cybersecurity case assignment

ITC 660 – Foundations of Cybersecurity Davis-SP21

The Phoenix Project

Case Analysis Assignment

This case analysis is an individual assignment (versus groups) and its purpose in this course is to

give you an opportunity to integrate a variety of concepts in the context of an actual, historical

cybersecurity scenario. In this case, the context is the University of Virginia (UVA) and the

scenario is remediating a cyberattack. Your analysis of this case will be framed around a number

of questions that are presented at the end of this writeup. As laid out in our syllabus, your analysis

should, at minimum, meet the “2-why” standard.

While you can find a number of strategies out there for conquering case analyses (many of them

are very good), I recommend the approach of reading the case at least once without consideration

of the questions. That opens the mind up to absorbing details that might otherwise erroneously

get dismissed in a “know the questions, hunt for the answers” type of approach. After that, lay our

your outline with each question framing a new major section. Then, re-read the case analysis and

as you go through, build the outline of your answer with references to page numbers so you can

quickly go back. Once the outline is built, you should have a clean connection between your point

and some evidence from the case. At that point, it is a matter of polishing the communication

without inadvertently changing the thesis.

The case can be found in your Harvard Coursepack, referenced in the Materials section of our

syllabus. Given the mistakes made be the professor of this course, the case analysis must be

submitted through Blackboard in Microsoft Word or .pdf format before 11:59pm Wednesday,

February 24th.

Case Analysis Questions:

1. Describe the role of Information Technology Services (ITS) in fulfilling UVA’s mission.

2. Why might cyber-attackers be attracted to universities? What attack methods are most likely common?

3. Describe each of the five objectives of the Phoenix Project and provide your assessment of the level of effort that would be required to accomplish these

objectives.

4. What are the key risks inherent in this project and how would you recommend the team manage these risks?

5. When and how should the Phoenix Project be evaluated?