Digital Forensics Lecture at the US Embassy

I gave a lecture on Digital Forensics at the US Embassy to 10 Malta Police officers -
two Inspectors, 6 Sergeants and 2 Constables today at 3:00pm. The talk lasted for about 90 minutes and went quite well. Currently, the Malta Police Department has only 3 officers handling cyberCrimes and will most likely expand in the future. I have been informed that a number of computer security workshops hosted by the US Embassy are in the works.

Opera Across the Atlantic

Nimfa and I took the kids to the Manoel Theatre last night to watch the Opera Across the Atlantic. The performances of all the 8 opera singers from Italy, South America, and USA were excellent. Although we didn't understand what they were singing (in Italian), we enjoyed every minute of it.

Legal Frameworks for ICT Workshop

Last Friday, May 25, I delivered two lectures at the Legal Frameworks for Information and Communication Technology Workshop held in the Victoria Hotel at Sliema. The two-week workshop was organized by the Commonwealth Network of
Information Technology for Development and supported by the Malta Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I managed to establish some informal network with a number of participants from South America, the Carribean, UK, and Cyprus and hope to pursue future collaborations in the near future. My two lectures covered US regulations on computer privacy and security and digital forensics.

APT Reports and Demo

May 24, Thursday was the due date for the APT Project report and implementation demo. I am very satisfied with the quality of work that the students managed to deliver. A few went over and beyond what was required. I started reading some of the reports and noticed, at least the ones that I have read, that the students write concisely and clearly.

Monday, May 28 is the start of the three-week final exam period. I would state that this is a rather long stress enduring period for students :).

The project presentation date for my APT students is June 18. Each student is allocated 10 minutes to talk about his/her project. After that, they'll bash the beaches of Malta!

Experimental Emails-Skip

Excusez-moi for this posting. I am doing some experimental work on SPAM agents.

Sample email addresses:

jaysu@jsu.edu

emsees_AT_jsu_DOT_edu

sfran777 (add the domain name jsu DOT edu)


I'll let you know what this is all about in the future.

Digital Forensics Lecture

I delivered a lecture titled "Digital Forensics" yesterday at MCAST. I had the largest number of attendees from both MCAST and UoM. The conference facility at the Commerce and Business Department in Paola is really nice. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art audio visual system and a wireless microphone. I felt very comfortable moving around during the lecture.

I have announced the start of the digital forensic challenge competition after the lecture and it appears that I have stimulated an overwhelming interest. The winner will receive a security book from me. Hopefully in a few days, I may be able to solicit additional prizes from generous donors. For a complete competition information, view my website at

http://mcis.jsu.edu/faculty/gfrancia/MaltaLectureAPT

Friday is another volleyball day. I look forward to it!

The butcher, the grocer, and the veggie man

After doing business with those three merchants, they came to know me by face. Last week I finally managed to know them personally. The butcher (Joseph) visited the Florida during his honeymoon and was not pleased with the coldness of the people that he encountered. I tried to explain to him that that attitude in prevalent in any big city in the USA. The grocer barely talks. Most of the answers I got are yes, no, and goodbye :(. The veggie man drives around the neighborhood with his truck full of fresh produce, bottled water, and eggs (they don't refrigerate eggs so we make sure that we cook them thoroughly). We buy bottled water (6-pack of 1.5L bottle) every week because tap water is not drinkable. It cost me LM1 and a lot of muscle strain hauling the water to our 3rd floor flat. During our first three weeks, we were boiling water for our coffee and tasted some hint of saltiness. I didn't realize that the water is not fit for drinking nor cooking until a student started describing their water filtration system. It really didn't hurt us except for a slight elevation in blood pressure ;). I guess the rule is "When in doubt...ask a native"