Preamble The topic of digital rights management (DRM) systems is a controversial one among those affected by it. Some readers are going to jump to conclusions without properly reading what I want to write on the matter and there's nothing I can do about that. To those with minds open …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. A few weeks ago I successfully defended my master’s thesis. At 55 pages long, it summarizes my research findings from two years spent in Professor Kevin Du’s lab studying the security of the Android operating system. With its …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. A few months ago I read Splinternet by Scott Malcomson. It recounts the early days of the internet and personal computing. One section in particular caught my attention—a quote taken from an abandoned Apple ad campaign: "There are monster …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. In the wake of the tragic shooting in San Bernardino, many questions remain and people want answers. It seemed like a breakthrough in the investigation was imminent when the FBI got their hands on one of the shooters’ iPhone, only …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. This summer, Carter Yagemann, a rising senior in the Computer Science program from Jupiter, Florida, spent his summer crawling the Android operating system as part of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. Everyone at Syracuse University knows that orange is the very best college color, but who knew it could also help you sleep? Research conducted in recent years has shown that sleep problems are on the rise and one theory gaining …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. A recent discovery in the security community has researchers concerned about Dell devices. Some of these devices have been found to contain something known as a self signed root certificate. Installed by the manufacturer for advertising purposes, these certificates pose …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to compete in the first-ever Collegiate Pentesting Competition along with five other members from the iSchool's Information Security Club. Hosted by RIT, this competition places competing university teams in the role of security consulting …

Originally written for the Syracuse University College of Engineering blog. Google recently announced plans to merge features from Chrome OS into Android to make the operating system suitable for use with laptops. This means that in the future, we can anticipate Android working across phones, tablets, and laptops. This is …

Android Pay has just come out on the Google Play Store and it's an interesting concept in many ways. I can't help but be curious about its internal workings and after some discussion with a co-worker, I've decided to quickly write up our initial thoughts on the application. Scope These …