Help finding a (graduate) paper or project topic!

Question

For a computer security graduate class:

http://pastebin.com/NdA6kGQ6

That is what the professor has stated about the paper/project. I would prefer something more hands on like a project, but for the life of me can't think of something interesting. I am throwing it out there and trying to get some ideas flowing.

Any ideas at all?

I think critical infrastructure protection sounds interesting. RFID security is appealing. I have no idea how I would center a paper around it though.

I can use any ideas or thoughts for paper topics, project ideas etc. I can code in C and willing to put the time in for a nice project.

Answer 1

I'd suggest you pick a topic you're interested in and search github, sourceforge, codeplex, google code, etc. for libraries/samples related to the topic (e.g. RFID). If you limit yourself strictly to C, you may have to look a little harder, but you could also consider this a good opportunity to learn a new programming language. You can probably combine the libraries, etc. you find to build something interesting that fulfills the requirements!

If instead you choose to write a paper, search for existing work on the topic and see if you can find something especially interesting.

Note that I'm not suggesting you plagiarize -- if you build on someone else's work, be sure to give them credit, and be sure that their work was legitimate to begin with.

Here are some good starting points:

Arxiv

IEEE

ACM

Github

Google Code

Codeplex

Sourceforge

Answer 2

I think your professor has outlined a number of possible topics. Some that I find interesting are RFID, DRM, digital forensics and secure electronic voting. Pick one and do some preliminary research to see if you're interested in the topic. Search for any open source projects that relate to the topic and get started there. If you can't find anything for a specific topic, perhaps it's an opportunity for you to contribute something new to the community. Be aware that you may need to use something other than C to achieve good results.

Answer 3

If you want something topical, you could flesh out how the United States federal government identity ecosystem would work.

'Identity ecosystem' to replace passwords, draft strategy suggests

Answer 4

Although not necessarily a source of unaswered quetions or topic material, http://arxiv.org/, (e.g. http://arxiv.org/list/cs.CR/recent) might help put you in the right frame of mind.