Fulbright in Malta

Interesting links about my Fulbright

2007-07-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here are some links that pertain to my recently concluded Fulbright grant:

Food and more food

2007-07-18T19:41:00.001-07:00

A few days before we left Malta, we frantically tried to catch up with Maltese food tasting. We finally realized that we have been missing the best local gastronomy: fried-rabbit. We were very glad to have tried it and to not wonder how it really taste like. Indeed, it was very good!

A few blocks from our flat is, perhaps, the best cafe in Malta. The place, called Busy Bee, is located on the Msida waterfront. We ate in that place almost everyday and spent roughly about $5 per person. The specials change every day so we get a variety of meals to choose from. The place even has a wide selection of gelatos. We would end up eating our gelatos while walking back home!

We got used to having Maltese bread dipped in olive oil and garlic everyday. I have been in so many places around the globe but have not tasted a bread as good as that bread in Malta. It is crunchy on the outside but soft inside. The french bread is the closest comparison but would not taste as good.

Digital Forensics Lecture at the US Embassy

2007-05-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-15T03:36:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-03T03:42:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-03T03:17:00.000-07:00

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"

APT at UoM

2007-04-26T03:53:00.000-07:00

My APT students are progressing very well. I had several one-on-one sessions this week for clarification, technical advisement, and progress report. At UoM, I noticed that most students are very proficient in programming and problem solving. This type of student preparation makes it much easier to offer a number of APT courses in a semester's time. CS students at JSU should take notice :)

The CS program in UoM is concentrated mostly on the technical side. Students do not take courses on literature, history, ethics, music, foreign languages and art. Although the computer laboratories are decently equipped, a good number of students tend to bring their own laptops to school.

I really like the idea of an APT (Applied Practical Task) course. It is either a group project or an individual task. Third year students take 3 APTs in the Spring semester--two individual APTs and one group APT. The completion of these APTs is everything for the entire semester--i.e. no other class work. I will try to emulate a similar setup for our CS499 (Special Topics is CS) course at JSU when I get back.

Gozo

2007-04-26T03:23:00.000-07:00

We finally made to the sister island of Malta--Gozo. It is quite an amazing place to visit. The churches and museum are magnificent! We didn't get to the Prehistoric temples of Ggantija which are documented to be the oldest free-standing structure in the world (about 3600 BC). It is older than the Pyramids of Egypt (2500BC), the Acropolis (600BC), and the Hanging gardens of Babylon (605BC). We'll make sure that we get there next time.

Homer alluded to the island of Gozo in his Odyssey as the island of Calypso. Here are some pictures.

MCAST Security Projects

2007-04-26T02:58:00.000-07:00

This week, I have completed the description and testing of four Computer Security projects for MCAST. These are hands-on laboratory projects that cover system reconnaissance, packet capture and analysis, Log monitoring, penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, and web and system hacking. The instructors are scheduled to be trained on these projects in May. A digital forensics laboratory exercise is currently under development.

Now for the not so serious stuff. I started playing volleyball with MCAST instructors every Friday afternoon. It is quite a stress buster plus a great way to burn flab that started to build up due to lots of pastizzi and cheese. I'll show a picture of a pastizzi next time and you'll agree that it is quite enticing. Here is a picture of my volleyball buddies!

Malta Map

2007-04-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

Check out my Google map of Malta. I'll try to update this with pictures.

Click on Malta Map with my annotations

University of Malta

2007-04-19T04:27:00.000-07:00

I finally realized that I have not taken a single picture of the University of Malta. So this 3rd week of April I am on a mission--take some pictures of the University and my students in the APT courses and publish them.

The walkway between the Halls...can't figure out which buildings???

That's me at the main entrance of University Ta' Malta!

That's the administration building

A view of Msida from our apartment balcony

My APT students in the lab...guess who's Maltese and who's French

Easter Vigil with Filipinos

2007-04-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

We were invited to a birthday party by the Filipino community in Malta on Black Saturday. After eating so much Greek and Maltese food during the past week or so, we surely are ready for Filipino food! We enjoyed the Filipino get-together with lots of singing and dancing!

Here are some pics.

R & R in Athens

2007-04-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

The Holy Week brought some needed respite from lecturing. Nimfa and I visited Athens, Greece for fours days. Athens is just a 90-minute flight from Malta. We were back in Malta on Good Friday in time to attend the Passion and Easter services.

Our trip to Athens was quite enjoyable. We managed to get familiar with the Metro system during our first day and our travel was effortless from thereon. We even made it to the Southern port of Greece: Pireaus. That is where all the cruise ship dock and load passengers. We were contemplating on going to one of the islands but, since we arrived late in the morning, we decided not to. The next day we saw on the news that one of the cruise ship went under after accidentally hitting a volcanic reef!

The highlight of our trip is our dinner at Daphne's. It is a restaurant that is visited quite frequently by dignitaries and Hollywood stars. We love their lamb fricassee!

Here are some pics!

Week 6 in Malta

2007-03-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

Everything is progressing smoothly. Lectures are being delivered; the APT courses are moving along fine. The APT students submitted their first assignment: a literature review of the topics they have been assigned. Surprisingly, only a few of them really understand what a literature review is. Essentially, I just asked them to redo the assignment. Next week, the System Architecture is due. I think they'll do much better on that part of the project.

I very interesting fact that I failed to mention earlier is that every Maltese citizen is afforded a free college education + some amount of stipend. Of course, only those who qualify get to study in the University. The others are likewise supported to go to technical schools like MCAST. They also have a socialized health care system that provides for all the citizens.

Here are some more pictures taken in Mdina and Rabat, where the early Christian catacombs are.

Week 5 in Malta

2007-03-01T03:04:00.000-08:00

Nothing much has happened this week. I delivered a lecture on Layered Security at MCAST and a lecture on Intro to Information Security at UoM. I have completed my lectures for my two APT (Applied Practical Training) courses at UoM and it is now all up to the students to design and implement their own individual projects. Still, I have to meet with them every week to make sure that they are progressing.

Nimfa is under the weather these past days due to colds and allergy. Grocery stores do not carry medicine so I have to find a pharmacy to buy her some. The cost of medication is quite expensive here. Probably, because they have to import them.

I get to do some work for JSU while here in Malta. I am currently supervising a Studio II course and a Special Topics in CS course. The Studio II presentation will be made today. Thanks to Skype, I will be able to do a live teleconferencing. Also from here, I managed to submit an NSF grant proposal two weeks ago. Sometime in early May, I (with some other MCIS faculty and GSCC faculty members) will be submitting another NSF-CCLI grant proposal. I also will be on a comprehensive exam panel in a few weeks for another student who is finishing her MS degree in General Studies. Someone, please nominate me for dedication to duty! :-)

Ciao!

Here are some pictures:

A month in Malta

2007-02-20T04:25:00.000-08:00

Wow, time has passed so quickly here in Malta. Just realized I have completed my first month.

I met with the Mr. Frank Edwards, Principal of MCAST, last week and we had a very productive talk on the role of IT in the Malta economy and on some ideas on how I can contribute.

Nimfa and I have been invited to a dinner party on Saturday by Mike and Maria Rosner at their home in Mdina. Mike is the head of the CS/AI department at the University of Malta. We tremendously enjoyed the party and met new Maltese friends! The food was excellent and the wine was great! We stayed late until half past midnight and since public transport cease to operate after 11pm, Mike graciously drove us home.

We went to Marsaxlokk, a fishing village, last Sunday and found a huge market of clothes, shoes, vegetables, and all sorts of fish! We did get some fresh fish and brought them home. We made sure that they would not smell too bad while we were in a bus going home--several plastic bags did the trick! We found the fish that Battalia cooked in one of his shows on the Food network and prepared it the same way he had it done(if my memory serves me right :-)). Truly, it is one of the best fish dinner I had eaten in my life!

The lectures are progressing very well and I find the students very enthusiastic and eager to learn.

The Carnival Ta Malta, where kids dress up in costumes, was celebrated last week. It was sort of a combined mini-Mardi Gras and Halloween. They had giant floats and long parades in Valletta. Unfortunately, we did not manage to take pictures of the festivities! However, we got pictures of the catacombs at Rabat and the cathedral at Mdina. I'll publish them next time.

Applied Practical Training lectures

2007-02-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

I conducted my first lectures today. I have two APT classes: Automated System Intrusion Discovery and Visualization of Log Files. The first class has 5 students (2 French and 3 Maltese students). The second has 3 students (all Malteses). Seems like all of them are very serious students. This is their 3rd year (2nd semester) and all of them have to take 2 individual APTS + 1 group APT this semester. They do not have any regular classroom work the entire semester! I seriously think that this is a very good setup for our students, i.e. exposing them to real and applied training. At the end of the semester, each one have to present his/her two APTs before a committee and the group APT as well. I have seen the previous reports that they have submitted for an APT and those reports look very impressive.

I have compiled my lecture notes/projects and made them available through this website : http://mcis.jsu.edu/faculty/gfrancia/MaltaLectureAPT/.

I purposely posted these so our students at JSU may have a notion of what students here in Malta do.

Faculty Development Lecture Series

2007-02-10T00:56:00.000-08:00

It's all set! Here is a list of the scheduled lectures:

***********************************************************

Lecture 1: Integrating Information Security into the CS/IT Curriculum

Intended Audience: General

Synopsis: The presentation is an overview of the integration of Information Security into a CS/IT curriculum. The need for such effort will be established and a proposed project to vertically integrate information security into a CS/IT curriculum will be discussed. Jacksonville Sate University’s security capstone courses, their implementations, resources, and projects will also be covered.

Lecture 2: Introduction to Information Security

Intended Audience: General

Synopsis: The presentation is a high level treatment of information security. It covers the three basic security issues: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Also included are topics on protocols, policies, different types of attacks, and the available technologies to thwart those attacks.

Lecture 3: Layered Perspective of Network Security: Physical to Network Layers

Intended Audience: Hardware and Network Personnel

Synopsis: This is the first of the three part series on attacking and defending the network protocol stack. It covers different methods of attack and the tools used to carry out those attacks on the three lowest layers of the OSI protocol stack. The presentation also covers protection and detection schemes that can be implemented to prevent or minimize the damage associated with such attacks.

Lecture 4: Java Visualization

Intended Audience: Software Developers

Synopsis: This lecture will cover the Java 2D visualization API found in JFreeChart. The audience will be given a hands-on tutorial on Netbeans GUI programming and on creating visual charts for various data collected from security logs and system performance logs.

Lecture 5: Layered Perspective of Network Security: Transport to Presentation Layers

Intended Audience: Hardware and Network Personnel

Synopsis: This is the second of the three part series on attacking and defending the network protocol stack. This lecture covers the methods of attacking and defending the middle OSI protocol stacks: transport, session, and presentation layers. Attack and defense tools will also be described.

Lecture 6: Java and .Net Framework Cryptography

Intended Audience: Software Developers

Synopsis: This lecture presents basic encryption and hash digest techniques. Applied cryptography will be demonstrated using actual implementations that utilize cryptographic APIs in Java and C# frameworks.

Lecture 7: Layered Perspective of Network Security: Application and People Layers

Intended Audience: Hardware and Network Personnel

Synopsis: This is the last of the three part series on attacking and defending the network protocol stack. It covers the attacks and the defenses on the topmost layer OSI layer. The most critical and vulnerable component of IT, the user, will also be closely examined.

Lecture 8: Digital Forensics

Intended Audience: General

Synopsis: This lecture presents the identification, acquisition, preservation, and analysis of digital information. It also examines the various tools used in digital forensics and the formal digital forensic reporting guidelines.

Lecture 9: Access Control

Intended Audience: General

Synopsis: This presentation examines the two major components of access control: authorization and authentication. Also covers various security models and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS).

Getting more work done...

2007-02-09T06:24:00.000-08:00

I have been here for almost 3 weeks and have not lectured yet. My first lecture will be on Tuesday, Feb 13! Seems like my materials are getting longer everyday. I think if I stop reviewing them , I'll stop adding stuff to them. Can't wait until I get to deliver my first.

It is Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm here at the College and guess? It seems like nobody is quite ready to declare that the weekend has started. Looks like they are going to work until 5pm just like any normal weekday. At 1pm on a Friday, Ayers Hall is like a deserted house--could barely find someone moving!

I finally realized how fortunate we are at the MCIS department. Instructors here at the College have to sign in and out. They have to work 40 hours a week and their actual weekly classroom teaching hours can be as high as 24! Their graded materials have to be cross-checked by other instructors and a QA representative from UK. Everything is documented on paper and signed. The University instructor's condition is much better but not even close to what we enjoy at JSU. Bottom line--let's count our blessings!

The Holy Week (first week of April--Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday) is an important week for Malta. The schools are closed for that week including the week after. Am I glad about that two week off in April? Here is what I did. As soon as I learned about the break, Nimfa and I made our travel plans to visit Athens, Greece. We made sure that we'll be back in time to observe their Good Friday, Black Saturday, and Easter Sunday celebrations.

Weather and other stuff

2007-02-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

The weather is crazy out here. We get mid-50s in the afternoon and mid 30s at night. Houses do not have central heating systems so we have to bundle ourselves at night. Our apartment is provided with a portable electric heater, so we are fine. It is hard to get up in the morning, though. I'll show you pictures of our flat next time.

I walk a few hundred feet to my office at U of Malta every Tuesdays and Thursdays; sort of a walk from Ayers to Martin Hall. On Wednesdays and Fridays, I ride with the associate director at Malta College; roughly about 3.5 miles (20 minute drive). You won't believe it, but Malta also suffers from the pains of rush-hour traffic!

I will start delivering my faculty development workshop lecture series next week at U of Malta and Malta College. Meantime, I continue to work on preparing more presentation slides.

On a very bright side, we get to enjoy the finest wine of Malta and Italy at some unbelievable costs. Malta wine cost between $1.50 to $3.00 (0.50 to 0.99 Maltese Lira) a bottle. Excellent Italian wine cost between $3.00 to $4.50 a bottle. Everywhere we go, rabbit is served; we are not that brave yet to try one. However, last week we enjoyed a fine garlic octopus and fish dinner with wine for just $21.

Malta Pictures

2007-02-03T13:22:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures that you have been waiting for!

Can you tell why I took a picture of this announcement?

Finalized my schedule

2007-02-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

I finally came up with a schedule that suits everybody. Monday is a flex day for me, i.e. getting lecture materials ready, attending to un-anticipated personal or official matters, or working with University of Malta (UoM) or Malta College of Arts, Sciences, and Technology (MCAST) if needed. I will be at UoM Tuesday and Thursday to supervise Applied Practical Trainings (APTs) and provide a lecture series on Computer Security. Wednesday and Friday are my MCAST days. My work at MCAST will be conducting a faculty development workshop and curriculum development.

I found both Mr. Rosner, head of the CS/AI department at UoM and Mr. Manduca, Director of the Institute of IT and Communications at MCAST very professional and accomodating. I am quite confident that we can make this Fulbright scholarship project a very productive undertaking that would greatly benefit a lot of people.

Work orientation

2007-01-30T03:17:00.000-08:00

Jeff Anderson of the US Embassy formally introduced me to Dr. Gordon Pace of the University of Malta's Computer Science and AI Department. We talked a bit about their department and their needs and also how I can help in improving their curriculum.

Next, we drove to Paola for about 20 minutes to meet with Mr. Juan Manduca, Director of the ICT program at the Malta College of Arts, Sciences, and Technologies (MCAST).

Overall, we had a productive meeting and will meet again next week to finalize my schedule. Jan 22- Feb 3 is the exam weeks in Malta. Essentially, I won't be working until the 5th of February.

Moving around Malta

2007-01-30T03:08:00.000-08:00

Malta's public transport system is great. Each ride is 0.20 cents ($0.60) for each area. The buses runs about 10-30 minutes and goes all around Malta. The first few days, I had some chest congestion because I am not use to the smoke that the buses emit and to aggravate matters, a lot of Maltese smoke in public places (I guess every European do).

We were in Valletta (the capital) almost every day last week to do some sight-seeing. They had a very big celebration last Friday--a new archbishop of Malta was installed! We went to Sliema a day after to look at the harbor and to buy some household goods. The problem with Malta is that they don't have big supermarkets like Winn-Dixie, Safeway, or Walmart. Most of the grocery stores are typically a mom-and-pop variety store.

Apartment Hunting

2007-01-30T02:55:00.000-08:00

I arranged for a realtor/leasing company to help us find apartments prior to leaving the USA.

Our estate agent came at 10am and showed us 5 furnished apartments that are very close to the University. All of them looks great but we settled on one that is just across the University gate. The rent is LM140/month . ( 1LM = $3.00). We pay for the water and electricity. Something that I have not anticipated is the commission we have to pay the estate agent. The cost is outrageous! Both the landlord and the tenant have to pay 10% of the total rental for 5 months + tax. The landlord and I ended up paying LM 82 ($246) each for an hours work of the realtor.

The apartments are furnished with TV, sofa, bed, refrigerator, washer, oven, kitchen utensils, linens, tables, airconditioner, and cleaning equiment. Nimfa kept asking for a dryer and they kept on showing her a wooden frame (they call it a dryer stand), where clothes are hang to dry. During our move, they gave a key to the dryer--a key to get to the rooftop and in there are clothes line where one can hang clothes to dry under the sun!

I'll show you some pictures next blog!

On our way to Malta

2007-01-30T02:35:00.000-08:00

We arrived at the Atlanta airport a good 3-1/2 hours before our plane is scheduled to depart. We check-in three luggages and found out that one of them is 25 lbs overweight. Either we pay $100 for that weight of get another bag where we can transfer some . (We are allowed 2 luggages per person and each should not exceed 50lbs). We decided on buying a nice $100 luggage at the airport and moved some of our stuff in there. And away we flew...

The 8 hour flight from Atlanta to London Gatwick airport was not a pleasant one. I flew so many routes around the globe and I found this to be the worst--too many air pockets and turbulences. I hardly slept on the plane. The food is not great either.

We had a 6-hour layover at the airport. we thought on going out to do a quick tour of London, but the security people advised us to just stay put. The security is must stricter in London. We are not allowed to carry more than one hand-carry so we had to check-in our other hand-carry luggages. Even Nimfa's small shoulder bag is considered a piece.

The flight to Malta took us a little over 3 hours. The British Airway's service is better than Delta. Also. the Airbus is much better than Boeing. We arrived in Malta at 7:20pm and was greeted by Jeff Anderson, the Cultural and Educational Affairs Attache fo the US Embassy. They drove us to the University Residence in Lija where a nice one bedroom apartment is prepared for us. We settled for the night and had a great sleep!

Confirmed Travel Itinerary

2007-01-18T21:15:00.000-08:00

Confirmed travel itinerary today. Expedia did an excellent job on our booking. Electronic tickets were issued and we are all set! Except for the packing of course! She'll do that the night before we leave.

APT Completed

2007-01-01T18:37:00.000-08:00

Shipped some books to Mr. Anderson of the US Embassy in Malta through diplomatic pouch after the Thanksgiving weekened. Hopefully, they get there before my arrival on the 23rd of January.

I have proposed three complete Applied Practical Training (APT) projects to University of Malta:

Visualization of Security Logs
Two Factor Authentication System
Automated System Intrusion Discovery

After a series of email exchanges with Mr. Rosner of UoM, I took out the Two-Factor Authentication System so I can concentrate on the other two APTs.

Completed my lecture notes on JFree Chart, a free charting API for Java, just after Christmas.

Plan to complete all my lecture notes by the first week of January.

Travel Arrangements

2006-11-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

Travel plans were finalized this week. Still having difficulty in finding accomodation in Malta.
Seminar/workshop notes and slides are slowly getting into shape.

As of today (11/21/2006), I have not yet decided on the Applied Practical Training (APT) topics to offer to the students at the University of Malta.

Ideas on curriculum development in computer security for Malta College of Arts, Sciences, and Technology (MCAST) are abundant. Just need to focus on items that will be of greater interest.

2006-11-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

Here is my initial blog about my adventures as a Fulbright scholar in Malta....