This proposal aims to establish a network forensics lab at University of Massachusetts Lowell. This proposed research and education infrastructure consists of network devices, such as network analyzers, Cisco routers, spectrum analyzer, and software for collecting and analyzing wired and wireless data.
The requested infrastructure will support three projects focusing on network forensics: (1) Tracing Anonymous Criminals on the Internet (2) Localizing and Locking Anonymous Malicious Wireless Mobiles (3) Fingerprinting Wireless Mobiles for Forensics Purpose
These projects will address issues that are critical to the nation?s security and will train students who will be sought out by industrial companies and research laboratories. The proposed research will also position UMass Lowell among the leaders in network forensics research and education.
The three projects in this proposal have the following broader impact: (i) The proposed infrastructure will enhance the research and education of network forensics, and will create an opportunity for developing new courses on network forensics and data recovery and analysis in UMass Lowell. (ii) The proposed infrastructure will also enhance the collaborations that already exist between UMass Lowell, regional security industry, and the other UMass campuses.
In the past four years, we have established the Center for Cyber Forensics (http://ccf.cs.uml.edu/) at UMass Lowell, hosting various cyber forensics infrastructures that we have purchased and have developed through this grant. Researchers on our campus and from other universities have been utilizing the infrastructure for their research and education activities. Our student Zhongli Liu (female) won a silver medal at Student Research Competition (SRC) at ACM MobiCom 2011 with her preliminary work on aerial localization using a mini-helicopter for aerial surveillance and forensic localization. Please see the attached photo of the team at MobiCom 2011, Las Vegas in September, 2011. Equipment purchased through this grant and infrastructure established through this grant have been catalyzing the proposed research. In 2011, 3 papers from our group were accepted by Infocom 2012 main conference (accept ratio %16) and one accepted by the mini-conference (accept ratio %23). Three papers were accepted by Infocom 2012 main conference and two papers were accepted by Infocom 2013 main conference. Two papers were accepted by Infocom 2014. Our journal papers have been published by IEEE/ACM Transaction on Networking, and IEEE Transaction on Mobile Computing and Computer Networks. We won the best paper award at the 8th International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems, and Applications (WASA 2013). Our work is chosen as the spotlight paper for the February 2014 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC). Please refer to the attachment.
