Good Essay On Cis 375 Week 1 Discussion:

CIS 375 Week 1 Discussion 1: Touchy Screens:

Question 1:
Modern devices such as smartphones and tablets do provide a good user experience when input and navigation are done via touch screens. However, in traditional remote controllers for television, music systems and other appliances, the traditional physical button input still dominates. The difference between these two types relies heavily on the type of input, user attention, and the level of precision control required.
With conventional physical electronics such as stereos and television, people are accustomed to physical button input. People’s interaction with physical controls is intuitive and natural and can be done with minimal visual attention. For example, one can type on a physical keyboard without looking at the keys, flip through TV channels without looking at the remote, or play console games with a game controller without looking at the buttons since the mind has already mapped the physical location of all keys. On the other hand, touch screens do allow for a whole new level of interaction using multitouch gestures, on screen editing and customization of icons. Despite their numerous advantages touchscreens are not preferred for remote controller input since touch input requires high visual attention since the user has to look at the screen to determine virtual button to press and this may distract them from the television watching experience.

Question 2:

With regard to the use small touchscreens on mobile devices, and large touch screens on television and monitors, ease of use advantages and limitations are similar and vary only on the scale. Small touchscreens usually require more visual attention which may lead to eye strain and glare. The quick repetitive motion of the thumb when using small touchscreens may also cause motion injuries on finger tendons. Large touch screens, on the other hand, require large continuous touch motions and the large size means screen glare is a major issue. Again, large touchscreens on television and monitors mean the user has to be in close proximity, and this does not provide a good viewing experience. In addition, television touchscreens are cumbersome to users as most users are too lazy to wake up and change the channel using on-screen gestures. CIS 375 Week 1 Discussion 2: Usability Goals.
Question 1:
When purchasing a smartphone, there are several usability and user experience features to consider and these include the screen size, support for gestures, icon placement on the screen, button versus touchscreen tradeoffs, keyboard size and orientation, onboard sensors, and other smart features. A screen that is too small means the user has trouble pressing the right virtual icons and typing while a very large screen makes it difficult to handle the phone with one hand when typing. Gesture support, proper icon placement and multitouch capability give a better typing experience. It is usually strenuous when icons and virtual keyboard keys are placed too close together or too much further apart. Features such as smart pause, smart scrolling, wave gesture detection and proximity sensing help simplify user task and aid in some tasks that users are too lazy to perform thus improving the user experience.

Question 2:

A comparison of the usability goals of the top stove control design (poorly designed) and the bottom stove controls (well designed) reveals that the top stove has quite a poor design. The design does not conform to usability aspects of proximity, affordance and cognition. However, the bottom stove solves this problem by optimizing proximity (accessibility and reach) by placing the control knobs at the center and placing them in a similar configuration to the burners. Affordance is ensured through labelling of the knobs and a design that indicates that the control knobs need to be turned like dials. Overall, the user has an idea of which knob controls which burner, how to use the knob (twisting), and can memorize these activities thus enhancing cognition.

SEC 420 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION:

SEC 420 Week 1 Discussion 1: Ethical Hacking:
Question 1:
An ethical (white hat) hacker is a computer security expert who attempts to identify vulnerabilities in computer networks and systems by penetrating them on behalf of the owners. In essence, ethical hackers compromise the security of computer systems for good and legal-ethical purposes as opposed to the unethical and criminal purposes of malicious (black hat) hackers. Ethical hackers are usually authorized by the organization to test system and network security but instead of stealing data or vandalizing the systems like malicious hackers would, ethical hackers report back to the company and informs them of how they gained access thus allowing the organization to improve system security. This activity is referred to as penetration testing. Usually, ethical hackers are hired as security consultants.
Question 2:
A grey hat hacker is in between the extremes of the white hat and black hat hacking. Grey hat hackers do not usually work for personal gain or to vandalize systems, but they may arguably to unethical things and commit crimes. For example, a white hat hacker seeks permission before penetrating systems and reports his findings to the organization. However, grey hat hackers will usually attempt to penetrate computer systems without acquiring permission and only inform the organization afterwards. While the grey hacker’s actions were well intended, he did access the system without seeking permission which is illegal. Other grey hat hackers discover flaws in systems and software and expose these flaws to the public instead of the concerned organization. While the grey hacker does not use the information for personal gain, public disclosure could lead to attacks by black hat hackers if the flaw is not fixed quickly.

SEC 435 Week 1 Discussion 1: Security Analysis and Protocol Analysis:

Question 1:
There are numerous cyber security concerns in US corporations but among these, three key concerns stand out and they include lack of a rigid security policy and strategy, the human factor in security, and constantly evolving risks. The lack of a rigid and exhaustive security policy leaves corporations stranded in case of a cyber-attack since there is no clearly defined strategy of dealing with the attack and damages incurred. On the other hand, the human factor in security is considered to be the weakest link in computer security since no matter how strong the systems are, human beings can compromise them. Issues in the human factor include attacks from disgruntled employees, poor security training, ignorance of policies, and susceptibility to social engineering (human hacking). Finally, most computer security attacks have become polymorphic, and attackers are continuously devising powerful methods of compromising systems making it hard for corporations to secure their systems fully.
Overall, corporations can solve these three security issues by devising a rigid security policy that fully covers employee security training awareness in order to deal with the human weakness in computer security. A well-designed security policy will also have exhaustive risk assessment and mitigation strategies to deal with potential risks before, during and after attacks.

Question 2: TCP handshake:

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) three-way handshake is used to establish connections between computers the TCP protocol over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The three-way handshake is known as the SYN, SYN-ACK, and ACK and involves three messages sent between two computers to negotiate a TCP connection between them before transmitting data such as web browser requests. The hand-shake process is also designed such that both ends simultaneously initiate and negotiate different TCP socket connections. This allows a single network interface to be multiplexed and allow the multiple simultaneous transfers of TCP data.
In the three-way handshake, Computer 1 sends a TCP SYN (synchronize) packet to computer 2 which receives the packet. Computer 2 then responds by sending a TCP SYN-ACK (synchronize-acknowledgement) packet which is received by computer 1. Computer 1 then sends an ACK (acknowledge) which is received by Computer 2 thus establishing a TCP connection successfully.
The TCP SYN and ACK messages are indicated by the SYN bit and ACK bit in the TCP packet header respectively. When the SYN-ACK message is sent both the SYN and ACK bits in the TCP header have their values set to 1 (both bits are on). This information on the SYN and ACK bit states enables TCP to know whether a connection is being opened, synchronized or acknowledged by the establishment of a TCP connection.