ITM 416: Communications Networking & Security

Coursework

Professor Crnkovic's Assignments

There are two groups of 4 group projects (with a short presentations). Each team (2 or 3 students make a team) will be assigned one project from each group of projects (if the number of students in class is small, we will not use all projects). The max number of points is 2 times 25, making 50.

In addition, there are two homework assignments (individual). The total number of points is 50. All assignments should be uploaded into the WebCT assignments folder (if a group project, ALL group members upload both, a text file and a PPT file).

Professor Goel's Assignments

The paper assigned in the second part of the class should be done in pairs or individually and will focus on a security-related topic. If you work in groups of two, make sure that the work is equally divided. The point in writing a paper is so that you learn how to do in-depth research on a topic, think carefully and deeply about the issues, and express your own ideas as clearly as possible. Suggested research topics will be provided and students will be given separate topics. Please see the Projects/Papers section of the course site for further details and guidelines. Any other assignments will be announced in class.

PAPER ON SECURITY-RELATED TOPIC

Students can use the following sample topics as guidelines to come up with topics of their own for the final paper. Also feel free to refer to the Bruce Schneier book for inspiration. Send an email with ITM 416 in the subject header to get your topic pre-approved by the instructor. The paper should be 5 pages (SINGLE-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman, 1-inch margins on all sides). Sources should be scholarly and cited in APA style. Whenever you use an external source, MAKE SURE TO CITE IT. The paper should have an abstract, introduction, literature review, discussion, and conclusion in some way, shape, or form.

Potential Topics

  1. Specific emerging vulnerability, e.g. Bluetooth or online games
  2. Psychological perspective on hacking (who and why), e.g. espionage
  3. Impact of increasing bandwidth on security tools such as firewalls and IDS systems.
  4. Risks faced by a specific segment of the population, e.g. 6-10 year olds, rural areas.

Writing a paper should be a sustained activity that should last several days. The first phase is to understand the subject that you are writing about. Secondly, you need to develop your own ideas for the paper. Thirdly, you need to pen your ideas in a cohesive and structured manner. One good way of structuring a paper is to ask several questions to yourself.

  1. What is topic that I am writing about?
  2. Why is that topic important (motivation)?
  3. What have other people written about the topic?
  4. What are the other issues that have not been addressed in the literature?
  5. How your own views on the topic?
  6. How can I justify those views?
  7. How would you concisely summarize the paper?

Evaluating Materials Reference

APA Style Resources