University of Toronto Electronic Frontier Foundation Research

Objectives: 

Practice the task of independent, rigorous internet-based research, including techniques known as open source intelligence collection and threat research through the collection of materials related to hacker organizations

Understand, analyze and describe the capabilities and activities of hackers

Demonstrate a professional approach to research and analysis through the development and production of a whitepaper on hacker organizations using diffuse sources

• Assignment Structure

APA Style Cover Page (1 page)

Executive Summary / Introduction (Max 1 page)
– A brief designed to summarize the findings of the whitepaper and describe the organization for a general audience.

• History & Timeline: (Min 3 – Max 4 pages)
  – A history of the organization starting with its origins and/or earliest known activities and proceeding to present-day documenting significant or relevant events/achievements/changes to the organization. In many cases this may include legal cases, and documentation by the media. Groups may choose to include a chronological time line of significant events, which should be maximum 1 page long.
• Modus Operandi and/or Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP) (3-4 pages)
  – A description of how the hacker organization performs interventions. The purpose of this section is to identify the capabilities and behaviors of an organization using publicly available information. Different kinds of hacker organizations will likely use very different tactics, techniques and procedures. For example, a cultural organization like the W@LL or 2600 will have very different tactics as compared to the NSA or the Legion of Doom.