Option 1. Literature Review

Task Description

You are required to write an open-topic review essay on one of the major areas of computer security outlined below.

1. Program security

2. Web user security

3. Web application security

4. Email system security – discussed in Chapter 5 of textbook

5. Network security – discussed in Chapter 6 of textbook

6. Database security – discussed in Chapter 7 of textbook

You can also choose to write in other areas of computer security subject to the approval of unit coordinator. Your essay should focus on one and only one area in security, and provide an in-depth and comprehensive discussion on important issues in the area of your focus. Depth is much more important than coverage for this assignment. Hence concentrating on a small topic with your own insight is much better than briefly touching everything superficially. For example, a broad review essay on program security and operating system security together is probably not as good as review on program security alone, provided that they are about the same length. A review essay focusing on buffer overflow issues in program security is even better than a review essay on program security in general.

Doing research is an important step for writing a literature review, where everything starts with reading and finding ideas from the reading materials. As a starting point, you can read the relevant chapters in the textbook as well as the lecture notes corresponding to the area of focus for your review article. However, to gain more understanding and insight, you should not confine your reading to the teaching materials alone. Instead, you need to reach out and look further and deeper into the issues of interest by checking out and delving into relevant literatures, including but not limited to, published conference papers and journal articles, reference books and possibly online resources. For example, if you are to write a literature review on buffer overflow program errors, which is discussed between pages 134 and 152 in Section 3.1 of the textbook. You can find a lot more information from reference materials [ALE96], [MUD95], [PIN04] cited on those pages, which can be located by referring to the bibliography section in the end of the book. Each article referenced here also contains more references where you can look for further information. This is especially true with [MUD95] and [PIN04], two review articles on buffer overflow. Similar readings and research can be done with other topics of your choice.

Your review essay should be well structured into sections and paragraphs. Each section should come with a heading and focus on a single main point, for e.g. introduction, aims, issues, models, solutions, summary, etc. A section may further be divided into paragraphs depending on the points that they cover. You should also include a bibliography or reference section in the end of your essay, which contains references to all articles, books and online links that have been drawn upon and cited in the main essay. Your essay should contain a minimum of 2,000 words and a maximum of 3,000 words excluding the reference section in the end. Moreover, it is most important you include in your essay not only facts and findings from the textbook and other references but also your own opinions and understandings of the issues discussed in your essay that reflects your critical thinking on the topics covered.

Due to the amount of literature reading and analytic writing needed, you are advised to start early and proceed in an iterative cycle, much like working on a large software project. Your first draft may not cover all the points and be free from errors, but should contain all the critical points and the backbone of the whole essay. You can then improve upon your initial draft by adding more points and refining the existing content. This can be repeated for more iterations, and each iteration you will have an improved version. This approach will enable you to maintain efficiency in writing and maximize your productivity, and importantly help minimize last minute shock which often results from procrastination of everything.