IT-263 / NET-405 Network Fundamentals
Technology Report Assignment
Due Thursday, June 1st, 2023 by 5:45 pm 50 points total
You will write a short technology report paper of at least 4 pages, which will constitute 10% of your final course grade. This paper will provide a summary and discussion of information that you get from reading several current news articles about network or security topics.
Topic:
Deepfakes – Significant or Hyped Threat?
By Kevin Townsend
October 31, 2022
Requirements
· First you must find a Main News Article about some network technology or network security topic that is discussed in IT-263 / NET-405 and is of interest to you. This Main News Article must be authored (either in print or on the web) by an employee of a news or technology organization. It must have a title, author and publication date. The publication date must be in 2020 or 2021. This Main News Article will determine the central theme for your paper.
· Every student must choose their own unique Main News Article. Once you have chosen one, you should reserve your Main News Article on D2L as follows: Go to the IT-263 & NET-405 D2L web site Discussions page and look through all postings in the Technology Reports forum to see if anyone else in the class has already reserved this news article.
o If anyone else in the class has already posted the title of the same news article then you must go back and find another. Every student’s Main News Article must be unique. No two students can use the same main news article for their papers. Whoever posts the article first on D2L gets it.
o If no one else has claimed your article, then Start a New Thread in the Technology Reports topic where:
▪ Subject = the title of your Main News Article
▪ Message = Author, publication date, and URL of your article.
· Find at least 4 other related articles that you will read to learn more about your topic. These additional sources can be anything outside of the course materials. These can include other students’ Main News Articles if you find them useful.
· The paper must include the following:
o At the top of the first page, provide a complete citation of your Main News Article,
including title, author, date, URL.
o Start the paper with a 1-2 paragraph summary, in your own words, of the contents of your Main News Article. Explain why this is an important issue. Tell us why you found this article interesting and/or informative.
o Then you must refer to at least one specific IT-263 / NET-405 class session where related information was discussed (or where you expect it to be discussed if it is upcoming).
Specify the date of an IT-263 / NET-405 class session from the syllabus. Discuss how the course material is related to your main article.
o Compare and contrast the information you got from the course materials, your main article, and the additional information sources that you read.
o Add in your personal conclusions. Make a prediction as to how these technologies may change the Internet, make things better, make things worse or disappear entirely in the future.
o End with a Conclusion summarizing what you have learned.
• When your paper is complete, you must post it in TWO places on D2L: (a) first, submit your PDF paper document to the Technology Report assignment folder under Submissions, (b) then go back to D2L Discussions and find the posting/thread where you previously announced your Main News Article, click the down-arrow to the right of your thread name and select “Edit Thread”. Now click “Add Attachments” below your thread text, then upload your PDF paper document and click Update. This will allow other students in the class to view and read your paper also.
Further Details
1. 1) Submitted papers must be in PDF format. Pages must be numbered. Your name must be on the first page.
2. 2) Each paper must contain at least 4 full double-spaced pages of writing. That is, the writing should generally end on the 5th page or later. You are welcome to include figures, graphs, illustrations, etc. in your paper, but these do not count towards the four required pages of writing.
3. 3) The paper must include a Reference List on a separate page at the end listing all books, articles and web sites you read. This list must include at least five sources outside the class materials – specifically, your main article and at least four other sources.
4. 4) Each source in the reference list should be numbered and include the complete article title, author name, publication date and a URL (if it is a web site) or page numbers (if it is a book or magazine) so that I can easily look up the reference and read it myself. Example of a reference:
2. “Hacker ‘handshake’ hole found in common firewalls” by Ellen Messmer, April 2, 2018 at URL http://www.networkworld.com/news/2018/040214-hacker-exploit-firewalls.html
5. 5) To reinforce ideas in your writing, you should include some quotes from your sources with the reference list number indicated with brackets (example: Networks are “the most important business tool today[3]”) or with superscripts (example: Networks are “the most important business tool today” 3). A paper with no quotes at all will lose points. On the other hand, I want to see what you have to say, so no more than 20% of the paper content should be direct quotes.
6. 6) I expect all students to read and understand DePaul’s policy on Academic Integrity (http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu/AcademicIntegrityPolicy.pdf). In particular, it will be considered plagiarism and you will automatically fail this assignment and be reported to the Dean of CDM and the Vice President of Academic Affairs if you:
· Copy the exact words (even with minor changes) or substantial ideas from any other person, article, book, or web site without putting quotes around them and referring to an appropriate item in your reference list.
· Use information from any source which is not included in the reference list at the end of your paper.
I will be submitting the papers you submit to the TurnItIn Plagiarism Prevention system offered by DePaul (http://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism.html) to verify their originality.
7) Spell-check your paper. I will deduct points for misspelled words.
8. 8) In addition to the requirements listed above, the following grading criteria will be used for this paper:
· The paper must show me that you clearly understand the material. If you include a long quotation or a list of technical specifications, it is not worth much unless you follow up with a paragraph explaining, in your own words, why this is important and pertinent to your topic.
· Your paper should add value to the materials you’ve read. You can add value by combining materials from several sources or by explaining some information from a different viewpoint than that of the original author. Just repeating the original material with no additional comment is not worth as much.
9. 9) Examples of possible news organizations (there are many others):
· Network World – http://www.networkworld.com/
· Information Week – http://www.informationweek.com/
· SC Magazine – http://www.scmagazineus.com/
· Security Week – http://www.securityweek.com
· Info World – http://www.infoworld.com
· CNET News, ZDNET, Forbes, Computer World, CNN, ChicagoTribune, etc. etc.
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