EG1471- Portfolio 4

Whenever I have to tackle the writing assignment for my engineering subject, I found it quite frustrated and difficult to express my ideas in academic style. Writing for engineering subject requires a lot of technical aspects. If you do not possess a certain amount of knowledge in a particular field or area, it will be difficult to get a head start for your essay because you simply do not know what to write about. Not only that, I always fail to organize and develop my ideas in an academically persuasive manner, which means to organize my assertions into logical and cohesive arguments that will convince the reader. Therefore, it is quite often that my papers end up lacking clear logical flow and unity, not to mention a persuasive linear argument.

Besides this, as it is an academic essay, we need to have reference and the article should be from reputable sources. Browsing through the websites just to find the related topics seems to be a “tiring” and yet rather difficult task to me as it consumes a lot of time.

However, the main difficulty that I have faced in writing for academic essay is the minimum word requirement for each essay and I found it difficult to fulfil it. Lack of understanding in expanding the sentences and do not generate enough ideas could be the reasons behind.

I try to resolve the problems that I have mentioned above by reading more books and newspaper. I memorise every good sentences from the reading materials and apply it when I write essay. I reckon that it is ineffective because I cannot memorize everything if I have to write an essay next time. Therefore, there are still a lot of rooms for improvement, where I need a specific and systematic guidance on how to scaffold my ideas so I can fulfil my writing task in a satisfactory manner. In other words, I believe that by attending EG1471 class plus continuous practice will eventually improve my writing skill.

EG1471- Portfolio 3

Cyberspace is a unique environment. It is borderless and attacks can have virtually unlimited range and speed. Massive results can be achieved without massing forces. These attacks are an especially effective weapon for small groups because the technology required is cheap and easy to get -- sometimes just a computer and an Internet connection. Whereas this electronic assault is a powerful tool for a nation, as country can use it to initiate the cyber warfare campaign against its own counterpart. For example, Russia launched an infamously cyber attack against Georgia in the early of August 2008, which has overwhelmed the Georgian sites with traffic and caused a catastrophic system failure. Although it was the first time a known cyber attack had coincided with a shooting war, it can expect to see cyber attacks being increasingly used as a weapon.

Unlike Georgia, the U.S. government has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into improving its cyber defence capabilities since 9/11, as well as its capacity to launch online attacks. Its ability to detect and counter attacks on governmental sites is much more sophisticated than Georgia's. Yet security experts say there's an enormous amount of work still to be done to reduce the vulnerability of the many agencies, businesses and homes that are electronically connected. As a result, it can be seen that the government alone cannot secure the cyberspace.

In cyberspace, national boundaries have little meaning. Information flows continuously and seamlessly across different aspects. Because of the global nature of cyberspace, the vulnerabilities that exist are open to the world and available to anyone, anywhere, anytime, with sufficient capability to exploit them. Therefore, countering such cyber attacks requires the development of robust capabilities where it is up to the engineers to relish this international challenge.



Reference
Col. (S) Bradley K. Ashley, USAF. The United States Is Vulnerable to Cyberterrorism. Retrieved 20 September 2008 from http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/templates/SIGNAL_Article_Template.asp?articleid=32&zoneid=10