Category: Student Projects

To: Prof. Ellis

From: MD Jahirul Hasan

Date: 03/03/2021

Subject: 500-Word Summary of Article About Security in Social Networking

The following is 500-word summary of a peer reviewed article “Geosocial Media as a Proxy for Security: A Review” by mr.Zhigang Han, Somgnian li, caihui cui, daojun han and Hongquan Song published in 2019 identifies various prominent themes in need of more research in the continuous growth of social security concern and cybercrime management. While the majority of the people are running after the short-term solution the author takes a different approach to redefine the concept of security in social networking where the user’s privacy and security concerns play a vital role in the development of a sustainable social networking and considered geosocial media as a proxy for this security. Social networking is a set of rules and configurations designed to preserve the integrity, confidentiality and usability of all software and hardware technologies for computer networks and data. To protect it from the ever-growing landscape of cyber threats in the wild today, any company, regardless of scale, sector or infrastructure, needs a degree of network security solutions in place. In other words, the author tries to make it clear to the people that Network security is the defense against hacking, misuse and unauthorized device alteration of access to files and directories on a computer network. In specific, geosocial media when paired with location information can be used as a proxy for security event detection and security situational awareness. This paper includes a synopsis of the geosocial media data and the associated processing/analysis methods used for detecting protection events and summarize the general framework of security-related analyses based on geosocial media. According to the authors, “Social media data provide rich information that reflects people’s social behavior. In the security field, various groups of terrorists and gangs have increasingly recognized the value of social media and have actively used it to plan and organize activities, recruit members, spread terrorist ideas and publish various terrorist messages to expand their influences” (Han et al., 2019, p. 154225. Considering the economical and moral elements of an equation the authors divide the security-related analysis tasks into two types: security events detection and security situational awareness and assessment. There are six types, including natural disasters, man-made disasters, violent incidents, and military events, sociopolitical events and others security events. Turning to analysis of different networking system, the author walks an extra mile to illustrate the general process of security-related analysis based on geosocial media, and identified two types of data sets: social media datasets and auxiliary analysis datasets, and discussed the corresponding data acquisition and preprocessing methods. Geosocial networks and apps, such as Facebook locations, are designed to allow their users to share their geolocated data. Among all the Personal Identifiable Information (PII), knowing the position of an individual is one of the greatest threats against his privacy. One of the most exciting prospects for geosocial media is its ubiquity around the world, including its widespread adoption by the urban poor in many developing nations. For instance, the spatio-temporal data of a person may be used to infer the location of his home and workplace, to track his movements and activities, to learn details about his center of interests or even to detect a change from his normal behavior. The articles summarized the progress of key technologies related to security events detection and assessing security situations, including natural language processing, social network analysis, location inference and geospatial analysis, and image or video understanding and visual analysis. The paper concludes with possible future directions and areas of research that could be addressed and investigated.

Reference

Han, Z., Li, S., Cui, C., Han, D., & Song H. (2019). Geosocial Media as a Proxy for Security: A Review. IEEE Access, 7, 154224-154238. https://doi-org.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2949115

TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Benson Huang
DATE: 3/3/2021
SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Article on Covid-19’s effect on Software Developers

The following is a 500-word summary of a peer-reviewed article about how they investigate the effects of the pandemic on developers’ wellbeing and productivity through surveys. Covid-19 is declared a pandemic by WHO on March 11th which resulted in lockdowns and as such many were either laid off or told to work from home. Being forced to work at home without preparing there were many problems and issues rose. According to the authors “People are less likely to comply when they are facing a loss of income, personal logistical problems, isolation, and psychological stress (as cited in DiGiovanni et al. 2004)”. Smaller businesses will try to stay open and people with basic needs at risk are less likely to comply with efforts. After the pandemic we will find more businesses allowing remote working. However, this is not practical for every business as some must work in-store and some do not have a dedicated workspace at home. There are reports of remote working being more productive but some of these reports are self-reports which may be biased. Measuring productivity for software developers is difficult as different lines of code can have varying effects on their program. Yet some companies still use it as a measure for their software developers. It has been found that software developers’ well-being is closely related to job satisfaction so keeping them happy is important. A questionnaire was sent out to collect data to find if they supported some hypotheses. The target of the study was software developers who use to work in an office but now work at home, but the survey was open to all software developers. The survey is fully anonymous with a filter question for people who did not meet the requirements. Although there was no cash for doing the survey, the authors offered to donate to an open-source project of the persons choice. To get as many responses as possible the survey was advertised on many websites, had the translation for different countries and for some countries a different website had to be used because google was blocked. According to the authors “We received 2668 total responses of which 439 did not meet our inclusion criteria and 4 were effectively blank leaving 2225” (Ralph et al., 2020, p. 4940) showing that 2 of the hypotheses were supported. Some interesting patterns were found one of which was that if someone was isolated, they tend to be more afraid. Some patterns were consistent with studies of SARS back in 2004. Overall, the results showed that software developers working from home are showing less productivity and wellbeing. As such normal productivity rates during pandemics should not be expected and employees should just accept the fact that they cannot output as much work. Some things to note about the survey Google form is blocked in some countries so an alternative is needed, working with international teams for a multilanguage survey can generate large samples, COVID-19 is creating strains on businesses, organizations, and people.

Reference

Ralph, P., Baltes, S., Adisaputri, G., Torkar, R., Kovalenko, V., Kalinowski, M., Novielli, N., Yoo, S., Devroey, X., Tan, X., Zhou, M., Turhan, B., Hoda, R., Hata, H., Milani Fard, A., & Alkadhi, R. (2020). Pandemic programming. Empirical Software Engineering, 25(6), 4927–4961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-020-09875-y

TO:  Prof. Ellis

FROM: Ralph Ayala

DATE:2/17/21

SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Article About Computer Systems

The following is a 500-word summary of an article about problems regarding implementation of applications in computer- based systems. The author discusses the effects of a model that involves technology at various levels, and decisions must be made to keep a stable and secure platform. Computer systems suffer a lack of rational function distribution in the many levels of hardware and software. Rational function distribution allows minimizing the goals that are important software elements. The issue is the combined hardware and software products of the industry have not been treated with the proper elements to perform the task of creating stable connections. A model for function distribution is used for showing the effects and costs of certain levels involving hardware and software. Each level contains different materials, and uses tools for more complicated projects. A level contains its own problem of complexity from inheriting the contents due to the process of mapping. As you go up each level, the number of people becoming active in the level increases. As each level increase, the cost of complexity increases and as it gets lower it will create less complexity. Since complexities are passed upward it has caused problems for unreliable and insecure platforms. The first principle involves giving the problem to someone else who can solve it for you. The second principle is giving the user all possibilities of what to do. The third principle is using a tool that can be adapted to perform a function. The fourth principle allows whatever design mistake is made, and determines if it can fit the needs of what has to be done. Determine if the software is useful or not. If the software becomes a mess then create software that acts as a bridge between an operating system and application on a network. The use of patches has then become useful for fixing bugs instead of using a large workforce to fix it. With the effort of stable and secure platforms, complexities can be fixed without too much effort. If there is one thing that is important it is the interface between software systems, so two approaches are created. The case of IBM System/360 turned out to contain a lot of problems regarding its complexity in decision making. Due to the overwhelming problems that had occurred, customers would not have a chance to master it in their own environment. The case of Burroughs involved multiple highly advanced products without realizing the cost and reliability needed. Had there been a more strategic plan about releasing the product, technology could have been different today. The large advancements of technology in the mid 1970s ensured that the hardware- software products that can serve good functions did not survive. The focus was then placed on the performance of processors. The compatibility cost must be made to match those safety standards, so this is a time for new architectures for computer systems to arrive. Education must be applied regarding system based knowledge to computer system architects who have worked for a lot of computer systems. Here is the role and responsibilities of a computer architect. The person must find mappings of each level and distribute functions for goals. To use a structure one must be creative and it must be central to any designers. People could just easily solve it with a solution, but there is no solution that can lead to improvements. In a field like this it is important to think about scenarios that could happen. The new dominant actor reduces the complexity of stableware platforms. There is potential for some countries to reach broad solutions regarding stable platforms. “The Russian computing industry has an early history of developing hardware–software approaches, which result in significantly simpler software” (Lawson, 2006, p. 380). The dominant customer scenario has people produce a kind of trustworthy platform. This can create potential for some catastrophe in certain areas for the business. The rebirth is the best scenario for its increase in products to fight off against other competitors. Of course the amount of effort put inside the instruction sets of such hardware must be made. The amount of competition put into such computers can help advance software. Transforming the computer industry into stableware is an amazing long term goal; however today computer systems are much needed. The vice president of research, Paul Horn, made a new field for the computer industry. This Field would require a machine that can perform at its best so users do not have to concern themselves with small details. Creating that kind of system can be quite challenging for anyone to master its complexity. Rational function distribution with autonomic computing can help contain complexities today. Large amounts of code are needed in order to achieve certain functions for the software. Computer system architects must be given with the proper knowledge to ensure secure and stable platforms. Stableware could happen in the future, but the risk to accomplish it could prove to be fetal. 

Reference

Lawson, H. W. (2006). Rational function distribution in computer system architectures: Key to stable and secure platforms. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics—part C: Applications and Reviews, 36(3), 377-381. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMCC.2006.871571

TO: Professor Jason W. Ellis.

FROM: Mamadou Diallo

Date: 03/03/2021

SUBJECT: 500-Word SUMMARY of Article about Computer Network.

Competition in the current world’s business organizations has been a helping factor to push many of them to advancement. Businesses operate under the micro and macro environment. The two environment types act as forces toward the scope of changes within the organization. Zaliwski (2005) wants to communicate to such organizations concerning the Computer Network Simulation (CNS) and Network Security Auditing (NSA) that would follow the spatial pattern. In the article, Zaliwski (2005) informs that the micro issues require immediate attention from the management system. The disruption of the business organization operations by macro-threats such as the government and the competitors is under check by the law and customs. However, the micro-level of threats involves those who are not satisfied by the laws and rules that govern the procedures. An example is the computer network threats. Therefore, the suggestion would be to have professionals who have the skills to manage the computer networks that, from the nature of the current system, must wipe out its complexity of the security-related software and easing of the security auditing methodologies. Zaliwski (2005) reports that the complexity of the system and the hardness of the methodologies make it uneasy for the staff to apply it. The proposal does not neglect that the security model must align to the policies and the procedures of the organization and working hand in hand with the organizational structure (Zaliwski, 2005). Although security systems are critical to the organization’s operations, they need to be simple for usability and easy to interact with. Besides, it needs to be cheap and involving an effective and less expensive laboratory. The use of the laboratory, in this case, is research and teaching sessions for the advancement of security system related to the computer network.

As per Zaliwski (2005), the possible method to arrive at the goal is to create a virtual computer network in a physical lab. That would mean a shortening of the physical computer chains that would have added expense to the system. The system would work with open source, commercial and rare solutions. Also, the system would require graphical network visualization. It would help the professionals to understand the data connections (Zaliwski, 2005). Besides, software for network design and administration and the management part would be necessary for the system to be effective. There is no other system that would work better except the one that involves three sub-systems. They include the spatial models, the repositories, and the virtual networks (Zaliwski, 2005). The entire system would require three computers where one would serve as the host for all virtual machines. The User Mode Linux is the creator and maintenance operator of the computer. The second would connect to the virtual world, while the third would design and keep data for auditing purposes. The system that Zaliwski (2005) describes is a lightweight one and simple for the professional use. Also, the system is cheap and affordable from the micro-business firms and the teaching departments. The auditing methodologies would be simple, unlike the existing systems that keep the professionals scratching their heads. Therefore, the solution is to move the network lab from physical to virtual.

Reference

Zaliwski, A. J. (2005). Computer network simulation and network security auditing in a spatial context of an organization. Informing Science: International Journal of an Emerging Trans discipline, 2(7), 159-168.

TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Zeela Rafija
DATE: 03/03/2021
SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Article about the Cyber weapons

The following is a 500-word summary of a peer-reviewed article about the Cyber weapons which can be divided into intrusive and unintrusive capabilities. The authors discuss about the cyber weapons, Battels and suggest taking preparation for them. According to the authors, “By 2014, the Russians had honed unintrusive (but noisy and disruptive) cyber operations down to a finely tuned science” (Hare, F., & Diehl, W., 2019, p.7). Summary of “Noisy Operations on the Silent Battlefield” by Forrest Hare and William Diehl . The article tends to revolve around the advocacy for the preparation in opposition to the utilization of un-intrusive precision cyber weapons via improved integration, acquisition, and training. The article is grounded on Dipert’s classification. It involves an explanation of the two classes regarding offensive cyber capabilities. Moreover, it also consists of an illustration of specimens of such attacks along with their types. The authors of the article offer reviews of several preceding conflicts. Their reviews involve un-intrusive cyber weapons that were influential in operational terms. The authors argue that in the Dipert’s Nomenclature, the cyber arms can be classified into different categories. They regard the classification as un-intrusive and intrusive capabilities. The invasive cyber occurrences are more focused as compared to that of un-intrusive attacks. They also noted that IOT susceptibility to the UPCW attacks was shown during the month of October in the year 2016. Several examples regarding UPCW usage are demonstrated in the article. Such as the examples of its use in the local battles are provided by the article effectively. The cyber-criminal organizations have conducted several cyber-attacks in the modern conflicts that required already positioned feats. The authors have illustrated several examples in this regard. Such as the illustration of cyberwar by Russia and how it attacked the transport, financial and other systems of Ukraine is demonstrated in a detailed manner. The intrusive system requires the specific attacker to gain access. On the other hand, the un-intrusive system does not require any such access. Instead, in this system, the sensor or server etc. is degraded so that it cannot function properly for a certain amount of time. The authors offer several potential advantages associated with the employment and development of UPCW. They state that many benefits can be enjoyed by the cyber belligerent when assimilating UPCW with orthodox military processes, such as the capability of un-intrusive correctness cyber weapons is less momentary. It entails less strictly expert operators as compared to that of intrusive ones. Moreover, the cyber operator who employs UPCW can measure the efficiency of weapons more directly. The authors of the study present the challenges concerning consuming UPCW in a particular conflict. The challenges posed in the utilization of UPCW cannot be ignored. Apart from the remunerations of emerging and less cultured UPCW, the implications regarding cyber defender are apparent. Such as the defender must get ready for improved opponent utilization of UPCW in future conflicts along with the periods of increased tensions. The limitations of the article involve that it does not take any stable position on the amalgamation of EW and cyber operations. The authors further imply that EW capabilities have been and will be utilized by the opponents. These EW capabilities will be used to acquire assimilated cyber effects. The findings demonstrate that concerning the emphasis on the defense, the friendly actors should contemplate developing and investigating more improved options in association with UPCW; this will help in enhancing the features of UPCW. The article also demonstrates that UPCW should be studied more deeply along with cyber-EW occurrences. 

Reference 

Hare, F., & Diehl, W., (2019).  Noisy Operations on the silent battlefield: The Cyber Defense Review,5(1), 153- 168. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26902668 

TO: Professor Jason W. Ellis.

FROM: Motahear Hossain.

DATE: March 3, 2021

SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Article About Smart Factory.

This memo is a 500-word summary of the article, “Smart Factory of Industry 4.0: Key Technologies, Application Case, and Challenges,” by Baotong Chen, Jiafu Wan, Lei Shu, Peng Li, Mithun Mukherjee, And Boxing Yin. This article discusses the latest of 4 distinct industrial revolutions that the world has or is currently experiencing.

According to the research, upgrading the manufacturing industry is a combination of advanced physical architecture and cyber technologies. Those technologies are constructed with three layers, including the physical resources layer, network layer, and data application layer. The researcher Chen et al. are examining those issues scientifically and try to find supplementary solutions with references. 

The traditional industry faces threats because of the rapid change in the technology sector. Currently, another advanced system is coming with integrations of computation, networking, and physical processes called the Cyber-Physical system. This system is capable of achieving advanced manufacturing systems with big data warehouses and cloud-based computing. Several studies (Benkamoun et al., 2014; Radziwon et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2016, p. 6506) found that to build a smart factory, manufacturing enterprises need to be more advanced in the production and marketing sector. It signifies a dive advancing from more outdated automation to a completely connected and flexible system. Research by Chen et al., suggests that there are still many technical problems that need to be solved in order to build a smart factory. An example of this would be the physical resources layer. The Modular Manufacturing Unit should be a self-reconfigurable robotic system with a configurable controller system, which will have the auto managing ability to take the action like extend, replace, and so on.

According to Smart Factory of Industry 4.0: Key Technologies, Application Case, and Challenges (2018), “Morales-Velazquez et al. developed a new multi-agent distributed control system to meet the requirements of intelligent reconfigurable Computer Numerical Control (CNC)” (p. 6507). Which could utilize its system of control. Another important modular manufacturing unit is intelligent data acquisition. It includes data analysis, reporting, network connectivity, and a remote-control monitoring system. For using data acquisition, the most common wireless sensor network is RFID, ZigBee, and Bluetooth; However, Zhong et al. proposed an RFID-enabled real-time manufacturing execution system (Chen et al., 2018, p. 5608). According to researcher Zhong et al., this system is capable of making decisions and guarantee responses within specified time constraints. Also, the writer proposes to have a standard OPC UA-based interaction in multi-agent systems. With this system, multiple transport layers and a sophisticated information model allow the smallest dedicated controller to freely interact with complex, high-end server applications with real-time communication. 

Despite all of this, researcher Chen et al. has drawn attention to the fact that there are still some difficulties to build a smart factory. Like in order to have a self-reconfigurable robotic system, equipment must be smart manufacturing, and the industrial internet of things should be progressive.

Reference

CHEN, B., WAN J., SHU L., LI P., MUKHERJEE M., AND YIN B. (2018). Smart factory of industry 4.0: Key technologies, application case, and challenges. IEEE Access, 6, 6505-6516. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2783682

TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Richard Rivera Urgiles
DATE: 03/03/2021
SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Article about Mobile Development Framework

The following is a 500-word summary of a peer-reviewed article about the considerations of frameworks and mobile ilities. The authors discuss how useful it is to consider using a framework and taking mobile ilities into account when developing an application. App developers start projects without having a blueprint therefore run into problems. There have been previous methods addressing these problems that were proposed but they have restrictions therefore it is not a complete solution. A solution was provided known as the ‘Integrated Framework for Mobile Application Development’ (IFMAD). This framework was introduced to a few students at a university which led to a good evaluation. The first stage of development is where if the app addresses the needs of customers and if the app is manifesting the product concept. The last stage is where the app should be ready to be launched on various platforms. There will be future updates to maintain the functionality of the app and to meet evolving customer needs. The most diverse attributes from previous evaluations/studies were taken into consideration to address common concerns within the development of an app and grouped them together to be now known as Mobile Ilities. The team of students decide to go for Scrum as the agile method to develop the app. This stage is where the team decides how the app will be designed and on what platform. The team must be wary and take into consideration the problems that may arise therefore they will have to choose the most relevant ilities that have to be addressed. More than one mobile ility can be considered from the development team so they do not limit themselves. IFMAD makes the process of meeting google play upload requirements easier. According to the authors, “The development tasks selected during the process demonstrated an understanding of the initial stage of product concept definition, with requirements and design activities, but without inclusion of such kind of activities during development sprints” which means the team had a waterfall life cycle mindset (Martinez et al., 2020, p. 72468). Data security can be hard to implement but using third party solutions such as Facebook and/or firebase can make it easier. Energy consumption and app optimization can become an issue due to a vast number of android devices in the market which release OS updates at different times. Flexibility is a big deal because it is a generic concept, but it can turn into a big deal depending on the context. Overall, the framework made a positive impact towards the app and the development team by having less errors than what you would normally have if not given a framework or mobile ilities to work with. The entire thing was a test for a university and may not apply to an actual developing team that has more experience in the real world.

Reference

Martinez, D., Ferre, X., Guerrero, G., & Juristo, N., (2020). An agile-based integrated framework for mobile application development considering ilities. IEEE Access, 8, 72461 – 72470. https://doi.org/10.1109/34.598236

TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Angela Hernandez
DATE: 3/3/2021
SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Article About Usability Smells

The following is a 500-word summary of a peer-reviewed article about the use of visualizations to detect usability smells.  The authors discuss the four methods of visualizations that they developed to identify usability smells in websites by conducting a study, collecting and evaluating the data.  According to the authors, “The proposed visualizations apply and customize existing visualization techniques, which are here used with the novel purpose of providing usability smells to evaluators” (Buono et al., 2020, p. 6902).  User satisfaction with software products is largely influenced by UX attributes.  Poorly designed usability can make it harder for users to navigate an interface.  Many methods can be used to evaluate systems but are rarely implemented by developers for a variety of reasons.  Research done on e-government websites has shown that developers need to be provided with the tools and methods to effectively evaluate and implement usability.  ‘Usability smells’ and ‘Code smells’ respectively indicate weaknesses in the design of an interface or code that can cause problems in the future.  The results reported by the study provide usability evaluators with the tools they need to detect usability smells.  There are two methods used for evaluating usability; User-based methods and analytical methods and several tools available to assist in the different stages of usability testing.  The tools available that provide visual representations help evaluators understand user behavior.  Graph-based structures are commonly used to visualize website navigation or general navigation paths.  The four graph-based structures that are used in this study are the following; Arc Diagram, Word tree, Sankey Diagram and Node-Link.  Each graph-based structure uses the same visual encoding, primarily nodes that are used to reveal usability smells.  In a study done in March 2019, 15 users were tasked with visiting a webpage.  In order to visit the specified webpage, users could take an optimal path to successfully complete the task but because the website has since been updated, the steps taken to accomplish the task might not be the same.  Scalability is not an issue when performing these tests because many of these tests involve a low number of participants executing simple tasks.  Participants were given a booklet composed of the four visualization techniques and tasks to be completed with each technique.  The facilitator introduces and explains the first visualization technique and the participant begins performing the tasks.  In order to check the overall research methodology, the procedure has been assessed by a pilot study.  Researchers created an excel file for each task performed in order to evaluate the support provided by the visualizations.  Two well-known questionnaires were used to evaluate satisfaction with each visualization technique and repeated measures are used to assess the significant differences in the four visualization techniques.  The data collected shows how well the visualization techniques provide support to the evaluators in identifying usability smells.  Despite there being some confusion about the paths certain visualization techniques provided, evaluators were able to detect the paths that led to task failure.  There were no differences between the four visualization techniques in terms of evaluator satisfaction.  

Reference

Buono, P., Caivano, D., Costabile, M. F., Desolda, G., & Lanzilotti, R. (2020). Towards the detection of ux smells: The support of visualizations. IEEE Access, 8, 6901-6914. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2961768

To: Prof. Ellis
From: Matthew Rupchand
Date: 2/10/2021
Subject: 500-Word Summary of Article About the Lack of Cyber Security

In the article “Home User Security- from Thick Security-oriented Home Users to Thin Security- oriented Home Users” by E Kritzinger and Basie von Solms, they bring up the issue of the lack of cybersecurity awareness with the growth of technology for everyday life.  According to Krizinger and Solms, the technology trend has moved towards mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Krizinger and Solms studied how cybersecurity in growing digital areas such as Africa could affect users that are unaware of all the threats that the internet can put upon them. Krizinger describes the situation in Africa that has seen an increase in technology as he describes them as “Home Users”. “Home Users” aren’t aware of the risk involved with access to the internet. They describe “Home Users” as high-value targets for cybercrime because of the lack of knowledge they possess of cybersecurity that they can and should use to protect themselves. With the growing number of computers and smartphones in homes, Krizinger & Solms consider personal and home computers to be considered as “weaker links” rather than corporate use computers because of the lack of certain security protocols. An example of a cybersecurity breakdown is Africa  “Millions of Africans are using mobile phones to pay bills, move around cash and buy basic everyday items… Africa has the fastest growing mobile phone arment in the world” (Kritzinger, 2013, pg. 340). In order to increase their security presence, we need to create computer networks that are “out of the box” says Krizinger. Citizens in Africa have skipped a generation of technology which results in them not having the knowledge to become aware of the risk that comes with technology. Krizinger states in the article that “Home users” are only aware of technical issues such as connection to the internet not issues with information being leaked. The article goes into depth about a three-step approach that can help users protect themselves from threats. Regular house computers security is at the hands of their user which Krizinger describes them as “thick security oriented users”(Kritzinger, 2013, pg. 342). The prone problems that these users are exposed to which are forgotten to download patches/updates, do not set up security settings correctly, do not keep up to date with new security risk, allow software licenses to expire, incorrect security protection, lack of cybersecurity awareness, weak passwords, and do not update their anti-virus program regularly. Lack of cybersecurity by home users can also create problems for their government. Krizinger states “Their computers can be used as platforms to launch an attack on a country’s critical information structures, a situation that could prove strategically damaging to any country”(Kritzinger, 2013, pg. 342). So to prevent this and maintain a well-balanced cybersecurity system for home users would be to dedicate the responsibility to third-party companies that will create a secure connection between the home user and the internet. Also, initiatives such as using the Australian ISP to help create more security for users will benefit them however for more extensive security coverage like malware, virus identification, and breaches the ISPs will require the ISP to take more responsibility. Another step that users could take to improve their security and connection is learning and implementing strategies that the ISP will use to help protect them and how it does it. It does work by updating anti-virus software, updating new software patches, scanning computers for viruses frequently, and stopping spam. ISPs can also assist in cybersecurity by referring users to portals that can help increase knowledge of how to use these security programs. However, the user must always keep up their knowledge of cybersecurity to ensure the most out of their security programs and protocols. Although ISPs can help increase cybersecurity in your home it will all depend on the user and how they go on with the information they receive. Simon Hackett (manager of Adelaide ISP) states “ISPs are not the gatekeepers and are not in a position legally or ethically to make decisions for users”(Hackett, 2013, pg. 343). This means that even though the ISPs can help influence decisions upon user they are not legally available to take the full decisions for them. ISPs are not able to control your desire to protect your internet activities and how much users are willing to pay for their security software. The article brings together ways that can help users improve cybersecurity for uses as they referred to it as “intermediate security-oriented home user”(Kritzinger, 2013, pg. 343) that will help users to protect their connection to the internet. The main point of this article is to bring to light how home user security can affect them with security protocols in place with initiatives and strategies to provide guidelines for services to assist in cybersecurity. 

Reference
E Kritzinger., & Basie von Solms. (2013). IEEE Xplore: Home User Security- from Thick Security-oriented Home Users to Thin Security- oriented Home Users, pp. 340-345. https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/document/6661760