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Security of Connected Systems
4,500 words
CW: Security Evaluation
This assignment is an individual technical report focused on the security evaluation and strategic development of a rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) systems developer based in Coventry. The client specialises in innovative IoT devices and systems for residential and commercial applications, particularly smart energy monitoring, and is planning to scale its operations and expand into new markets. The report is designed to provide practical and strategic guidance on how the organisation can achieve this growth while maintaining strong cybersecurity. The assignment requires students to act as an external IoT Security and Scaling Strategist and critically evaluate the organisation’s current and future security needs. The report covers four principal areas: organisational change strategy, secure design and development strategy, security audit strategy, and security recommendations. The organisational change section considers internal and external factors influencing growth, the development and implementation of an organisational strategy, monitoring against objectives, and approaches to leading and managing strategic change using relevant change management theories and models. The secure design and development section requires an overview and evaluation of possible secure design processes for IoT systems, including their strengths and weaknesses, followed by a recommendation for an appropriate process. The security audit section examines methods such as PTES and OWASP and develops a guide for conducting a security audit, including the testing methodology, rationale for each stage, and evaluation of different approaches. The security recommendations section requires a case study of an IoT security vulnerability, examination of where the security flaw was introduced, assessment of weaknesses in the secure design or audit process, consideration of the resulting security impact, and recommendations for improvement. The report should be written for a technical audience, particularly the client’s software development team, and should use appropriate structure, technical language, diagrams where useful, and APA referencing. The organisational strategy and strategic change proposal should be included in appendices and referenced within the main report. The assessment is worth 30 credits and has a maximum word count of 4,500 words, with the main sections weighted across organisational change, secure design, security auditing, security recommendations, and report structure.
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Cyber Security / Internet of Things / Connected Systems
4,500 words
Security Evaluation for Connected Systems: IoT Strategy, Secure Design, Security Auditing and Organisational Change
This Security of Connected Systems assessment requires students to act as an external IoT Security and Scaling Strategist for a rapidly expanding Coventry-based technology startup specialising in connected devices and smart energy-monitoring systems. The client intends to scale its operations and enter new markets and therefore requires both organisational-change guidance and a comprehensive evaluation of its cybersecurity posture. 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… The report combines business strategy with technical cybersecurity analysis. Students must review different secure design and development methodologies, compare their strengths and weaknesses, and recommend an appropriate approach for integrating security into the client's IoT software-development lifecycle. 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… A major component of the assessment focuses on organisational change strategy. Students examine the internal and external factors driving organisational growth, develop a comprehensive strategy for achieving the client's business objectives, and explain how that strategy should be implemented and monitored. The report must also critically evaluate relevant change-management theories and models and address the complexities of leading and managing strategic transformation. This section carries 35% of the marks and is allocated approximately 2,000 words. 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… The Security Audit Strategy section requires students to design a guide for auditing the client's connected system. Different approaches, including methodologies such as PTES and OWASP, should be compared and evaluated. Students must explain each stage of the selected testing methodology and justify why the individual steps are required. 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… The final technical component applies these principles to an IoT vulnerability case study. Students research a real vulnerability in an IoT device, explain where the security flaw was introduced, identify weaknesses in the secure-design or audit process, assess the resulting security impact and propose appropriate corrective actions. 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… Overall, the coursework integrates IoT cybersecurity, secure software development, security auditing, vulnerability analysis, organisational strategy and strategic change management. The marking scheme allocates 35% to organisational-change strategy, 20% each to secure design and development, security auditing and security recommendations, and 5% to report structure. 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… Important: the brief states that it is for Coventry University Group students' own use and must not be passed to third parties or posted on a website. 38f2fba9a933f212c9e46e8cc591cf2… So use an original public summary like the one above, but do not upload the original brief itself.
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Cyber Security / Applied Cryptography / Secure Systems Design
2,500 words
Secure Property Contract Exchange: Cryptographic Protocol Design, Threat Modelling and Post-Quantum Readiness
This Applied Theory of Cyber Security and Secure Design coursework places students in the role of a cyber security consultant engaged by Hackit & Run LLP, a legal firm specialising in UK and international property transactions. The firm wishes to implement a secure digital system for handling, exchanging and legally signing property contracts. Students must design and evaluate a secure communication protocol supporting interactions between the buyer’s solicitor, the seller’s solicitor and the buyer while addressing both first-time communications and previously established secure relationships. 11b17febb9eeb4570f76f6ca95a831a… Section A – Cryptographic Protocol Design, worth 45%, requires a complete secure communication protocol. Students must explain how trust is initially established, how later communications can be simplified without weakening confidentiality, integrity or availability, and how the buyer can digitally sign a contract in a manner enforceable under UK law. The design must justify specific cryptographic algorithms for functions such as key exchange, bulk encryption, digital signatures and hashing. The protocol must be presented through both a sequence diagram showing message flows and cryptographic operations and pseudocode explaining the key algorithmic stages. 11b17febb9eeb4570f76f6ca95a831a… Section B – Threat Modelling, worth 20%, requires a focused analysis using the STRIDE methodology. Students identify three realistic threats from different STRIDE categories and analyse the attack vector, asset at risk and potential effect on the legal transaction. Each threat must then be connected back to specific protocol defences, with residual risks acknowledged where controls cannot provide complete mitigation. The guidance encourages consideration of issues such as social engineering, insider threats, key-management failures and availability risks in addition to purely cryptographic attacks. 11b17febb9eeb4570f76f6ca95a831a… Section C – Security Evaluation Against Standards, worth 15%, requires students to evaluate the proposed system against a recognised cybersecurity standard or framework. Options include ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Common Criteria (ISO/IEC 15408) and the OWASP Application Security Verification Standard. Students select three or four directly relevant controls or requirements, assess whether the proposed design satisfies them, identify gaps and recommend specific improvements. 11b17febb9eeb4570f76f6ca95a831a… Section D – Post-Quantum Readiness and Critical Reflection, worth 15%, examines how a future quantum-capable adversary could affect the protocol. Students identify vulnerable cryptographic components, discuss the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography standardisation programme, and examine replacement algorithms such as ML-KEM for key establishment and ML-DSA for digital signatures. They must also evaluate a hybrid migration strategy combining classical and post-quantum algorithms, considering performance overhead, backward compatibility and the legal admissibility of post-quantum digital signatures. 11b17febb9eeb4570f76f6ca95a831a… The remaining 5% evaluates professional report quality, logical structure, technical language, integration of diagrams and consistent CUHarvard referencing. Higher-quality work is expected to demonstrate a sophisticated trust model, clear traceability between threats and controls, precise standards mapping, practical security recommendations and well-evidenced analysis of post-quantum migration. 11b17febb9eeb4570f76f6ca95a831a… Important for the public Reference Library: the brief states that the assessment document is intended only for Coventry University Group students and must not be passed to third parties or posted on any website. Therefore, publish only an original high-level description such as the overview above; do not upload or reproduce the original assignment brief publicly. 11b17febb9eeb4570f76f6ca95a831a…
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Security of Emerging Connected Systems
2,000 words
Security Evaluation – Secure Design, Security Audit and IoT Security Recommendations
This individual coursework for the Security of Emerging Connected Systems module requires students to prepare a 2,000-word technical report evaluating secure design, security auditing and security recommendations for an organisation developing Internet of Things (IoT) devices and systems for home and workplace environments. The assessment is worth 10 credits and requires students to provide practical and evidence-based guidance to the client’s software development team. The report is assessed across secure design and development methodology, security audit methodology, security recommendations and overall report structure. The first major section addresses Secure Design and Development Methodology. The client wants to incorporate secure design principles into its software development workflow and therefore requires an overview of possible secure design processes relevant to IoT. Students must evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches and provide a justified recommendation for a process that would be appropriate for the client. The emphasis is on integrating security into the design and development of systems rather than treating security as a separate activity after development. The second section focuses on Security Audit Methodology. The client wants to complement its secure design process with a security audit of the final developed system. Students must provide a practical guide explaining how a security audit could be performed, including the overall testing methodology and the purpose of each stage. The brief identifies methodologies such as PTES and OWASP as examples. Students are also expected to discuss different approaches and evaluate their respective strengths and weaknesses. The third section concerns Security Recommendations and requires students to demonstrate the implications of strong secure design and auditing through an IoT security case study. Students must research a security vulnerability affecting an IoT device, explain the vulnerability and identify where the security flaw was introduced. The report must then examine which parts of the secure design and audit processes were not implemented correctly and evaluate the resulting impact on the security of the product. The report is intended for a technical audience, specifically the client's software development team. Students are expected to use an appropriate technical structure and language, support their arguments and analysis with references, and use APA referencing. The assessment also encourages appropriate diagrams to support the written content. The report structure component accounts for 10% of the assessment, while Secure Design and Development Methodology, Security Audit Methodology and Security Recommendations each account for 30%. The coursework assesses learning outcomes relating to defence-in-depth solutions for technical internet security vulnerabilities, secure private networks for IoT and BYOD, and current research and technological advances in network security. These outcomes connect the assignment to practical IoT security engineering, secure development, security auditing and emerging network-security practices.
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Secure Design and Development
2,000 words
Secure Design and Development – PixelForge Nexus (UITS)
This assessment for Coventry University’s Secure Design and Development module requires students to design and develop a functional secure online system with the aid of a Large Language Model (LLM). The assignment is based on a practical scenario involving Creative SkillZ LLC and its proposed “PixelForge Nexus” system. The submission combines a functional prototype, an individual 2,000-word report, source code hosted in the Coventry University GitHub environment, and a video report demonstrating the completed prototype. The PixelForge Nexus prototype is intended to provide secure project management and basic asset and resource management for a game-development environment. Core functionality includes adding and removing projects, viewing active projects, assigning developers to projects, allowing developers to view their assigned projects, uploading project documents, and allowing authorised users to access documents associated with their projects. The system must implement privilege separation between Admin, Project Lead and Developer roles. Security is a central requirement of the assignment. Administrators are responsible for managing projects and user accounts, Project Leads can assign developers and upload project documents, while Developers can view assigned projects and associated documents. The system must include a robust login mechanism with secure password hashing and storage, with Multi-Factor Authentication recommended as an additional security measure. Proposed pages include Sign In/Register, a role-based User Dashboard, Account Settings and a Project Details page. The practical assessment evaluates four major areas: System Design, Security Testing and Analysis, System Development, and Formal Methods. System design requires consideration of secure design principles and their application to the development lifecycle. Security testing requires critical evaluation of security techniques, identification of issues and proposed mitigation measures. System development requires a functional prototype that follows the proposed design and considers legal and ethical requirements. Formal methods require a behavioural model and appropriate verification techniques to establish whether the system meets its specification. The individual report must document the methods and techniques used to develop the prototype and discuss the stages of the development lifecycle, including specification, design and development. It must also explain the deployment and testing approach, limitations of the prototype, possible improvements, security techniques and the formal model used. The submission must include links to the Coventry University GitHub repository and Microsoft OneDrive video, while the required appendix contains the LLM prompt history and other resources used with APA-style referencing.
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