Scanned by CamScanner WRTG 391 Writing Assignment #3 Synthesis Essay (sometimes called a Literature Review) Writing Assignment #3 will be a synthesis essay, a format that is sometimes referred to as a literature review. Organization: Your synthesis essay should be organized in the following manner: • Introduction: Write one or two paragraphs in which you introduce the reader to your topic. • Body -- the categories into which you are dividing the literature: Divide your sources into a few categories. A suggestion is that you divide them into three to five categories. • Conclusion: Summarize what the literature says on your topic. Approach: This semester, you have critiqued an author’s analysis in the critique essay and have critically evaluated several articles in the annotated bibliography. In this assignment you will synthesize the ideas of several authors in a synthesis essay, or literature review. For your annotated bibliography, you selected a topic based on your interests and, possibly, your major. You constructed a list of 12 references and summarized and critically analyzed them in 150- 200 words each. Through this process, you may have seen patterns in the scholarly literature in the topic on which you conducted research. For example, consider the following examples: • You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found that there are varying opinions on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth. • You may have researched studies in psychology and found that counseling strategies for victims of domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories. • You may have researched graphic communications and discovered that the integration of graphics in business report writing has evolved from the 1970s to the present because of advancements in technology. • You may have researched articles on gerontology and found studies that answered three basic questions on how older adults respond to training for physical performance. In the synthesis essay, you will focus your research efforts in a particular area, perhaps as a response to what you found while writing the annotated bibliography. You will then conduct more research and synthesize your findings in this synthesis essay. Please note that the annotated bibliography was the beginning, not the end, of your research. You might decide to disregard several of the articles you analyzed in the critical annotated bibliography because they don’t speak to the specific area on which you have decided to write your synthesis essay. You might select one article that you analyzed in the critical annotated bibliography, look up the articles cited in that article, and “snowball” your research in that way. In other words, this process is a recursive one. You might find reasons to hone in on and narrow your topic even further after you have written the annotated bibliography. How to organize the synthesis essay: W.

1. Scanned by CamScanner
WRTG 391
Writing Assignment #3
Synthesis Essay
(sometimes called a Literature Review)
Writing Assignment #3 will be a synthesis essay, a format that
is sometimes referred to as
a literature review.
Organization:
Your synthesis essay should be organized in the following
manner:
• Introduction: Write one or two paragraphs in which you
introduce the reader to your
topic.
• Body -- the categories into which you are dividing the
literature: Divide your sources
into a few categories. A suggestion is that you divide them into
three to five
categories.
• Conclusion: Summarize what the literature says on your topic.
Approach:

2. This semester, you have critiqued an author’s analysis in the
critique essay and have critically
evaluated several articles in the annotated bibliography. In this
assignment you will synthesize the
ideas of several authors in a synthesis essay, or literature
review.
For your annotated bibliography, you selected a topic based on
your interests and, possibly, your
major. You constructed a list of 12 references and summarized
and critically analyzed them in 150-
200 words each.
Through this process, you may have seen patterns in the
scholarly literature in the topic on which you
conducted research. For example, consider the following
examples:
• You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found
that there are varying
opinions on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth.
• You may have researched studies in psychology and found that
counseling strategies for
victims of domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories.
• You may have researched graphic communications and
discovered that the integration of
graphics in business report writing has evolved from the 1970s
to the present because of
advancements in technology.
• You may have researched articles on gerontology and found
studies that answered three
basic questions on how older adults respond to training for

3. physical performance.
In the synthesis essay, you will focus your research efforts in a
particular area, perhaps
as a response to what you found while writing the annotated
bibliography. You will then
conduct more research and synthesize your findings in this
synthesis essay.
Please note that the annotated bibliography was the beginning,
not the end, of your research. You
might decide to disregard several of the articles you analyzed in
the critical annotated bibliography
because they don’t speak to the specific area on which you have
decided to write your synthesis
essay. You might select one article that you analyzed in the
critical annotated bibliography, look up
the articles cited in that article, and “snowball” your research in
that way.
In other words, this process is a recursive one. You might find
reasons to hone in on and narrow your
topic even further after you have written the annotated
bibliography.
How to organize the synthesis essay:
When you have focused on your topic, determine how you will
divide the literature. In other words,
consider the following examples we described above:
You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found
that there are varying opinions on
how to respond to criminal behavior among youth.

4. You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
• Category 1: “A” view on responding to criminal behavior.
• Category 2: “B” view on responding to criminal behavior.
• Category 3: “C” view on responding to criminal behavior.
• Category 4: “D” view on responding to criminal behavior.
Conclusion
You may have researched studies in psychology and found that
counseling strategies for victims of
domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories.
You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
• Category 1: “A” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
• Category 2: “B” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
• Category 3: “C” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
• Category 4: “D” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
Conclusion
You may have researched graphic communications and
discovered that the integration of graphics
in business report writing has evolved from the 1970s to the
present because of advancements in
technology.

5. You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
• Category 1: graphics in business report writing in the 1970s
• Category 2: graphics in business report writing in the 1980s
• Category 3: graphics in business report writing in the 1990s
• Category 4: graphics in business report writing from 2000 to
the present
Conclusion
You may have researched articles on gerontology and found
studies that answered three basic
questions on how older adults respond to training for physical
performance.
You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
• Question 1
• Question 2
• Question 3
Conclusion
Approach and Requirements

6. Your synthesis essay, or literature review, should be 1500-2000
words, including your “references”
pages at the end of the review.
In addition, your synthesis essay should include at least 10
scholarly sources in the “references”
section. As stated above, this means that you may decide not to
use all 12 sources that you
summarized in your annotated bibliography. You are free to use
all 12 of them. However, it is
possible that your experience in writing summaries of the 12
sources led you to conclude that a few of
them will not be as helpful to your topic as you had originally
thought. You may decide not to include
such sources in the synthesis essay. This is totally up to you.
Moreover, you might find other sources
that you would like to include in your synthesis essay that were
not included in your annotated
bibliography. You may use such sources in your synthesis
essay as well.
Cyber Security
Nambo Francis
University of Maryland University College Asia
April 19, 2017

7. Thesis Statement
Although computers have become part of organizations’ greatest
asset, cyber-attacks have
threatened the daily operations of organizations through
malicious attacks. The risk posed by
these attacks has resulted in data breaches in financial
institutions. Organizations have invested
heavily in cyber security.
Definition of Terms
DDoS - Denial of Service
DBIR – Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report
HSBC- HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corporations
Introduction
Cyber security is that state of being protected against
unauthorized or criminal use of electronic
data. Most of computer specialist refers to cyber security as the
body of processes, practices and
technologies that is designed to protect programs, data,
networks and computer from
unauthorized access, attack or damage. Companies, governments
and non-government
organizations have invested heavily on cyber-security. For

8. example, in 2010, the US government
allocated 13 billion US dollars on cyber-security for a span of
five years. This is because cyber-
threats are advancing as technology grows. Vincent Adams, a
CTO-public sector at Layer 7 has
described cyber- attack as a threat which is escalating at high
rate more than how we are keeping
up with it (Fischer, 2012).
Effects of Data Breaches on Insurance Costs or Sales
From 2014, about 500 companies have experienced major data
breaches example is Sony
Company. This has made executives lose their job. Millions of
consumers have had their
personal data and credit card data comprised. In this part I will
discuss how companies are losing
due to data breaches.
Brian East� 4/25/2017 9:41 PM
Deleted: has
Brian East� 4/25/2017 9:42 PM
Comment [1]: Make sure you add that you
reached these conclusions through analysis of
literature on the topic.
Brian East� 4/25/2017 9:42 PM
Comment [2]: You would still need to
define what this means.
Brian East� 4/25/2017 9:42 PM
Deleted: E
Sony Company in November 2014, hacking in its database led
to the disclosure of

9. unreleased movies, personal data that included social security
numbers of about 47, 000
employees and celebrities and embarrassing internal emails. The
data breach by hackers was
very disruptive and traumatic to the Sony Company such that it
delayed its 10-K filing. In
addition the Company estimated a loss of about 15 million
dollars. Dean in his blog gave some
scale to the losses, which represented 0.9% to 2% of the
projected sales by the Company. Also
the company spent about 35 million in restoring IT and
financial systems. Home Depot hacking
in 2015 led to the hackers getting credit card numbers of their
credit numbers of about 50 million
customers and their email addresses although the security data
breach had less impact it reveled
personal identity of Home Depot’s customers. In addition the
Company received about 43
million pretax expenses that was data breach related. The
company executives estimated this to
about 0.01 percent of the Company’s sales (Giacomello, 2015).
In late 2013 Target Company resulted in the theft of about 40
million payment cards and
the loss of about 70 million records that included email
addresses and phone numbers of
customers. The breach was considered to very severe such that
the CEO at that time was
compelled to resign. It is estimated that the Company incurred
the security breach expenses of
about 4 million US dollars in the 4th quarter of 2014. The whole
year it is estimated that the
company incurred about 145 million US dollars. According the
company’s directors to total
expenses was about 252 million US dollars. In addition in
Target Company resulted to about
0.1% of Target’s sales (In Lehto, 2015).

10. The Causes of Cyber-Attacks on Financial Institutions
Financial institutions are becoming the highly targeted
institutions. Some of the emerging
channels like online banking and mobile have opened doors for
cyber criminals. Hackers are also
using email phishing to banks customers. A report by DBIR
breach shows that the common
origin of cyber-attack in financial institutions is DDoS.
According to the report about 32% of
banking attacks were caused by DDoS. This was especially
found at end month when payments
are made. Online banking is usually flooded by DDoS in order
to take the services offline. HSBC
has experienced this as it has indicated in their blog that they
have tried to fight DDoS but still
the services are unavailable on every end month from around
29th to 4th the next month. The
DBIR report has also noted that DDoS attacks are being
employed by most of the cyber
criminals to demonstrate their attack capabilities. Some of the
cyber criminals are using DDoS
services aimed at enabling financial institutions disrupt their
online activities for their
competitors (Santanam, 2011).
Bot attacks are also increasing from 2015. According to
ThreatMetrix analyst, this scenario has
paralyzed the daily activities for the financial institutions there
by leading to loss of millions.
Bots and other attacks like malware have bypassed traditional
security breaches y mimicking as
authentic customers (In Felici, 2015).
Historical Background
In the current world, it demands a degree of connectivity
between financial institutions,
businesses and governments. Digital technology has provided

11. this opportunity to businesses and
organizations have harvested lots of valuable benefits. However
the modern world of
connectivity has provided an environment of rich connectivity
that has ranged from vandalism of
computer assets to theft of critical information from
organizations computers. The first method
of cyber-attack was back from in 1960s which was hacking. In
1970s the hacking became
evident as most of the hackers concentrated in phone systems.
In the early 2000 hackers
Brian East� 4/25/2017 9:43 PM
Deleted: Company
Brian East� 4/25/2017 9:44 PM
Comment [3]: Make sure to introduce
sources by mentioning who write them and
how they agree/disagree with the sources you
mention either before or after them.
employed malware and bot attacks to businesses and financial
institutions. The current most
common used type of attack being used by hackers is DDoS
(Probst, 2010).
Conclusion
Organizations have invested heavily in cyber security to avoid
after attack consequences. From
my discussion it is evident that organizations a losing a lot due
to cyber-attacks. The major cause
of attack in financial institutions is the DDoS. The major effect
of cyber-attack is financial loss.
From the case studies Sony, Home Depot and Target companies
has lost millions of dollars due

12. to cyber.
References
Fischer, R., Halibozek, E., & Walters, D. (2012). Introduction
to Security. Burlington: Elsevier
Science.
Giacomello, G. (2015). Security in cyberspace: Targeting
nations, infrastructures, individuals.
In Felici, M. (2015). Cyber security and privacy: 4th Cyber
Security and Privacy Innovation
Forum, CSP Innovation Forum 2015, Brussels, Belgium April
28-29, 2015, revised selected
papers.
In Lehto, M., & In Neittaanmäki, P. (2015). Cyber security:
Analytics, technology and
automation.
Probst, C. W. (2010). Insider threats in cyber security. New
York: Springer
Santanam, R., Sethumadhavan, M., & Virendra, M. (2011).
Cyber security, cyber crime and
cyber forensics: Applications and perspectives. Hershey, PA:
Information Science Reference.
Brian East� 4/25/2017 9:45 PM
Comment [4]: Make sure to revise this list
to reflect APA style for a References list.

13. Cyber Security
Nambo Francis
University of Maryland University College Asia
April 19, 2017
Thesis Statement
Although computers have become part of organizations’ greatest
asset, cyber-attacks has threatened the daily operations of
organizations through malicious attacks. The risk posed by
these attacks has resulted in data breaches in financial
institutions. Organizations have invested heavily in cyber
security.
Definition of Terms
DDoS - Denial of Service
DBIR – Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report
HSBC- HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corporations
Introduction
Cyber security is that state of being protected against
unauthorized or criminal use of electronic data. Most of
computer specialist refers to cyber security as the body of
processes, practices and technologies that is designed to protect

14. programs, data, networks and computer from unauthorized
access, attack or damage. Companies, governments and non-
government organizations have invested heavily on cyber-
security. Example in 2010 the US government allocated 13
billion US dollars on cyber-security for a span of five years.
This is because cyber-threats are advancing as technology
grows. Vincent Adams, a CTO-public sector at Layer 7 has
described cyber- attack as a threat which is escalating at high
rate more than how we are keeping up with it (Fischer, 2012).
Effects of Data Breaches on Insurance Costs or Sales
From 2014, about 500 companies have experienced major data
breaches example is Sony Company. This has made executives
lose their job. Millions of consumers have had their personal
data and credit card data comprised. In this part I will discuss
how companies are losing due to data breaches.
Sony Company in November 2014, hacking in its database
led to the disclosure of unreleased movies, personal data that
included social security numbers of about 47, 000 employees
and celebrities and embarrassing internal emails. The data
breach by hackers was very disruptive and traumatic to the Sony
Company such that it delayed its 10-K filing. In addition the
Company estimated a loss of about 15 million dollars. Dean in
his blog gave some scale to the losses which represented 0.9%
to 2% of the projected sales by the Company. Also the Company
spent about 35 million in restoring IT and financial systems.
Home Depot hacking in 2015 led to the hackers getting credit
card numbers of their credit numbers of about 50 million
customers and their email addresses although the security data
breach had less impact it reveled personal identity of Home
Depot’s customers. In addition the Company received about 43
million pretax expenses that was data breach related. The
company executives estimated this to about 0.01 percent of the
Company’s sales (Giacomello, 2015).
In late 2013 Target Company resulted in the theft of about
40 million payment cards and the loss of about 70 million

15. records that included email addresses and phone numbers of
customers. The breach was considered to very severe such that
the CEO at that time was compelled to resign. It is estimated
that the Company incurred the security breach expenses of
about 4 million US dollars in the 4th quarter of 2014. The whole
year it is estimated that the company incurred about 145 million
US dollars. According the company’s directors to total expenses
was about 252 million US dollars. In addition in Target
Company resulted to about 0.1% of Target’s sales (In Lehto,
2015).
The Causes of Cyber-Attacks on Financial Institutions
Financial institutions are becoming the highly targeted
institutions. Some of the emerging channels like online banking
and mobile have opened doors for cyber criminals. Hackers are
also using email phishing to banks customers. A report by DBIR
breach shows that the common origin of cyber-attack in
financial institutions is DDoS. According to the report about
32% of banking attacks were caused by DDoS. This was
especially found at end month when payments are made. Online
banking is usually flooded by DDoS in order to take the
services offline. HSBC has experienced this as it has indicated
in their blog that they have tried to fight DDoS but still the
services are unavailable on every end month from around 29th
to 4th the next month. The DBIR report has also noted that
DDoS attacks are being employed by most of the cyber
criminals to demonstrate their attack capabilities. Some of the
cyber criminals are using DDoS services aimed at enabling
financial institutions disrupt their online activities for their
competitors (Santanam, 2011).
Bot attacks are also increasing from 2015. According to
ThreatMetrix analyst, this scenario has paralyzed the daily
activities for the financial institutions there by leading to loss
of millions. Bots and other attacks like malware have bypassed
traditional security breaches y mimicking as authentic
customers (In Felici, 2015).

16. Historical Background
In the current world, it demands a degree of connectivity
between financial institutions, businesses and governments.
Digital technology has provided this opportunity to businesses
and organizations have harvested lots of valuable benefits.
However the modern world of connectivity has provided an
environment of rich connectivity that has ranged from
vandalism of computer assets to theft of critical information
from organizations computers. The first method of cyber-attack
was back from in 1960s which was hacking. In 1970s the
hacking became evident as most of the hackers concentrated in
phone systems. In the early 2000 hackers employed malware
and bot attacks to businesses and financial institutions. The
current most common used type of attack being used by hackers
is DDoS (Probst, 2010).
Conclusion
Organizations have invested heavily in cyber security to avoid
after attack consequences. From my discussion it is evident that
organizations a losing a lot due to cyber-attacks. The major
cause of attack in financial institutions is the DDoS. The major
effect of cyber-attack is financial loss. From the case studies
Sony, Home Depot and Target companies has lost millions of
dollars due to cyber.
References
Fischer, R., Halibozek, E., & Walters, D. (2012). Introduction
to Security. Burlington: Elsevier Science.
Giacomello, G. (2015). Security in cyberspace: Targeting
nations, infrastructures, individuals.
In Felici, M. (2015). Cyber security and privacy: 4th Cyber
Security and Privacy Innovation Forum, CSP Innovation Forum
2015, Brussels, Belgium April 28-29, 2015, revised selected

17. papers.
In Lehto, M., & In Neittaanmäki, P. (2015). Cyber security:
Analytics, technology and automation.
Probst, C. W. (2010). Insider threats in cyber security. New
York: Springer
Santanam, R., Sethumadhavan, M., & Virendra, M.
(2011). Cyber security, cyber crime and cyber forensics:
Applications and perspectives. Hershey, PA: Information
Science Reference.