Digital Signatures in Public Key Infrastructure

The assignment is for London Metropolitan University's Faculty of Computing (North Campus) course Security in Computing (CC5004), Coursework 1. The task is to write a report on digital signatures, focusing on implementation and distribution within Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). The report should cover the technical explanation of digital signatures, their design and management within a specific application (e.g., encrypting email or files), and provide evidence on how to view and configure certificates in a PKI-enabled application.

London Metropolitan University
Faculty of Computing (North Campus)
Coursework 1 Assignment Header
STUDENT REFERENCE
NUMBER___________________________________________________
FAMILY NAME
AND INITIALS (Please print):___________________________________
GRADE ALLOCATED :____________________ N.B. All grades are provisional until
confirmed by the
Board of Examiners.
ASSESSOR'S INITIALS:________________________________
Module Code: CC5004
Module Name: Security in Computing
Module Organiser: Dr. Deepthi Ratnayake
Assignment no.: 1 of 1 Weighting: 30% Date set: Tuesday, October 11, 2016
(% of module assessment total, incl. exam)
Date and time due: Wednesday, 14 December 2016 3:00 PM
Submit to WebLearn
ASSESSOR’S COMMENTS
1

(i) PLAGIARISM
You are reminded that there exist regulations concerning plagiarism. Extracts from these
regulations are printed overleaf. Please sign below to say that you have read and understand
these extracts:
Extracts from University Regulations on Cheating, Plagiarism and
Collusion
Section 2.3: “The following broad types of offence can be identified and are provided as
indicative examples …..
(i) Cheating: including taking unauthorised material into an examination; consulting
unauthorised material outside the examination hall during the examination; obtaining an
unseen examination paper in advance of the examination; copying from another
examinee; using an unauthorised calculator during the examination or storing
unauthorised material in the memory of a programmable calculator which is taken into
the examination; copying coursework.
(ii) Falsifying data in experimental results.
(iii) Personation, where a substitute takes an examination or test on behalf of the candidate.
Both candidate and substitute may be guilty of an offence under these Regulations.
(iv) Bribery or attempted bribery of a person thought to have some influence on the
candidate’s assessment.
(v) Collusion to present joint work as the work solely of one individual.
(vi) Plagiarism, where the work or ideas of another are presented as the candidate’s own.
(vii) Other conduct calculated to secure an advantage on assessment.
(viii) Assisting in any of the above.
Some notes on what this means for students:
1. Copying another student's work is an offence, whether from a copy on paper or from a
computer file, and in whatever form the intellectual property being copied takes, including text,
mathematical notation and computer programs.
2. Taking extracts from published sources without attribution is an offence. To quote ideas,
sometimes using extracts, is generally to be encouraged. Quoting ideas is achieved by stating
an author's argument and attributing it, perhaps by quoting, immediately in the text, his or her
name and year of publication, e.g. " e = mc2 (Einstein 1905)". A reference section at the end of
your work should then list all such references in alphabetical order of authors' surnames. (There
are variations on this referencing system which your tutors may prefer you to use.) If you wish to
quote a paragraph or so from published work then indent the quotation on both left and right
margins, using an italic font where practicable, and introduce the quotation with an attribution.
School of Computing, FLSC
2

Security in Computing (CC5004) Coursework 1 (30%)
Investigation and Practical Activity
Write a report (around 1200 words) on Digital Signatures.
The report should cover:
A clear, detailed and technical explanation of digital signatures, and their implementation
and distribution in relation to Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). You are required to focus
on a specific type of certificate for a specific application (e.g. encrypting email or files,
securing Web communications etc.). You will need to define digital signatures, examine
and analyse the design of a secure PKI using a particular service (e.g. Microsoft
Certificate Services) and provide a detailed account of some certificate management
function. As part of this work you must consider the various services and components
that make up the PKI, as well as future work and innovations/developments in this area.
For the practical you will need to provide evidence (i.e. instructions and screenshots) on
how to view and configure certificates in a PKI-enabled application.
Referencing
Referencing is very important in that you are acknowledging and attributing the work of
others. If you do not properly reference you work then you run the risk of plagiarism –
i.e. taking credit for the work or ideas of others by presenting them as your own. It is
easy to detect plagiarism! Therefore, you will need to attribute the work or ideas of
others by citing the source in the body of your report. There are many referencing
formats that you can use, such as for example, the Harvard APA.
As a simple example, using Harvard APA for a book reference, in the body of the report
you cite as follows:
Symmetric encryption is also commonly known as conventional encryption or
single-key encryption (Stallings, 2006).
And in your bibliography section you list your reference as follows:
Stallings, J. (2006). Cryptography and Network Security (4th ed.): Principles and
Practice. USA: Prentice Hall.
Assessment Guidelines and Submission Details
The work must be submitted to WebLearn no later than Wednesday, 14 December
2016 3:00 PM.
3

Marking Scheme
Criteria
Mark / Rating Scale
Development of the Report
 Interpretation of topic and introduction
70 – 100% (A) Excellent: outstanding
performance with only minor Errors
60 – 69% (B) Very Good: above the average
standard but with some Errors.
50 – 59% (C) Good: generally sound work with
a number of notable Errors.
43 – 49% (D) Satisfactory: fair but with
significant shortcomings.
40 – 42% (E) Sufficient: performance meets
the minimum criteria.
25 – 39% (FX) Fail: Some more work required
before the credit can be awarded.
0 – 24% (F) Fail: considerable further work is
required.
 Logical and technical development, including
insight and creativity
 Use of sources and evidence
 Understanding of topic and critical analysis
 Practical work
 Conclusion: Further work/developments
Report Presentation & Other Features
 Quality of communication/expression in terms of
legibility, style, spelling and grammar
 Overall report structure
 Presentation of references
4