Prepared by: Assoc. Prof. Nalin Sharda Moderated by: Dr. Imran Jokhio July, 2017
Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Unit Code MN501
Unit Title Network Management in Organisations
Term, Year Term‐2, 2017
Assessment
Type
Assignment‐1
Assessment Title Ethical issues for IT security personnel
Purpose of the
assessment
(with ULO
Mapping)
The purpose of this assignment is to develop skills in research, critical analysis and
academic writing of high standard. In this assignment students will:
Identify potential ethical and social issues related to IT administration ethics.
Discuss ethical and social issues pertaining to IT systems‐administration.
Interpret professional codes of ethics developed by various industry bodies.
Discuss ethical behaviour in accordance with professional codes.
Explain ethical solutions to ensure that the society benefits.
Students must be able to generate ideas at abstract levels and support their
arguments with strong reasoning. Students must strengthen critical thinking skills by
answering the assignment.
Weight 10%
Total Marks 100
Word limit 500 ‐ 1000
Due Date Week‐7 Thursday 5.00 PM.
Submission
Guidelines
All work must be submitted on Moodle by the due date along with a completed
Assignment Cover Page.
The assignment must be in MS Word format, 1.5 spacing, 11‐pt Calibri (Body) font
and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings.
Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately
at the end in a reference list using IEEE referencing style.
Extension If an extension of time to submit work is required, a Special Consideration
Application must be submitted directly to the School's Administration Officer, in
Melbourne on Level 6 or in Sydney on Level 7. You must submit this application
three working days prior to the due date of the assignment. Further information is
available at:
http://www.mit.edu.au/about‐mit/institute‐publications/policies‐procedures‐and‐
guidelines/specialconsiderationdeferment
Academic
Misconduct
Academic Misconduct is a serious offence. Depending on the seriousness of the
case, penalties can vary from a written warning or zero marks to exclusion from
the course or rescinding the degree. Students should make themselves familiar
with the full policy and procedure available at:http://www.mit.edu.au/about‐
mit/institute‐publications/policies‐procedures‐and‐guidelines/Plagiarism‐
Academic‐Misconduct‐Policy‐Procedure.For further information, please refer to
the Academic Integrity Section in your Unit Description.MN501 Network Management in Organisations Page 2 of 4
Prepared by: Assoc. Prof. Nalin Sharda Moderated by: Dr. Imran Jokhio July, 2017
Assignment Description
Debra Shinder writes, “In fact, many IT pros don't even realize that their jobs involve ethical issues. Yet we
make decisions on a daily basis that raise ethical questions [1].” Debra poses the following ethical scenarios.
0) IT and security consultants who do work for multiple companies have even more ethical issues to
deal with. If you learn things about one of your clients that might affect your other client(s), where
does your loyalty lie? Should you use the information gained from Client‐A for the benefit of the
other client, Client‐B?
1) Then there are money issues. The proliferation of network attacks, hacks, viruses and other threats
to their IT infrastructures have caused many companies to "be afraid, be very afraid." As a security
consultant, it may be very easy to play on that fear to convince companies to spend far more money
than they really need to. Is it wrong for you to charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars per
hour for your services, or is it a case of "whatever the market will bear?"
2) Is it wrong for you to mark up the equipment and software that you get for the customer when you
pass the cost through? What about kickbacks from equipment manufacturers? Is it wrong to accept
"commissions" from them for persuading your clients to go with their products? Or what if the
connection is more subtle? Is it wrong to steer your clients toward the products of companies in
which you hold stock?
3) Another ethical issue involves promising more than you can deliver, or manipulating data to obtain
higher fees. You can install technologies and configure settings to make a client's network more
secure, but you can never make it completely secure. Is it wrong to talk a client into replacing their
current firewalls with those of a different manufacturer, or switching to an open source operating
system – which changes, coincidentally, will result in many more billable hours for you – on the
premise that this is the answer to their security problems?
4) What if a client asks you to save money by cutting out some of the security measures that you
recommended, yet your analysis of the client's security needs shows that sensitive information will
be at risk if you do so? You try to explain this to the client, but he/she is adamant. Should you go
ahead and configure the network in a less secure manner? Should you "eat" the cost and install the
extra security measures at no cost to the client? Should you refuse to do the job?
Investigate and reflect upon one of the above scenarios using Ethical Guidelines published by organisations
such as: EA, ACS, ACM and IEEE.
Students with ID ending with 0 or 5, answer scenario number 0
Students with ID ending with 1 or 6, answer scenario number 1
Students with ID ending with 2 or 7, answer scenario number 2
Students with ID ending with 3 or 8, answer scenario number 3
Students with ID ending with 4 or 9, answer scenario number 4
[1] D.Shinder, ‘Ethical Issues for IT security professionals’, 2005. [Online]. Available
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2557944/security0/ethical‐issues‐for‐it‐security‐
professionals.html [Accessed 28‐July‐2017]MN501 Network Management in Organisations Page 3 of 4
Prepared by: Assoc. Prof. Nalin Sharda Moderated by: Dr. Imran Jokhio July, 2017
Marking criteria:
You must use the following aspects as headings for your answer.
Marks are allocated as follows:
Aspects Description of the section Marks
Introduction Introduce the ethical issues in 3‐5 sentences 10
Identification Identify at least 2 important ethical issues 20
Analyse Analyse the above identified issues 20
Evaluate/justification Evaluate the issues and write justification of your evaluation 20
Conclusion Write clear conclusion in 2‐3 sentences 20
Reference style Follow APA or IEEE reference style 10
Total 100MN501 Network Management in Organisations Page 4 of 4
Prepared by: Assoc. Prof. Nalin Sharda Moderated by: Dr. Imran Jokhio July, 2017
Marking Rubric for Assignment‐1:Total Marks 50
Grade
Mark
HD
80‐100%
DI
70‐79%
CR
60‐69%
P
50‐59%
Fail
<50%
Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Introduction All topics are
pertinent and
covered in depth.
Ability to think
critically and
source material is
demonstrated
Topics are
relevant and
soundly
analysed.
Generally
relevant and
analysed.
Some relevance
and briefly
presented.
This is not
relevant to the
assignment
topic.
Identification Demonstrated
excellent ability to
think critically and
sourced reference
material
appropriately
Demonstrat
ed excellent
ability to
think
critically but
did not
source
reference
material
appropriatel
y
Demonstrated
ability to think
critically and
sourced
reference
material
appropriately
Demonstrated
ability to think
critically and did
not source
reference
material
appropriately
Did not
demonstrate
ability to think
critically and
did not source
reference
material
appropriately
Analyse Logic is clear and
easy to follow with
strong arguments
Consistency
logical and
convincing
Mostly
consistent
logical and
convincing
Adequate
cohesion and
conviction
Argument is
confused and
disjointed
Evaluate/justific
ation
Excellent use of
creditable sources.
Accurate
referencing.
Obvious that
outstanding effort
made
Extremely
good effort
Good effort
made but not
outstanding
Made some
effort. For
example, Web
searches only
Very little
attempt to
reference. Lazy
effort with
inaccuracies
Conclusion Logic is clear and
easy to follow with
strong arguments
Consistency
logical and
convincing
Mostly
consistent
logical and
convincing
Adequate
cohesion and
conviction
Argument is
confused and
disjointed
Reference style Clear styles with
excellent source of
references.
Clear
referencing
style
Generally good
referencing
style
Sometimes
clear
referencing
style
Lacks
consistency
with many
errors