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Joseph S. Greenfield

Associate Professor of Technology and Applied Computing Practice

Education

  • 2019, Doctoral Degree, Computer Science, University of Rhode Island
  • 2006, Master's Degree, Computer Science, University of Southern California
  • 2005, Bachelor's Degree, Computer Engineering, University of Southern California

Biography

Joseph Greenfield is an Associate Professor of Information Technology Practice and internationally recognized expert in digital forensics and cyber investigations. Since he began teaching at USC in 2006, he has developed ten courses in the fields of information security and digital forensics in addition to building two academic minors: Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics. He also co-authored the interdisciplinary degree in Intelligence and Cyber Operations. In 2014, the Ponemon Institute ranked USC as a top ten school nationally for cybersecurity education.

His professional and academic research lie in the realm of BitTorrent forensics, specialized server acquisitions, non-standard information storage containers and parallel processing of digital forensic artifacts during bitstream imaging. His efforts were instrumental in establishing an academic alliance with the United States Secret Service and the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force. His students have graduated and pursued careers in law enforcement and private consulting companies.

He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. He completed his Ph. D. in Computer Science at the University of Rhode Island, where his research focused on parallel processing of digital forensic artifacts during bitstream imaging. He is a frequent presenter to the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force, the Information Systems Security Association and other industry groups.

In addition to being a full-time faculty member at USC, he works professionally with the Los Angeles computer forensics firm Maryman & Associates. He has the unique ability to bring his current expertise into the classroom to ensure that students have real-world examples and case studies based on current cases he is investigating. This ensures that the students from USC are the best prepared for roles in cybersecurity, digital forensics, and incident response. He leads the cyber breach investigations for the firm, and has served as an expert witness in state, federal, and international courts.

Research Summary

In addition to my dissertation work in quantifying the relationship between magnetic disk fragmentation, RAM and processor cores to perform live analysis of data during bitstream acquisition, I have led a student group to contribute to the Digital Corpora with the DC Gallery Attack.

Awards

  • 2021 Viterbi School of Engineering Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching and Education
  • 2009 United States Secret Service Certificate of Appreciation
  • 2008 Information Technology Program Outstanding Contributions