PREREQUISITE

IFSM 300 or equivalent (or special permission of instructor) [IFSM 450 recommended]. This course was previously labelled IFSM498H, thus students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: IFSM 435 or IFSM 498H. Telnet/FTP capability and regular access to the World Wide Web using a Java-enabled, graphical Web browser are required for the DE version of this course. I suggest having at least either Internet Explorer 5.5/6.x or Netscape 6.2x/7.x. Students will need access to a Win98/ME/2000/XP computer for installing, evaluating and utilizing software for this course. Additional (free) software may be required to be downloaded during the course of the semester.

Students are required to have taken the free WebTycho tutorial called TOUR 101 or have acquired equivalent proficiency elsewhere.

TEXTS

Garfinkel, Simson with Spafford, Gene.  Web Security, Privacy & Commerce, 2nd ed.,
O'Reilly: 2002-- (ISBN: 0-596-00045-6)

View Summary Table of Contents
 
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

An introduction to the four essential elements of safe electronic commerce: the data transaction, the server, the client, and the host network. Topics include encryption, firewalls, transaction security, securing Web commerce, and Web security risk management.

A major project, involving programming, administration or research using scholarly sources in an area of Information Security and E-Commerce, will culminate in the sharing of the student's project on a web page on a UMUC resource. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the student's overall knowledge in a specific area of focus, to be determined by the instructor. 

COURSE PLACEMENT

Courses in information systems management (designated IFSM) may be applied as appropriate (according to individual program requirements) toward

• the general education requirement in computing;
• a major in information systems management, computer information technology, or management studies;
• a major or minor in computer studies;
• a certificate in various computer-related areas;
• and electives.
   

COURSE GOALS and OBJECTIVES

On successful completion of this course,  students will be able to:

· Define and describe the infrastructure components of E-commerce (competence in information technology)

· Identify and describe the risks and vulnerabilities of E-commerce (competence in information technology, civic responsibility, international perspective)

· Demonstrate competency in the technical countermeasures addressing E-commerce vulnerabilities (competence in information technology, international perspective)

· List and discuss the governmental regulations and guidance on E-commerce (competence in information technology, civic responsibility, international perspective)

· Identify and discuss the privacy and legal issues related to E-commerce (competence in information technology, civic responsibility, international perspective)

· Demonstrate competency in developing E-commerce security management programs (competence in information technology, civic responsibility, international perspective, effective writing)

 

· Demonstrate familiarity in managing LINUX environments (competence in information technology, civic responsibility, international perspective, effective writing)
 

SESSION  SCHEDULE

Academic preparation for this class, requires that you dedicate a minimum of 180 - 200 hours for this course of study.  Distance learning courses are designed for the University student whose duties, location, time, and/or other circumstances prohibit  attendance at a regularly scheduled class.   You should note that more of the burden for learning falls on the student in a distance learning course. The instructor will act as a mentor and guide, but the responsibility for reviewing, organizing, and learning course materials falls predominately on the student.  For those students who are self-motivated and disciplined, and enjoy learning on their own, successful completion of these courses shouldn't pose a problem. Please consider this carefully when budgeting your time.

We will be working in groups, and I strongly recommend that you establish close relations with your group members once you have been assigned to a group. Although group grades will not be assigned, group participation will be taken into consideration (5% of of your 25% participation grade). Members of each group will have an opportunity to provide confidential feedback about individual group members' contributions, support and assistance. A group also has the authority to expel a member (by majority vote) under justifying circumstances and after consultation with the instructor (this would have a negative impact on the affected student's participation grade).

There will also be a need to download software from the Internet. If you have a slow connection to the Internet, you will want to consider alternatives.

ASSIGNMENTS

In addition to a course project, there will be several smaller projects required for this course. Each student will be required to do these smaller projects, although you are encouraged to collaborate with your group members. Smaller projects include, but are not limited to News Reports, Software Evaluations, Internet Collaboration, Encryption, Web Site Maintenance, Web Page Security and Solaris/Linux familiarity (FTP, Telnet, E-mail).  See the WebTycho Syllabus for detailed due dates for each of these projects.

Case Studies may be assigned to groups to augment textbook coverage of a particular topic. Students will be graded both on their analysis of  the case studies, as well as the constructive critique of other students' analyses.  Case study analyses will be posted to our WebTycho environment in the appropriate week for the chapter being covered. The cases should be a collaborative effort by all members of the group. Although no group grade will be assigned, groups can disassociate (expel) a member for failure to actively participate.

COURSE PROJECT

Topics, format, and depth of the project will be coordinated on a one-on-one basis.  A formal assignment will be posted electronically by week three in  the Assignment area of WebTycho.  Although the specifics may vary, students should demonstrate an awareness of and commitment to the process of "Critical Thought."  Critical thinking means, among other things, to analyze a topic from different perspectives, to seek out causes or potential consequences of issues and events, and to apply what you have learned to new, possibly unrelated areas.  I expect you to not only integrate "critical thinking" into your academic endeavors within our distance learning community, but also to take this concept with you.

A one-page description of the student's intended project must be submitted no later than week 5, to be approved by the instructor NLT week 7.  The project is due for evaluation by week 13. 

GRADING

Plagiarism will result in academic failure for the written portion of the assignment.  Make sure you understand and respect copyrighted material.

Grades will be based on the following factors:
 

Percentage of Overall Grade
Participation/Conferencing	25%
Assignments/Projects	40%
Final examination	35%

Grading Scale

• A = 93 - 100
• B = 84 - 92.9
• C = 73 - 83.9
• D = 60 - 72.9
• F =  0 - 59

          PENALTIES FOR LATENESS: Written assignments not in by due date: 5% /day
 

Participation--WebTycho Protocols

By registering for a WebTycho course, you are making a commitment to participate in your course conferences as well as other online activities. To contact your instructor, use the WebTycho conferencing software or e-mail links provided, which allow you to communicate with the instructor and your classmates in a virtual classroom 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please plan to participate regularly. You will note in the grading policy above that your online conference participation counts 25% of your final grade.

You are required to participate in on-line conferencing, answer assigned questions/case studies and do 3 term projects, and take a final examination. The final examination will be comprehensive and consist of multiple-choice and essay questions where the most weight will be on the essay/problem solving questions.

Bi-weekly online conferencing questions provide interaction with other members of the class. The material in both the self-assessment and online conferencing questions often finds its way into the final examination.

Writing and Research: Effective writing is critical to the intellectual life of university students and graduates within the workplace. Effective managers are usually effective communicators. Your work in this course must demonstrate your ability to master and effectively communicate course content. Effective writing

· Meets the needs of the reader
· Adequately covers the subject
· Uses expected conventions of format and organizations
· Demonstrates use of credible reasoning and evidence
· Satisfies standards of style and grammatical correctness
· Requires 100% compliance with UMUC's zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism.

EXAMS

There will be one online final examination. The final exam is likely to include a mix of multiple choice questions, problems (depending on the subject matter), fill-in-the blanks, and  essay questions. There may also be a brief case problem to be analyzed.

Every student will take an online final examination. Arrangements should be made early to schedule availability for this timed examination.  Your examination will be made available during a window of 48 hours; you will have 3 hours to complete the timed exam.  You will need access to a computer with PGP installed for taking the final examination. It is your responsibility to inform the instructor, prior to the examination posting, if you are unable to partake during the scheduled time period.

Make-Up Exams

Students are expected to take examinations within the date range indicated in this syllabus or prescribed by the instructor. Students are also expected to notify the faculty member in advance if one is not able to visit our virtual class for more than 4 consecutive days.
 

PROTOCOLS AND POLICIES

If you know you're going to be on a business trip or away from an appropriate communicating device and assignments are to be  submitted during that week, as shown in the outline, please coordinate submissions with one of your group members to avoid late submission penalties.  Late assignments diminish your assigned grade by 5% for each late day. Assignments are always due on a Wednesday.  It is better to turn in assignments early to give oneself a buffer for the unexpected, unpredictable event which might otherwise lead to delays.  If for some technical reason, our WebTycho class environment is not available/accessible, please notify me by e-mail, but make sure you have tried accessing one of the alternate servers. It is highly unlikely, but not impossible, that all WebTycho servers will concurrently be unavailable.

Because you are all adults, I consider each of you a course resource  as well as a student.  Your participation improves the course  tremendously.  Much educational research has shown that the larger a part you play in your own education, the more you learn and the faster you learn it.  All questions which would normally be asked in a classroom, will be asked via the appropriate WebTycho conference by submitting a message for all fellow students to see (and respond to).

Distance education courses offered by the University of Maryland University College Maryland in Europe are conducted through computer conferencing. The distance education program is not considered independent study, and it does not attempt to emulate correspondence courses. Distance education program  students can expect to interact frequently with their fellow students and their teacher. Qualitative participation is weighted more than quantitative participation in this course.

It is each student's responsibility to maintain accurate records and transcriptions of correspondence throughout the course. Please make sure you have copies of everything which you are required to submit for grading.  In the event of electronic interruptions, an alternative delivery mode will be exercised to inform the affected parties of a problem and suggested resolutions.

You are expected to adhere to the general rules of online etiquette. To prepare to use the online conference you should read the Core Rules of Netiquette. If you are new to Distance Education keep those notes handy; you may need to refer to them during the semester. You will also want to be familiar with emoticons.

Each "to be graded" assignment will be  submitted to the WebTycho environment via your "assignment folder."  Do not submit assignments or homework to my e-mail address.

This is a very broad course in which the textbook is our main reference book.  The majority of information security and E-commerce knowledge will be learned through readings, scenarios/exercises and questions.  I expect you to have read the assigned chapters from our main text and be prepared to discuss  selected questions.  You will be responsible for all chapters as assigned.  In addition, you are responsible for all  supplemental reading assignments posted to the WebTycho class  area by the instructor.  You should check our virtual classroom at least three times a week.

One Convention that I would like us to adhere to throughout this course, is that you are not allowed to use the color RED within your documents to be graded [ Red is exclusively reserved for instructor comments ]. Normally these comments will come in the form of comments, corrections or merely to focus the reader on an area of text. You can use braces { a students' critical thought }. If there is anyone that is color blind to RED (for example, by not properly seeing the DO NOT emphasis highlighted in red twice on this syllabus), please inform the instructor.

Because we have different e-mail systems, as you are experiencing, I would like to ask you all to use your real name at  the end of your messages when sending an "0306IFSM435" message to me.  Initially, this will serve two purposes, one it will help me to identify the author and secondly it will serve as an end-of-message marker to help identify that a message has been received in its entirety. After project #2 is completed, a digital signature will supersede the plaintext real name method. ALL private e-mail messages sent to me should include the prefix "0306IFSM435:" in the subject line for a timely and proper response.

All submissions into WebTycho will be in HTML or plain text ( or marked up by the WebTycho text editor). Please DO NOT submit wordprocessing documents (e.g., MS-Word, WordPro) unless specifically requested by me.

The need for additional policies and requirements may arise during the course.  If the need arises, a new policy and/or requirement may be formulated such that this policy or requirement will be as valid as any written in this syllabus.  Please familiarize yourself with the current University of Maryland University College European Division Catalog, as this publication will serve as our guideline for academic policies and standards not otherwise mentioned within this document.  A current catalog may be obtained either from your local Field Representative or viewed at the Distance Education web site (Acrobat Reader required). 

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

All UMUC students are responsible for adhering to the UMUC policy regarding academic integrity. Obtaining or giving aid on an examination is considered academic dishonesty and will result in appropriate academic action.

Integrity in teaching and learning is a fundamental principle of a university. UMUC believes that all members of the university community share the responsibility for academic integrity, as expressed in the University System of Maryland policy "Faculty, Student, and Institutional Rights and Responsibilities for Academic Integrity." Details are available from the Office of the Dean, School of Undergraduate Studies.

Plagiarism is the presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes (but is not limited to) copying verbatim all or part of another person's work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, computer programs, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions, or research without citing the source; and using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score, or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator.

Students can avoid unintentional plagiarism by carefully following accepted scholarly practices. Notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and papers should acknowledge those sources in footnotes.

UMUC's policy on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism can be found in the current copy of the Undergraduate Catalog or is available from the Office of the Dean, School of Undergraduate Studies.

NEED FOR ASSISTANCE

If you have any condition, such as a physical or learning disability, which will make it difficult for you to carry out the work as I have outlined it, or which will require academic accommodations, please make your "need for assistance" known as soon as possible. Students with disabilities are advised to contact the office of Disabled Student Services (http://www.umuc.edu/studserv/dss.html). Under privacy laws, students are not required to tell their professors about their disability. A student with a disability need only notify the DSS office. That office will, in turn, notify the instructor about whatever accommodations that student requires.

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