Golden Richard III

Professor Louisiana State University

  • Baton Rouge LA

Dr. Richard has over 45 years of practical experience in computer security and is a devoted advocate for applied cybersecurity education.

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Louisiana State University

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Biography

Golden G. Richard III is an applied computer scientist working in cybersecurity and a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He has over 45 years of practical experience in computer systems and computer security and is a devoted advocate for applied cybersecurity education. He supports NSA's CAE-CO internship program, teaching memory forensics, vulnerability analysis, and other topics to cleared interns. He is currently Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Director of the LSU Cyber Center and the Applied Cybersecurity Lab, and Associate Director for Cybersecurity at the Center for Computation and Technology (CCT) at LSU. His primary research interests are memory forensics, digital forensics, malware analysis, exploit development, reverse engineering, systems programming, and operating systems. Dr. Richard earned his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of New Orleans and M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from The Ohio State University. His first floppy drive cost $600 and required financing; despite that, he's still very much alive.

Areas of Expertise

Cybersecurity
Digital Forensics
Memory Forensics
Reverse Engineering
Malware Analysis
Operating Systems
Vulnerability Analysis
Exploit Development

Media Appearances

Cyber experts recommend you delete your data after 23andMe bankruptcy

WAFB 9  tv

2025-03-26

“This kind of personal data is really, can be used for bad things in the wrong hands,” said LSU Cyber Center Director Golden Richard.

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LSU seeing record enrollment in cybersecurity program

WAFB 9  tv

2023-10-12

“Those needs are nationwide,” said Golden Richard. “They’re not specific to federal agencies or large corporations. Everyone needs to hire cyber security people.”

Current estimations show there are roughly 750,000 open jobs in the cybersecurity industry and people like Golden Richard are trying to help meet that need.

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LSU is recognized as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations by the NSA

Louisiana Radio Network  radio

2022-09-26

LSU receives a significant designation from the National Security Agency for its cybersecurity instruction. Director of the LSU Applied Cybersecurity Lab Golden Richard said LSU’s computer science program has been recognized as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO).

“LSU was invited by the National Security Agency to be the only CAE-CO school in actually several years,” said Richard

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Research Focus

Digital & Memory Forensics

Dr. Richard’s research focuses on digital and memory forensics, reverse engineering, and malware analysis that underpin modern cybersecurity. He pairs live-memory acquisition, AI-guided artifact mining, and large-scale cloud analytics as director of LSU’s Cyber Center to unmask advanced threats and strengthen incident response for industry and law enforcement.

Accomplishments

DFRWS Best Paper Award

2014, 2015, 2016, 2021

DFRWS Best Student Paper Award

2018

Education

Ohio State University

Ph.D.

Computer Science

1994

Ohio State University

M.S.

Computer Science

1991

University of New Orleans

B.S.

Computer Science

1988

Affiliations

  • Sigma Xi
  • AAAS
  • American Academy of Forensics Sciences (AAFS) : Fellow

Articles

A step in a new direction: NVIDIA GPU kernel driver memory forensics

Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation

2024

In the ever-expanding landscape of computation, graphics processing units have become one of the most essential types of devices for personal and commercial needs. Nearly all modern computers have one or more dedicated GPUs due to advancements in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, 3D graphics rendering, and the growing demand for enhanced gaming experiences. As the GPU industry continues to grow, forensic investigations will need to incorporate these devices, given that they have large amounts of VRAM, computing power, and are used to process highly sensitive data. Past research has also shown that malware can hide its payloads within these devices and out of the view of traditional memory forensics.

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Assessing the threat of Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon devices

Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation

2023

In November 2020, Apple introduced a new architecture, Apple Silicon, that would power all new laptops and desktops. Based on ARM64 and with many custom features added by Apple, this marked a complete switch from the Intel-based systems that have powered Apple laptops and desktops for many years. With such a radical change, it was obvious that many existing digital forensics and incident response techniques would need to be re-evaluated on the platform. Similarly, several new additions to the operating system are interesting as potential abuse vectors for malware and malicious actors. In this paper, we document our effort to understand the largest threat surface unique to Apple Silicon devices. This feature, called Rosetta 2, allows 64-bit Intel applications and libraries to execute seamlessly on Apple Silicon.

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Every step you take, I'll be tracking you: Forensic analysis of the tile tracker application

Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation

2023

The rise in popularity of personal Bluetooth trackers has incited a need for forensic analysis tools that aid law enforcement in artifact recovery. With 40 million Tile devices reportedly sold at the time of writing, Tile trackers are one of the most popular personal Bluetooth trackers. This growth has not been without consequence, as reports of Bluetooth trackers being used for malicious activities have also escalated. Our work presents a forensic analysis of the Tile ecosystem and the Tile application on iOS, Android, and Windows. This analysis revealed valuable forensic artifacts that contained a diverse set of sensitive user data, including SQLite databases, XML files, cache files, and event logs. This data included information such as geolocation coordinates from the previous 30 days

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Event Appearances

Invited Panel Member, Disinformation and Cybersecurity

2020 | John Breaux Symposium, LSU  

Panel Moderator, Election Security

2020 | John Breaux Symposium, LSU,  

Keynote

2018 | 10th EAI International Conference on Digital Forensics & Cyber Crime (ICDF2C)  

Research Grants

ADP90: NASIC T-2 Program FY24

NextFlex

2025

ADP68: NASIC T-2 Program FY23

NextFlex

2024-2025

NSF POSE: Phase II: Harnessing Open High Performance Computing (HPC) Through HPX

National Science Foundation (NSF)

2024-2026

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