Chelsea Du

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Postgraduate Diploma in Science in Computer Security and Forensics

Q: What is your overall impression of the computer security and forensic program running at university of Canterbury?

A: I completed my Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree last year and found the security fundamental paper very interesting and I wanted to learn more in this area, therefore I chose the Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Security and Forensic program for this year. This made an interesting post graduate qualification available as well as providing me with a path to subsequently do a Masters degree. I am impressed that this program led me to extend my understanding and developed my practical skills during the many laboratory-based projects. Those papers taught by the visiting industry professionals were particularly fascinating and enabled me to feel more connected to the real world. This link between theory and practice was most valuable.

One of the most interesting areas of work evolved out of the paper on Information Warfare. This involved a very challenging and interesting practical project on SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) which provided a real world communications protocol framework to cover a wide range of security infrastructure mechanisms. As part of this course the lecturer split our class into a defending team and an attacking team, which made the practical particularly challenging and worth learning.

Overall speaking, through a whole year of study in this area of computer security and forensics, I learnt more than just basic concepts and terms but gained knowledge on how to apply these concepts. The courses were a lot of fun, particularly as a result of close interaction with both my post graduate colleagues as well as the lecturers, and I really enjoyed this.

Q: What areas did you find interesting?

A: Some course really impressed me - particularly the Security Forensics Project, as well as the courses on Computer Forensics and Cyber crime, and Information Warfare. The Information warfare course project was carried out with other members of the team and involved the development of an application that allows an individual to remotely access one or more computer systems and to perform numerous security operations (e.g., screen capture, key logging, file transfer) on these systems depending upon the privilege level of the user account.

The Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime paper was also very interesting as it involved projects on recovering data from a storage medium and assisted us to understand the operation of real world forensic investigation. Further the work on accounting forensics was also fascinating and it was very interesting learn how forensic accounting techniques can be used to explore fraud.

Another interesting project involved the security and vulnerability issues surrounding Electronic Voting for Government Elections. This project made me think about the importance of the application of security principles and not just the basic theory. It also demonstrated how weak or poorly implemented security can have disastrous consequences for both individuals and society.

I have discovered that the field of computer security and forensic is a new and growing field and it has been of great benefit for me personally to have had the opportunity to develop my skills and to prepare me for either further post graduate study and/or work in the industry.