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Final Project (Option 2: Case Study focusing on
Cybercrime Investigation)
This
assignment does not require conducting any digital forensic analysis via EnCase.
However, you need to reflect all the class lectures that you have learned
throughout this course. Consider this assignment is creating a training manual
for presenting the evidence to the court as an expert-testimony.
Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Road had about a million
registered users from all over the world with many illegal items and services
available to the users. Interestingly, the Digital Citizens Alliance reported
that the number of drug listings actually increased on Silk Road after
Ulbricht’s arrest in October 2013.
Silk Road, an illicit online market functioning within
the “Deep Web” would be a good example of a contemporary drug market operation.
According to the F.B.I., Silk Road is the most sophisticated and extensive
criminal market place on the Internet today. 
Silk Road is similar to Amazon or Ebay, but it is used
for illicit merchandise. The marketplace made the sale of everything from
narcotics to weaponry possible: similar to purchasing a book on Amazon. Bitcoin
was designed to eliminate the need for trust through mathematical proof of
work. Trust and the ability to ensure the security and reliability of
transactions are crucial to sustained iterative commerce. The ability to ensure
trust in a digital currency was a major turning point that has largely facilitated
the success of Bitcoin. Although Bitcoin was not designed with anonymity in
mind, its construction provides anonymity to its users as evidenced in the 2013
indictment of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht (Brantly, 2014).
The Final Project will reflect your class activities
and need to demonstrate class themes and topics.
Please review the grading criteria below:
Introduction/Background of Case and Conclusion/Summary:
10 Points
Full Digital Forensic Investigation Search and Seizure
(EnCase): 30 Points
·       Importance
of handling digital evidence: cross-contamination issue & chain of custody
·       Documenting
the probable cause for justifying a search warrant
·       The
protocol for search and seizure of digital evidence  
·       Desktop
computer vs. Laptop
·       Smartphone
EnCase Forensic Analysis Plan: 40 Points
1.     Acquiring
& Processing the evidence
2.     Importance
of Hash Verification: MD 5 and SHA 1 
3.    
Analysis of Evidence: Key evidence
such as User Profile, User’s Ntuser.dat,
Registry Hives, User Profile. LNK files, windows Prefetch, and Time Zone Files,
etc.
·       Ulbricht’s desktop/laptop Favorites
and History folders along with .url extensions that may contain artifacts of
previous or repetitious visits to websites concerning illicit silk Road
services and criminal transactions.
·       The importance of File Signature
Analysis for identifying cybercriminal activities such as child pornography.
·       The significance of email analysis
·       Keyword Searching
4.     Documentation
of findings
5.     Archiving
Future Enforcement and Prevention Strategy: 10 Points
·       Micro/ Macro prevention strategies
Structure and APA style: 10 Points
You will be required to write a paper that
appropriately summarizes and evaluates a body of empirical evidence related to the
case. Since your previous class activities are relevant to your final project,
please feel free to utilize them and add more details to construct your final
paper. The Final Project will be worth 20% of your grade.
Please submit your final project as a Microsoft Word
document. You should use the following naming convention when saving your
assignment: metcj710_finalproject_YourName.doc.