Digital Forensics Minor

The Digital Forensics Minor is a faculty-directed minor (see the URI Catalog "Minor Fields of Study") directed by Dr. Fay-Wolfe of URI's Computer Science Department. A minor is a credential (showing on your degree and transcripts) that a student earns along with a major. The Digital Forensics Minor can be done with any major.

Courses. Below is an outline of the 18 credits for a standard Digital Forensics Minor.

• (10 credits) Approved courses related to law, criminalistics, criminal behavior, and statistics.
  • At least one approved course in criminalistics or law
    Suggested courses
  • At least one approved course in statistics
    Suggested courses
  • At least one approved course in crime or law related psych/soc
    Suggested courses
  
  
• (4 credits) CSC 485 Computer Forensics
  
  
• (4 credits) CSC 486 Network Forensics or CSC 492 Computer Investigative Tools

The sequence of digital forensics courses that must be taken by all minors is:

Summer Semester	Fall Semester	Spring Semester
CSC 414 or Equivalent*	CSC 485	CSC 486 or CSC 492


*This Summer session of CSC414 is required since it covers forensics tools needed in CSC485. An alternative to CSC414 is to take a CSC491 Independent Study credits in the Summer to get the necessary background for CSC485.

Although not counted for the minor credits (and thus may be counted toward major credits), in order for Dr. Fay-Wolfe to approve the minor, students will also need to take:

• CSC414 Computer System Fundamentals or CSC491 Independent Study (pre-req to CSC485)
• CSC499 Internship done in digital forensics (one semester or summer). Internships are an essential part of this program; they are explained here. This can be taken any time after having taken CSC485.

For the Digital Forensics Minor, the student must:

• Contact Dr. Fay-Wolfe (wolfe@cs.uri.edu) to discuss the program.
• Typically we get students involved early (sophomore year) in digital forensics work in our Digital Forensics Center projects.
• Get approval from Professor Fay-Wolfe before the start of the student's second-to-last semester. Note that approval is not guaranteed.
• Get approval from the Dean of the student's college before the start of the student's last semester.
• Earn at least half of the minor credits at URI
• No course required by the student's major may be counted towards a minor. For instance, since CSC485 is required by the minor (see below), it cannot be counted as a Computer Science major course. Note that this requirement is only for major courses, it does not apply to General Education requirements.
• Achieve a GPA of at least 2.0 in the minor courses

Note that due to this being a faculty-directed minor, Dr. Fay-Wolfe has some flexibility in approving deviations from the outlined requirements. Furthermore, Dr. Fay-Wolfe has the ability to deny a student's application for the minor.

For more information email forensics@cs.uri.edu.