ELG 2911

CSI2911

Devoir 3 / Assignment 3

For your report and presentation, you must form into groups of 3. Here is the list of suggested topics for this report. The final report is due on April 1st and the presentations will be held in class on the 1st and 8th of April.

The following is the list of topics :

1) Computer science graduates develop software for many critical systems including software for governments, banks and telecom companies. When such systems fail, many kinds of bad consequences can occur. To reduce these bad consequences, some people argue that all software development should require a license, just like engineers. Discuss the arguments for and against doing this.

2) Some argue that patents on software will stimulate innovation. Others argue that it will hamper innovation. Describe the history of software patents and the arguments for and against it.

3) One of the most famous software failures was of the London Ambulance Service. Describe what happened and how such a failure could have been prevented.

4) Discuss in detail the history of ‘sharing’ and ‘downloading’ of copyrighted music files. Discuss the various laws, legal cases and technologies involved.

5) Discuss the main cryptographic technologies that have been in place over the years (for example DES, PGP, the public key infrastructure). What are the current trends?

6) Describe the kinds of hacking tools and websites you can find on the Internet. Some people argue that active steps should be taken to shut these down; others argue that this would be a bad idea. Discuss.

7) Discuss the ICTC and its various initiatives. For example, they have divided job skills into many different categories; discuss how reasonable these are.

8) Find as many cases as you can where credit cards have been stolen used in fraud. What software defenses could have been put in place to reduce the risks? What are different banks and credit card companies doing to reduce risks as credit cards are used more and more both for online and physical purchases?

9) Discuss in detail the types of electronic auctions and the various risks and crimes that can be associated with auctions. Cite cases involving EBay and others. Discuss ways of measuring and improving trust in the context of electronic auctions.

For this assignment, each group must consider the above list of subjects as separate Requests for Proposal issued by the Corporation TCL Inc. Each group represents a contractor who wishes to tender a bid on only one of the separate projects. Your group must prepare a bid of two to three pages for one of the projects. Your bid should describe the work to be done towards the completion of the required report. You are free to make any suggestions. It is possible for more than one group to be assigned the same subject but the final project should be distinct. If too many bids are received on one subject, only the best 3 or 4 bids will be assigned to that project.