Overview:

Covers theory of forensic procedures, review of identification, imaging, and authentication, 

review of FAT file system, NTFS and EXT3 file systems, partitioning, Window’s logical 

analysis, and email and web history analysis.

If this is the first time reading this page make sure you read the ENTIRE page first! Then you can jump into the downloads below. 

Download links: 

• Syllabus  (Adobe Reader is BLOATED! Download Foxit Reader for a fast free alternative PDF reader. You won't regret it: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/ ) 
• Course Lectures

This course is taught at Daytona State College as part of the Engineering Technology program.  

How My Classes Work

This class is about two things:

a) learning Linux, and

b) learning to problem solve ON YOUR OWN.

The latter is THE job of an IT, network, or security administrator.  I know a lot of your classes have been about following steps: A, B, and C.  Real life doesn't work that way. You are always in new situations, and you need to learn HOW to solve new problems. Learn that now, and you'll be 'gold.' Will you be frustrated at times?  Sure.  Will you feel less frustrated as the class proceeds?  Yes, if you practice what I show you and follow the recommendations in the lectures.  All knowledge you can apply to any IT, network, or security administrator position.  Reread the paragraph above. Learn it. Live it.  

How are you going to run Linux if you only have one computer running Windows?  Good question Grasshopper. As a student you have access to a free copy of VMWare Workstation. Workstation is a virtualization technology that allows you to run multiple operating systems on a computer, just as if you had multiple physical systems. Cool!  You can even setup subnets within Workstation to simulate a real LAN.  I will have this setup for you near the end of the first week of classes. 

You are expected to install Workstation and a Linux distribution within Workstation. Don't worry, there are videos to show you how to do everything.  It's not rocket science, but it does require some work!

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course the successful student will be able to:

• partition, format, and install Linux in a virtual machine, including updating system.
• perform file manipulation and file system navigation.
• perform access control manipulation, including changing permissions, adding users and groups, and security functions (e.g., encryption).
• find and draw upon resources available in Linux for administrative tasks.
  
    

Textbook

There is no 'required' textbook. However, we do use the RUTE Linux Tutorial, a free PDF book, as a reference.  That saves you about $100, right? You're welcome!

You can download the text here: 

Course Lectures

Click here to view All Course Lectures

Course lectures are usually 10-30 minutes long, and are in MP4 format.  More information is available or individual lectures in the link above.

I suggest you save each lecture to your hard drive so you may access it anytime. Pause when you need to. Replay when you need to.  Have you ever tried doing that in a 'live' class?  Maybe a couple fo times, but now YOU are in control.

Also, an analogy: I bought Tiger Woods' book on golf. Read the whole thing cover to cover. Now I can play golf just like Tiger. Nope.  Have to practice, again and again and again. Same thing goes for this class. Can't learn Linux by just watching a lecture. You MUST practice, as much as possible.  I highly suggest that while watching the video you have your Linux virtual machine running. Pause the video when I run a command. Run the command, see what it does.  Start the video, and repeat.  

You may ask: "Why are your videos so much shorter than a regular class?"  Have you ever seen a recording of a regular class?  Most of it is 'dead space,' nothing being said, idle chit chat, etc.  My lectures are intentionally 'dense' with material.  Take a 1.5 hour lecture, remove extraneous information, pauses, chit chat, dead space, and voila -- a condensed version that is 10-30 minutes. The 'Cliff Notes' of lectures (you young people may have to Google that).  

It takes more time to edit my videos than record them.  The condensed version allows you use YOUR time more wisely.  There's no sense in doing it any other way. You're welcome. :)

Major Topics Covered in This Course

• Installing VMWare
• Creating a virtual machine and installing Linux
• Updating your Linux system
• Navigating the file system
• Compressing and archiving files
• Searching for files by content and criteria
• Working with processes
• Communicating between computers with SSH
• Scripting
• User and group administration
• Access control
• Crytpography 

Previous Assignments

What do my assignments look like?  Good question, so here are a few sample assignments below.  Note that I change them every semester.  Why? Because 10% of the students in a class will usually be lazy and try to get by, if they can, by finding students from previous classes and using their assignments.  That's cheating, and it does a disservice to the student (who learns nothing), as well as the other students in the class who work hard to get a decent grade.  God help students that cheat.

To download the Video Walkthroughs right click and choose 'Save As...'

Assignments            Video Walkthroughs

• First                        Assignment 1
• Second                    Assignment 2
• Third                       Assignment 3
• Fourth                     Assignment 4
• Fifth                        Assignment 5

Okay, that's enough to give you an idea of what the assignments look like.  You can also go to the Course Lectures page (see link above under Course Lectures) to see how I go about solving these problems.  I STRONGLY suggest you follow along with these videos, plus my video on "How to answer questions" so you become acquainted with how to solve the problems, and how to CHECK your answers.    

Prerequisites

Experience with working with an operating system (Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux). Students will be immersed immediately using the command line in Linux. As there is no common graphical user interface, and the fact that most servers do not use a graphical user interface, students must be capable of deploying and maintaining a server without one.  (Is anything worth doing easy? No! It won't be that bad if you work at it, I promise).