The aim of this project is to write a 5- to 10-page report on a contemporary issue of penetration testing. Please refer to the latest conference articles published by the ACM conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS) for this current year. The “program” or “accepted papers” links on the main conference web site should have a list of the titles for the published papers. They should be about 40 to 50 in number.
Go through the list of the papers and identify the ones (3 to 5) that talk about web security or mobile security. Usually, you would be able to do a simple Google search to access the full articles, although this is not always possible with all of the conference articles.
Review the articles that describe ways to exploit the web or mobile systems, and prepare a survey paper describing the concepts/facts/techniques explained in those papers. Make sure you word everything in your own words, and do not copy anything verbatim (i.e., copy+paste). If you must quote some statements or reproduce figures in your report, make sure to put the statements inside quotes, (“ “) and also cite the articles whose full reference information you have included in your bibliography.
Your final report should have the following sections:
Abstract – in about 10 lines, summarize the contents of your report.
Introduction – introduce and motivate the problem area being explored by you in about 5 small paragraphs. Also, in another paragraph (titled “Roadmap”), indicate what the reader would be finding in the next sections of the report.
Background – This is where you will explain any background knowledge required to
understand the later concepts of the report. For instance, users might not know what is a “proxy,” or an “XSS attack,” or “SSL,” etc. It is good to have one full page, possibly with figures, giving a good overview of the area.
Body – Explain the problems being considered, summarizing the findings and techniques explained in papers published in the ACM CCS conference. Also, discuss how the core values of Respect and Integrity are either protected or compromised using the contributions given in the paper.
Conclusion – Conclude the report with a brief recap of the contents and any concluding remarks you may have. You can also include pointers to future work that you feel are pertinent.
Bibliography/References – Include references to all the papers you have referred to while gathering the material included in the previous pages. use the “References” tab of MS Word and the “Citations & Bibliography” section to automatically populate the bibliography, and also provide a way to cite them in the main text of the report.
Be sure to follow APA guidelines for preparing your report, including being formatted with the following: 12-point font, double-spaced, and one-inch margins all around
