Relevant technologies and applications of those technologies

In this assessment, you are required to provide a complete report of your research project, that you chose in Assessment 3 (Research Project Abstract) by discussing the following aspects:

Overview of the technology involved
Relevant technologies and applications of those technologies
Highlighting the challenges/problems in your chosen research area
Identification of any gaps in the literature by:
- discussing areas/issues that you believe have been addressed in the current literature;
- highlighting areas/issues that have not been addressed or adequately addressed; and
- discussing your view(s) on the issue(s) that you see as being critical.
Summarize the future research directions based on the identified gaps

To accomplish the above, you are expected to read and critically evaluate recent research in your selected research area by citing a minimum of 5 research articles. Students are encouraged to access such research articles from well known and reputed research portals such as IEEE, ACM, Springer, Wiley etc. Please note Wikipedia and general blogs will not be considered as reputable citations.

Rationale

This assessment continues links back to assessment 3 where students initiated their research project by selecting a research topic in an emerging area of information security.The aim of this task is to help students :

to demonstrate ability to integrate and apply information from various topics;
to build an understanding and perspective of current and emerging topics in Information Security;
to help the students to formulate their research project in a step by step manner; and
to build generic skills including, critical thinking, analysis, problem solving in the context of Information Security

Additionally, this assessment aligns with the following learning outcomes:

be able to justify security goals and the importance of maintaining the secure computing environment against digital threats;
be able to explain the fundamental concepts of cryptographic algorithms;
be able to examine malicious activities that may affect the security of a computer program and justify the choice of various controls to mitigate threats;
be able to compare and contrast the security mechanisms of a trusted operating system with those used in a general purpose operating system;
be able to investigate and justify the use of the access control mechanisms and user authentication processes;
be able to compare and contrast foundational security policies and models that deal with integrity and confidentiality.