The aim of this course is to present and discuss methods, techniques, current best practices and standards commonly followed during the investigation of cases involving digital devices, including mobile phones. The course elaborates on how to handle devices and evidence at the crime scene, how to acquire artifacts from digital devices, how to preserve the integrity of the extractions, how to utilise open source and commercial forensic tools for analysis, how to verify the evidence presented by tools, how to write reports and how an investigator should properly testify in court. In this course, students will learn how to use forensic tools to extract and analyse digital evidence in order to conduct an efficient and high-quality investigation. This will include tools to circumvent security hardening, to acquire more information from challenging devices, to decode, and analyse the artifacts pertinent for any criminal investigation. Finally, this course discusses managerial as well as legal and ethical aspects applicable to digital forensics.
• Describe basic principles of digital forensics and identify the unique challenges involved in mobile forensics.
• Handle the crime scene based on the context and utilise the appropriate best practices, standards and legal provisions.
• Explain and compare various data acquisition and analysis techniques used in digital forensics.
• Explain and compare the internals of Android platforms such as OS architectures and file systems and learn how to circumvent device security hardening.
• Utilise open source and commercial forensics tools.
• Evaluate the evidential value of a digital artifacts and understand the importance of proper evidence handling.
• Document an investigation and properly present evidence to a court of justice.
• Appreciate and comply to applicable legal and ethical provisions
The courses of the Computer Science Department are designated with the letters "CS" followed by three decimal digits. The first digit denotes the year of study during which students are expected to enroll in the course; the second digit denotes the area of computer science to which the course belongs.
First Digit
Advised Year of Enrollment
1,2,3,4
First, Second, Third and Fourth year
5,6
Graduate courses
7,8,9
Specialized topics
Second Digit
Computer Science Area
0
Introductory - General
1
Background (Mathematics, Physics)
2
Hardware Systems
3
Networks and Telecommunication
4,5
Software Systems
6
Information Systems
7
Computer Vision and Robotics
8
Algorithms and Theory of Computation
9
Special Projects
The following pages contain tables (one for each course category) summarizing courses offered by the undergraduate studies program of the Computer Science Department at the University of Crete. Courses with code-names beginning with "MATH" or "PHYS" are taught by the Mathematics Department and Physics Department respectively at the University of Crete.