CYBER SECURITY

Section 1: Overview of Assessment
This assignment assesses the following module learning outcomes:
• Evaluate and critique the current trends and challenges in cyber security. (A,
B) • Report on evidenced speculation about likely future trends and their impact.
(A, B) • Communicate complex information clearly and effectively. (A, B)

The assignment brief describes both Component B and Component A assessment.
Component B is worth 75% of the marks for the module, Component A is worth the remaining
25%.

Broadly speaking, component B of the assignment requires you to produce a 3000-word
analysis of an issue relating to current and emerging trends in cyber security. Component A of
the assessment requires the delivery of a 15-minute presentation including questions and
answers to disseminate your findings and conclusions or roadmap for the future.
The assignment is described in more detail in section 2.
This is an individual assignment.
Working on this assignment will help you to develop your knowledge and understanding of
current trends and development in cyber security threats and challenges, it will enable you to
identify emergent trends and challenges and allow you to propose possible solutions and
roadmaps. It will also help to develop your critical reasoning skills for identifying appropriate
mitigation strategies to avoid future security incidents. If you have questions about this
assignment, please post them on the discussion board on Blackboard.

Section 2: Task Specification
Part 1A (Assessment component B) (Report): individual report

Component B – worth 75% towards the final grade):
For this assignment, you are expected to identify and explore emerging trends in cyber
security within a selected theme that you are interested in or have been covered during the
regular workshops and lectures (this should not be the same topic or area with your
dissertation topic). You need to conduct a literature review within this domain, critique the
selected and identified materials, identify key contributions, and draw conclusions about the
implications for Cyber Security of your chosen topic. Your report must include suggestions as
to how future development and challenges in network security can be addressed.
Your report should be written for a professional audience and should make an influencing
case as to why your proposal issue/solution/road-map is both important. The report is
expected to be no more than 3000 words using IEEE format

Section 4: Marking Criteria
Marking criteria for Component B:
85% and above:
Publishable material; well-presented evaluation of proposed improvements with:
Outstanding description of the selected theme and how they affect cyber security, providing
examples from case studies; use of additional sources,
Outstanding analysis of the threat landscape and current cyber security approaches,
providing examples from case studies; use of additional sources
Outstanding work on suggestions to improve cyber security and merging trends; based on a
detailed analysis of current approaches as identified in relevant papers and case studies
Uses appropriate terminology accurately; professionally presented in both layout on the page
and logical structure; impressively presented in an appropriate style; grammatically of an
extremely high standard.
Outstanding use of references, citations, up-to-date list of references and cross-comparison
of various viewpoints identified during the literature review and an outstanding proposed
solution that addressing emerging trends in cyber security.
70% and above:
You need to show very clear evidence of independent research and own critical evaluation
while discussing, providing comprehensive critique and comparisons of different views from
selected papers and the approaches attempted in addressing your chosen cyber security
dilemma, but this should be detailed enough with sufficient citations to relevant references.
A conclusion will have as well to follow from this critical evaluation in relation to cited or
Cyber Security Futures Assessment Component A and B
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suggested future research directions that are naturally the product of such evaluation or
conclusion.
60% and above:
You need to provide a critique that fully addresses the above specific report issues, detailed
enough with sufficient citations to relevant references. Also, you need to show evidence of
critical analysis of the different views and findings of papers discussed in your literature
review.
50% and above: pass
You need to provide a critique that fully addresses the identified challenges and emerging
trends and issues within your chosen theme, detailed enough with sufficient citations to
relevant references.
Less than 50%: a straight-forward recall of approaches with no critical analysis, citations to
references, and/or evaluation.