

To directly contact the TAs, open Canvas Inbox, compose a new message, select this course, then next to the ‘To’ box click the address book, select “Teaching Assistants”, then choose the name(s) of TA(s) you wish to contact. TAs will reply to most course-related questions within 48 hours. You can also contact the TAs via email given here.

If there are questions about grading, please contact your assigned grader first but feel free to reach out to an instructor directly if there are still questions afterward.

Discussion Board

The best place to ask questions and get help is on Ed discussions or Teams. The Discussion Board via VS_Ed Discussions can be found here https://edstem.org/us/dashboard.

General Resources

eCampus Resources- These resources will be useful for all of your classes throughout the term. Library Information, Helpdesk Contact Info, Canvas Tech Support, etc.