Research materials on my Web site

In the first of these three columns, I introduced the course materials on my Web site https://www2.norwich.edu/mkabay >. In this column, I’d like to show you some of the research materials there.

Anywhere you see a link to “Cyberwatch” on my site you can click your way to the page where I’ve placed some short articles about safety in the use of the Internet. These articles are written in simple, non-technical language.

I collected and expanded the original series, originally published in a local community newspaper, in a little booklet that was printed for everyone at Norwich University in August 2002. That version is available free for download as a PDF file called “Cyber-Safety for Everyone: from Kids to Elders.” It’s 126 pages of very big print; it was reduced fourfold to make the tiny booklet. I am updating the materials for a second edition which will be half-size (thus a normal paperback size) and that I will sell through Amazon later this summer for about $9 a copy. The PDF file of the second edition will also be available for free to anyone to download.

Next, click on the “IYIR” link anywhere you see it (it and the other navigation links are on the left side of most pages). This boring-looking page at https://www2.norwich.edu/mkabay/iyir/index.htm > has a great deal of useful information in the Acrobat PDF files available for download.

Each file summarizes several hundred developments across the entire field of information security in the year noted. These cases are organized using a numerical classification for convenience; the current taxonomy is always in the “Codes (taxonomy)” file. If you’re looking for, say, illustrations of Trojan horse activity in recent years, you can search through the files using the appropriate code (or even just the keyword) to locate the incidents that may be helpful to you in your lecture or report. In addition to printing the abstracts (very kindly granted to me by the various writers and editors) and sources (usually URLs), I have also added keywords that may not always be obvious from the abstracts themselves. In this way, I hope to make the reports more useful to researchers.

I personally find the database from which these reports are generated to be invaluable in helping me locate examples or to follow trends in the field. The database is the basis for the periodic “INFOSEC Update” courses I give (the next will be in Montreal in August – more about that later).

Finally for today, take a look at the “Overviews” link, which brings you to https://www2.norwich.edu/mkabay/overviews/index.htm >. I think the most useful paper there is “Information Security Resources for Professional Development” which provides answers to frequently asked questions and summarizes a wide range of security resources including books, magazines, CDs, videos, live courses, associations, academic programs and certifications.

In my next column, I’ll look at some of the other papers on my Web site that can help readers. Again, in the meantime, don’t forget to flood my mailbox with notices of all the 404s you will undoubtedly find on my site (sigh).