College Athletes Should Not Be Paid Money

College Athletes Should Not Be Paid Money

College sports can be defined as “amateur contests whose players come from a restricted subset of the population of athletically talented individuals who we require to be regular students seeking academic degrees” (“Intercollegiate Sports in America”, n.d.). But the reality about college sports is not as simple as the definition of college sports. With the progress of time the concept of college sports has been transformed from an amateur to a professional one and this is because now-a-days the participants in college sports do not merely participate to compete and to show their talent, upholding the prestige of their respective educational institutions, but most of them are much more inclined towards earning money and accomplishing self-gains.

College athletes should not be paid money for their participation and performance and there are several reasons behind the concept of such non-payment. Primarily the lure of financial gain withers away the sportsmanship within the participants of college sports. The inflow of money in college sports can be a disaster for the budget of most of the universities and this in turn can affect severely on the programs and policies related to academic progresses. For an example, the absurd coaches’ salaries that most of today’s colleges spend for winning football bowl games and basketball tournaments (for earning monetary rewards) should be counted as a wastage of money as such huge amount of money, if spend in strengthening the educational systems of these concerned colleges might render better results in terms of creating an educated workforce for the future.

Education is a primary source of money and college athletes are provided with this basic means of earning money by their respective colleges. So it is never fair or ethical for such students (who are also athletes) to ask for monetary rewards for representing their colleges in sports events and for upholding the prestige of their respective colleges by winning sports competitions. Colleges must start to get concerned about such issue because if they carry on paying their student athletes for representing their institutions then actually they are going to put these athletes in jeopardy, and this jeopardy will emerge because the greed for money through participating in sport events will actually reduce the interest of these athletes in receiving higher education, and such disinterest is not at all desirable on the part of a population which is going to be the future of the country. And this fear is looming large in the realm of NCAA, as this governing body has understood that “the mere notion of paying college athletes undermines the university’s primary purpose – education, something far more valuable than a modest annual stipend proposed by many. If it currently appears that the universities “don’t really care” about the athlete, paying them would intensify that belief, not dissolve it” (“Intercollegiate Sports in America”, n.d.).

The administrative body of many of the colleges in the United States argues that it is better to pay the college athletes to participate in inter-college sport competitions and win monetary rewards as such financial rewards are actually used in developing the overall infrastructure of the colleges including the educational framework. But this is only a partial truth because there are different other games apart from football or basketball spending on which the colleges actually drain their money without any potential return on investment. It is noteworthy that “only a fraction of Division I football and men’s basketball programs turn a profit…The other Division I football and basketball programs as well as sports such as baseball, softball, golf, hockey, women’s basketball (minus a couple of notable programs), and just about all Division II sports not only fail to make money, but actually drain their athletic budgets. The outcome here would be inevitable: Forcing athletic departments to pay its football and basketball players would result in the eventual elimination of most, if not all, of the non-revenue sports” (“Intercollegiate Sports in America”, n.d.).

In the money game the colleges often are forgetting that their athletes are their students first and sportsperson later on. They are forgetting the simple truth that “mind that student-athletes are not employees of the university, rather they are students first and athletes second” (“Intercollegiate Sports in America”, n.d.). The primary duty of any educational institution is to enhance the knowledge of its pupil but in today’s America most of the colleges are much more inclined to enhance their prestige in the realm of sports and thereby earn more and more money by winning inter-college competitions. And due to enrolling in the rat race of earning money through sport competitions these colleges are actually forgetting that they are paying money to their student-athletes, increasing their monetary demands, deviating their focus from education to money-making, and thereby, putting their future at stake. So, judging from this angle too, it must be admitted that paying the student-athletes is unethical and immoral.

Moreover, it should not be negated that by paying money to the student-athletes the economically sound colleges are creating a disparity in the realm of college sports. This is because the colleges who have more money in their treasury are much more able to pay more and more money to their student-athletes and to their coaches while other colleges with less monetary strength fails to higher big-shot coaches and are less able to pay sufficient money to their student-athletes. And such inequality in the expenditure is actually affecting the domain of college sports because the highly paid coaches are much more motivated than their low-paid counterparts, to bring the winning trophy to the respective colleges which hired them. So, it is observable that some of the colleges in order to earn money through college sport competitions and most of the student-athletes in order to secure themselves financially are actually paving the way for the spread of economic disparity at the very basic level.

It is a reality that “From the moment the full-scholarship papers are signed, each participant’s role is very clear: Schools accept the responsibility of the student’s tuition, meal plan, and boarding, while the athlete is provided with the opportunity to earn a degree, engage in college life and play their favorite sport in a well-organized, and often high profile fashion” ” (“Intercollegiate Sports in America”, n.d.). But the student-athletes, due to the influence of the modern trend of earning money through representing their respective colleges in sport events, are actually misinterpreting the agreement and they have now taken the academic part as granted and they are now considering formal education less important than participating in college sports as the latter for them is now a means for earning money. And now it has become an undeniable fact that presently “a college education is not held in the same esteem and worse yet, some see it as simply an opportunity to earn money” (“Intercollegiate Sports in America”, n.d.).

In conclusion, most of the colleges have now enrolled themselves in the rat race of earning money through college sports and this has paved the way for student-athletes to show their disregard for formal education and their adherence to the money-making policies like participating in college sports and winning competitions for their respective colleges. This is a harmful trend and if this trend carries on then the time is not too far that colleges will be producing greedy sportspersons respecting only money as their God and disregarding education considering it as an obsolete thing which is unworthy in gaining financial profits.

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References

Intercollegiate Sports in America. (n.d.). Lombardi. Retrieved March 11, 2013, from http://lombardi.lsu.edu/his11/week_11.html

Cognitive Valence Theory

Student’s name

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Cognitive Valence Theory

One thing that no one can avoid is socializing with other people. The world was created so that people will have to live with one another at one point in life, identical to all other living things, including animals. Frankly, a man-to-man relationship is known as one of the most complicated types of relationships, as people have to tolerate each other’s traits, whether bad or good, to survive. Living with one another involves a special kind of intimacy, which is explained by cognitive valence theory. This theory explains the type of intimacy between different relationships, defined by blood, marriage, or general friendships.

Relationships discussed in this type of theory may include family relationships, which provides for can be described as the mother-father-to-child relationship. There are extended parties in this relationship, where grandparents, uncles, and other close people fall under this category. The other connection is a colleague-to-colleague relationship, which happens to be the closest one as most workmates spend most of their time together (Schunk, Ellen, 25). Unfortunately, most working-class society pays most of the day at work, only to return a few hours home. Married people are another example of a relationship where two people mutually agree to stay together for the rest of their lives. Marriage is one of the most complex types of association, as it involves vows and other agreements.

Cognitive valence theory explains how such relationships should be maintained by giving a thorough explanation of how this kind of theory relates to the real world and what is happening today (Kim, 99). When people connect, some problems may arise whereby both parties might end up arguing or misunderstanding. Intimacy, in this case, is divided into two, where cognitive valence proves that people’s actions against one another determine how long or strong the relationship might be (Altmann, 192). The first category of intimacy is the positive one. Each of the relating parties agrees with one another, is at peace, and each other’s actions do not hinder the other party in any way.

The second type of intimacy is the negative one, where a friend feels disconnected, and everything the other partner does is not pleasing to them. It is also referred to as the distant project, where one or both of the parties in a relationship feel disconnected from one another and no longer feel close to the other person. Closeness in this matter happens to be the critical measure of how people relate to one another. Individuals believe that one has to be close to one another to prove that the relationship is going well (Beck, 16).

Affection and intimacy are also closely related to the type of relationship one will have with one another. People believe that the relationship bond is usually strengthened by focusing on promoting positive valence in a relationship. The actions that each partner has on one another determine the relationship the two will have, hence proving that society focuses on what people do in judging the strength of intimacy people have. If one cares for one another, people tend to believe that the individuals should ensure that they do all it takes to keep the relationship solid and intact. Below is a case that happened to me in a university that explained the real meaning of cognitive valence and how its relevance affected decisions made by people involved in the scenario.

Personal Story Text

Being black in a white-dominated school was not easy for me. Since childhood, I have watched other children play together, living with a few black friends and me playing on our playgrounds due to our complexion. After high school, I thought my struggle was over and that I could meet new students who could love and accommodate me for who I was. Things turned out opposite as I found myself in a class of thirty students; among them, I was the only black one.

The first week in the university felt like hell to me as I was lonely. I had managed to make two white friends, who were still afraid of socializing with me due to fear of their colleagues (Shuman et al. 261). I faced rejection in discussion groups, lecture halls, and other gatherings where no one bothered to talk to me until I met a childhood friend from nowhere in the school. Mike was one of my childhood friends, a white boy who grew up in a black neighborhood; he knew me pretty well. I explained to him how the supervisors mistreated me, ignored me in the class, and did other injustices, and he was very sorry for me.

At last, I was happy I had someone I could trust and talk to in the white denominated school, which gave me no chance to learn peacefully. Mike made it a habit of visiting me every day, and sometimes he almost got into fights trying to protect me from bullying until we graduated from school. After three years, I was happy to move out of the university, with a lesson learned the hard way. Up to date, Mike and I are still good friends, and I always remind and thank him for the sacrifices he made for me despite being white. I always prefer our friendship as a special one, as it defines what a friend should do for one another (Palmer, Karen, 8881). Our interpersonal relation with Mike, the white students, and the administration was based on several guidelines that defined our type of relationship with one another in the university.

According to cognitive valence, culture is one of the guidelines or ideas that define a person’s kind of relationship with one another. Culture, in this case, can be defined as the way people behave, the environment they are in, the beliefs or other norms that govern the society they live. In my case, the culture of the people at the university did not allow people from other races, or instead, the administration was not happy about the issue (Kim, 110). The people in the area behaved in a pattern which explained clearly that they had not planned for any visitors or intruders in their school.

Education is an art. Having a school dominated by one race means that the people in the area embraced education as the simplest form of skill in the region, where they opened schools for their children only. Education being an artist means that it was a flexible form of culture, where people had accepted that changes might occur in the future. Discriminating the black students was a sign of a lack of essential values in society. The children’s behavior was uncontrollable hence proving that these students had not been grown up with the needed values in the community.

My personal goal was to complete my studies and pass them well, just like any other scholar. The other students had the same motive, but their culture did not allow them to act humbly as they felt black domination in their school was intruding on their peace. Some of the practices that they did were not always pleasing. They mocked me, participated in rallies that advocated the ban of all black students in the school. They were ready to do such practices as they felt their culture was intruded on and that they had to protect it (Anderson, 64).

Personalities

Personalities also differ according to the way a person grew up, the environment, and the individual’s teachings since childhood (Altman, 192). Most of the white classmates had arrogance which had been introduced by how they found their culture. They grew up in a place where some races were not welcome, thus decided to be harsh on them. Their emotions towards blacks are not suitable as they hate them. On the other hand, Mike displayed a different kind of personality, although he was white. He had an accommodating heart, he understood and respected me just like an ordinary human being, and that made him exclusively different from his colleagues. His emotions and feelings were purely good towards other people, as he never supported the idea of discrimination.

The cognitive theory argues that one should, first of all, consider their personality. Honestly, you cannot expect to be treated well when you are not treating other people well. Since I was a child, I was raised with other kids; my parents encouraged me to teamwork and have productive friends (Oatley, Philip, 134). Neglecting me and letting me live my own life affected me somehow, as I thought I would be of help discussing with the rest of the class. Again, it emphasizes that people should learn that not all personalities match with one another.

In this story, personalities differentiate the kind of relationship I had in the school. To begin with, the white students’ attitude towards me made our relationship poor and non-existent, while Mike ensured that we were still close friends, and he respected that. Our friendship helped me a lot as he decided to abide by the promises we had made to each other when we were kids and went against his fellow whites in bullying me (Shuman et al. 261). This idea confirms that cognitive valence speaks the truth about the effect of personalities on intimacy and bonds, where the theory suggests that the policy affects friendships ties a lot.

Interpersonal Valence

One of my happiest days at the university was the moment when I met Mike. I had completely lost hope in making friends in school until the day we met. I felt relieved, revived, and back to normal for seeing him. I had faced a total rejection by the people I was supposed to spend the next three years with, hence meeting an old friend with whom I was sure he could accommodate me was the most pleasant feeling ever. Interpersonal valence in this theory means the feeling of getting back to normal after a period of either failure or denial by close friends (Schunk, Ellen, 22). This feeling strengthens the friendship ties even more, as people remember how much they should be there for each other and act on it.

Interpersonal valence can also be defined as the turning point of a dying relationship or bond. An individual may decide to come out clear to another partner about their fate in the period of giving up. If the message is acceptable, this sudden change of mood and emotion may also be called interpersonal valence, where individuals enjoy the team up but in a secret way. That outward feeling of happiness that an individual expresses after such situations also determines if both parties will make peace or there will still be a grudge.

State

My communication with other students in the class and the university was relatively poor. Some of the supervisors supported chasing away the blacks; hence communicating with them was a bit hard for someone like me. The state between the people around me and me was not suitable, as the only person whom we spoke well and related with was Mike. The theory of cognitive valence argues that when the state of the situation is terrible, communication becomes a problem; hence most of the activities cannot be carried out like usual (Palmer, Karen, 8879). In my case, I was on bad terms with almost everyone around me, thus confirming that I could not get important information from some people.

Cognitive valence says that communication is the essential thing in everything we do. Without proper communication, trust is completely lost between the parties, and the first problem comes in there. This theory states that communication has to flow well between parties that have a relationship to maintain respect and bond with one another (Beck, 15).

Relationship

To begin with Mike, my relationship with him began when we were young; hence, I always referred to it as vital. He proved correct when he chose to oppose his fellow whites’ for the sake of our friendship. Despite all the challenges we had, our bond remained strong, meaning that the kind of relationship we had was honest and promising (Beck, 6). The classmates, on the other hand, had made me look like an outcast in the class, where they neglected me in almost every activity they did. My relationship with them was not generally okay; thus, I can term it as weak. According to the theory of cognitive valence, for intimacy to be intense, the relationship should also be rigid enough.

This theory explains how relationships are influenced and affected by different issues due to personal feelings, environment, or other actors. How a person relates with one another precisely defines how one feels about them, confirming that relationships are closely linked with peace and more vital bonds in intimacy. Unlike other requirements in intimacy and closeness, the relationship tends to be a little different (Anderson, 65). Being unwanted in the society may lead to negativity in the actions taken by both parties hence

Valence violations

According to this theory, valence violations can be termed as the measure of negativity or positivity from an expected source of information (Kim, 99). In this case, negative valence is considered the types of friendships that people create and end up losing due to mixed choices and misunderstandings. On the other hand, positive valence can be defined as superficial friendships, which are started by willing parties and end up lasting for a more extended period. The theory also clarifies the importance of positive valence, whereby the extent to which positivity occurs determines the outcomes of a relationship.

Again, valence violations explain the importance of the six guidelines, which generally define the meaning of cognitive valence theory (Altman, 192). Some of the guidelines that describe the theory are culture, which was discussed in this paper earlier, art representing the skills that the people have, values that guide them in their daily lives, goals that lead them in decision-making, and practices that take place in their community. The idea of valence violations explains what might happen to people in a relationship or intimacy if they fail to observe any of the guidelines.Works Cited

Altmann, Ulrike, et al. “The power of emotional valence—from cognitive to affective processes in reading.” Frontiers in human neuroscience 6 (2012): 192.

Andersen, Peter A. “The cognitive valence theory of intimate communication.” Progress in communication sciences (1998): 39-72.

Beck, Aaron T., and Emily AP Haigh. “Advances in cognitive theory and therapy: The generic cognitive model.” Annual review of clinical psychology 10 (2014): 1-24.

Kim, Young “Sally. “Application of the cognitive dissonance theory to the service industry.” Services Marketing Quarterly 32.2 (2011): 96-112.

Oatley, Keith, and Philip N. Johnson-Laird. “Cognitive approaches to emotions.” Trends in cognitive sciences 18.3 (2014): 134-140.

Palmer, Stephen E., and Karen B. Schloss. “An ecological valence theory of human color preference.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107.19 (2010): 8877-8882.

Schunk, Dale H., and Ellen L. Usher. “Social cognitive theory and motivation.” The Oxford handbook of human motivation (2012): 13-27.

Shuman, Vera, David Sander, and Klaus R. Scherer. “Levels of valence.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 261.

College athletes should not be paid to encourage equal participation opportunities among interested students

College Athletes Should not be Paid

College athletes should not be paid to encourage equal participation opportunities among interested students. Individuals with ingrained talent and desire to participate in athletic events would remain engaged as those with the primary focus on financial gains withdraw from relevant competitions. Besides, every learner should get some opportunities to actively engage in athletics as part of physical exercises that promote learning (Perini et al., 2016). Greedy and selfish students would not allow others, especially upcoming athletes, adequate time to participate in games if payment is effected (Sack, 2009). Hence, the learning institutions may lose their original meaning and become athletic and business institutions.  

Moreover, scholarships and exposure should act as adequate compensation and non-monetary reward for college athletes (Sorauren, 2000). Since it is almost impossible to accurately estimate the value of exposing students to priceless athletic events, college athletes should remain contented and satisfied to encourage more exposures and support by their institutions. Besides, students gain lots of nonmonetary benefits of extremely high value compared to the relatively little amounts they could receive as payment. For instance, the athletes could win other valuable scholarships and sponsorships, especially through televised games (Sack, 2009). Precisely, student-athletes gain more popularity and increase the chances of securing other benefits by participating in athletic events. Still, learning institutions could incur relatively huge costs by supporting the student-athletes through the purchase of necessary equipment, games kits, and food items. Consequently, the learning institutions could recover the spent funds by using income from games, names and images of their best athletes to attract more learners, facilitate other advertisements and train their tutors for better service provision (Dhar, 2015).

In conclusion, college athletes should not be paid because they tend to enjoy numerous non-monetary benefits. Moreover, student-athletes should not be paid to encourage equal participation opportunities among students while preserving the original aims of colleges as learning institutions. Therefore, college athletes should consider forgoing monetary payments and focus on long-term and non-monetary benefits from sporting events.

References

Dhar, R. L. (2015). Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of organizational commitment. Tourism Management, 46, 419-430.

Perini, R., Bortoletto, M., Capogrosso, M., Fertonani, A., & Miniussi, C. (2016). Acute effects of aerobic exercise promote learning. Scientific reports, 6(1), 1-8.

Sack, A. (2009). Clashing Models of Commercial Sport in Higher Education: Implications for Reform and Scholarly Research. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics.

Sorauren, I. F. (2000). Non-monetary incentives: Do people work only for money?. Business Ethics Quarterly, 925-944.

Cold War

Cold War

Like in every other major global conflict and event, the Cold War was ideally a result of the ideological differences between the Soviet Union and the United States at the time. Power and control were the main issues of contention as each nation pushed to have influence over the emerging and decolonized nations. New nations were aligning with the Soviets or the United States on the basis of political alliances and ideological fronts. American leaders thought of the Cold War as a turning point for many countries, including its own foreign policy as well as political ideology. The effect was a direct influence on the domestic economy, leadership, the presidency, and the personal lives of every America. Leaders created an environment of expected normalcy and conformity regarding foreign policy directions and political standpoints. For example, speaking against the activities of the American government activities abroad was akin to treason, and would most likely be interpreted as sympathizing with communism ideology.

The Cold War not only had significant influence on the foreign policy of the United States, but also a notable impact on domestic affairs. Stronger and more conspicuous efforts were made in the 1950s to root out ideological standpoints that resembled communism in the United States. The period saw an increase in anti-communist hysteria, creating a culture of hatred for Soviet ideology. The period also established presence of an eternal enemy for the Americans, prompting politicians and leaders to capitalize on the new ideology as a way of consolidating power and control. Film and literature found a lot of material spreading the idea of dystopia, espionage, and nuclear war. Mainstream media at the time increasingly focused on the Soviet Union and the communist agenda that as presented as a threat to American life. a paranoid culture of living in fear of communism and its agenda was firmly established within the United States.

College Athletes Should not be Paid

College Athletes Should not be PaidCollege athletes should not be paid to encourage equal participation opportunities among interested students. Individuals with ingrained talent and desire to participate in athletic events would remain engaged as those with the primary focus on financial gains withdraw from relevant competitions. Consequently, more learners would get relatively fair chances to explore their capabilities and develop their talents in athletics. Besides, every learner should get some opportunities to actively engage in athletics as part of physical exercises that promote learning (Perini et al., 2016). Greedy and selfish students would not allow others, especially upcoming athletes, adequate time to participate in games if payment is effected (Sack, 2009). Instead, such selfish athletes could spend most of their time participating in athletics rather than studying. Hence, the learning institutions may lose their original meaning and become athletic and business institutions.  

Moreover, scholarships and exposure should act as adequate compensation and non-monetary reward for college athletes (Sorauren, 2000). Since it is almost impossible to accurately estimate the value of exposing students to priceless athletic events, college athletes should remain contented and satisfied to encourage more exposures and support by their institutions. Thus, it could be one of the best ways through which the athletes express their appreciation to their institutions for supporting their studies and exposing them to athletic games.  

Additionally, college athletes should not be paid because they may attain other nonmonetary benefits of extremely high value compared to the relatively little amounts they could receive as payment. For instance, the athletes could win other valuable scholarships and sponsorships, especially through televised games (Sack, 2009). Precisely, student-athletes gain more popularity and increase the chances of securing other benefits by participating in athletic events. Besides, learning institutions could incur relatively huge costs by supporting the student-athletes through the purchase of necessary equipment, games kits, and food items. Consequently, the learning institutions could recover the spent funds by using names and images of their best athletes to attract more learners and facilitate other advertisements.

Also, colleges and other institutions of higher learning should utilize most of the gains from sporting events to fund development projects rather than paying student-athletes. Since the learning institutions serve as homes that accommodate, educate and develop the students, they (colleges) should spend most of the gains from sporting events in improving their infrastructure and training their tutors to encourage better service provision (Dhar, 2015). Thus, student-athletes would not lose but rather gain by supporting their institutions through the generation of income from games and related events such as advertising.

In conclusion, college athletes should not be paid because they tend to enjoy numerous non-monetary benefits. Moreover, student-athletes should not be paid to encourage equal participation opportunities among students while preserving the original aims of colleges as learning institutions. Therefore, college athletes should consider forgoing monetary payments and focus on long-term and non-monetary benefits from sporting events.

References

Dhar, R. L. (2015). Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of organizational commitment. Tourism Management, 46, 419-430.

Perini, R., Bortoletto, M., Capogrosso, M., Fertonani, A., & Miniussi, C. (2016). Acute effects of aerobic exercise promote learning. Scientific reports, 6(1), 1-8.

Sack, A. (2009). Clashing Models of Commercial Sport in Higher Education: Implications for Reform and Scholarly Research. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics.

Sorauren, I. F. (2000). Non-monetary incentives: Do people work only for money?. Business Ethics Quarterly, 925-944.

Colgate’s organizational capabilities and resources for new plastics

Task 2: Examples of how Colgate can strategically apply organizational capabilities and resources

Colgate’s organizational capabilities and resources for new plastics

Colgate has been in operations for a long time. The advantage of its size and experience in its industry include the fact that it has gained a lot of capabilities and resources that are used strategically to provide competitive advantage in its industry and market. Some of the main organizational capabilities for Colgate include talent, speed, brand identity, accountability, leadership, customer connectivity, innovation, and efficiency.

VRIO Analysis Colgate

Value Rarity Imitability Organization

Colgate has a diverse product line supported by highly valuable financial resources that help in investments The distribution networks and the financial resources of the company are very rare The company focuses more than 70% on its main product (toothpaste) making it very hard for other firms to imitate Reinforces differentiation factor through targeted advertising to supplement consumer loyalty

Consumer insights drives innovation and a team of highly specialized employees Endorsements from industry experts such as doctors and dentists are also rare Very high advertising expenditure that makes imitation very difficult Reinvestments are internally funded without tapping into parent company’s resources

Very low production costs driven by the company’s large R&D Its vast research and development is very rare Trust with the consumer base for the company’s product is very hard to imitate Very strong global market presence due to years of existence

Advantages (S) and Disadvantages (W) of Colgate

Resource/Capabilities Valuable Rare Imitable Organization Competitive Advantage

Financial resources yes yes yes yes Sustainable

Distribution Networks yes yes yes yes Strong

Positive Market reputation yes yes no yes Long term

Employees yes no no yes Unused

Cost Structure yes yes no yes Disadvantage

Research and Development yes no no yes Parity

From the VRIO analysis above, the financial resource and the distribution network of the company are the main sources of sustained competitive advantage and its major strength. However, the cost structure of the company, especially through its R&D structure, is a source of weakness and a competitive disadvantage.

Application of Capabilities and Resources

Financial resources can be used to fund the new plastic campaign

Financial resources will create optimization of the performance in the competitive business environment, which requires that an organization understands the dynamics of change, whether external or internal (Martelo, Barroso, & Cepeda, 2013). Optimization means creating efficiency and innovation in the internal firm environment.

Financial resources will help to reinforce new plastic-related innovation

Innovation is a key resource in the sense that it not only generates competitive advantage, but also overturns that of other rival firms.

Financial capabilities will overturn the strength of rival organizations in creating plastic alternatives

Colgate is also able to neutralize threats and exploit opportunities in the future or current business environment while utilizing its strengths and minimizing its weaknesses. Due to its size and period of operations, Colgate has the ability to buy and build capabilities and resources. These advantages also enable it to sustain competitive advantage.

Financial resources can be used to create competitive advantage through vigorous advertising of new plastic initiatives

Colgate can use its unique resources to distinguish itself from the competitors and become a source of sustainable superior performance and competitive advantage. Colgate would achieve this competitive advantage when the resources or competences are valuable, rare, are inimitable, and non-substitutable. Colgate must also be in a position to organize its resources well to attain superior performance.

Its distribution network will be used to reach millions of users to get ahead of the competition

Colgate can use its core competences to integrate its major resources to provide quality services, processes and products. For example, the organization culture and the interfirm social relationships enable innovation in the organization since they provide tacit knowledge. Examples for Colgate include strengths and competences that connect the company to customers facilitating an opportunity to perform better such as market access, brand management, technical customer support, integrity, quality and knowledge management system, innovation management, customer value, and functionality.

Problems and Issues Colgate may have with their current capabilities and resources and suggestions to overcome them

Colgate has several strategic resources and capabilities that have evolved from decades of improvements and innovations. The value added products, many aspects of creating user and buying experience, price advantages, an innovation culture, and superior products are just some of the valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable resources and capabilities the company has gained over the last years of operations.

However, some emergent problems and issues with the current capabilities and resources include new market entrants with the knowledge and capabilities that the firm has had years to perfect. Newer dynamics in the toothpaste and related sectors have also led to a need for the organization to constantly keep innovating (Amui et al., 2017). The changing external environment has also created a situation where the company has had to constantly keep changing its products and market strategies, meaning that it has constantly faced challenges in relation to learning and growth. The overall effect of these problems includes the emerging issue of a very uncertain environment. While opportunities may arise from these issues, the challenges cannot be underestimated. Creating strategies to suit a constantly changing external environment drains the resources and capability of the company. It increases the cost of products due to last minute changes to aspects such as design, packaging, and other value addition approaches.

To overcome the issues mentioned above, Colgate must look at the shifting consumer sentiments to evaluate the likely direction for the organization in near future strategies. It is recommended that the company simplifies, diversifies, considers, and avoids aggressive strategies. The external uncertainties do not have a best-practice strategy. Rather, it would be beneficial for the organization to simplify its approach through narrowing down of the strategic initiatives. For example, the issue of plastics might need the company to consider what has worked in the past while abandoning unproven and risky products. Additionally, diversification allows a firm to reduce and spread risk. For example, it is suggested that Colgate expands into a new area that includes new products that accompany the main products and through pursuing newer customer segments. This would enable the firm to leverage its resources and capabilities to ensure that if market dynamics change for one area, other areas are covered. Lastly, it is important to reduce aggressive strategies. For example, Colgate could focus on reducing new products in the market instead of aggressively expanding its operations. This would ensure that growth is controlled and the uncertainties in the market addressed.

References

Amui, L. B. L., Jabbour, C. J. C., de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L., & Kannan, D. (2017). Sustainability as a dynamic organizational capability: a systematic review and a future agenda toward a sustainable transition. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, 308-322.

Martelo, S., Barroso, C., & Cepeda, G. (2013). The use of organizational capabilities to increase customer value. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 2042-2050.

College Education

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How College Education is Different for Millennials and Generation X

Introduction

Generation X refers to people born between 1965 and 1980, while millennials are individuals born between 1981 and 1996. Compared to their parents, the lives that millennials lead are entirely different from those their parents lived when they were their age. The college experiences have changed drastically over the years. It is no secret that current generations are more learned than all other preceding generations of people with the number of young adults holding a bachelor’s degree rising steadily from 1968. This text discusses the differences in education experience between millennials and generation X as regards the cost, diversity, religiousness and technological advancements.

College Education is More Expensive Today

One of the ways in which college education differs for generation X and millenials is that it is more costly than it was a few decades ago, between 1965 and 1980. According to statistics, the cost of college tuition has doubled in number since the 1980s. Worth noting, between the 1980s and 2018 academic year, the cost of attaining an undergraduate degree increased by 213% in public schools to adjust for inflation. Additionally, the annual public tuition fees were $1 490 compared to today’s exorbitant price of $9,970. When adjusted for inflation, private tuitions saw a 129% increase in tuition fees for the same period. On the other hand, during the 1980s, a private undergraduate degree costs $7 050 and equivalent of $15 160 in today’s currency. On the contrary, its costs an average of $34 740 to complete a Bachelor’s degree today. As a matter of fact, college education in the States is expensive to the extent that federal and local governments finance it. The majority of students who take up student loans to finance their college education graduate with student loans amounting to up to 40,000 dollars which they repay once they have graduated and found employment.

College Education for Millennials is More Technologically Advanced.

Secondly, another difference is that the current college education is more technologically advanced than that generation X experienced. Millennials enjoy great benefits of technology, such as the use of laptops, iPods, and mobile devices, which their parents never enjoyed because there was no internet at the time. Although electronic gadgets have made learning easier and convenient, they have their downside too because they distract students. The college education experience for millennials has completely revolutionized because if they happen to miss a class, most lectures provide them with recorded lectures (Enam and Karthik, 70). Additionally, desktops and typewriters have been replaced with laptops which they use to take notes in class. Furthermore, millennials are in a better position than generation X because they use computers instead of writing notes manually. Students also rate professors online and use social media to stay connected to each other. These are privileges that generation X individuals could not enjoy because back them technology was not as advanced as it is today.

Increased Ethnic and Culturally Diverse Student Population.

Diversity is the third factor that shows how different the college experiences for millennials were from those of their parents. Statistics drastically suggest that since 1970, the student population in colleges has transformed. 2018, a student research project carried out by Chegg, a renowned educational company, found a minority enrollment of 42% compared to 15% in 1970. This is after sampling a population of 1,000 students. It’s worth noting that females comprise more than 50% of the total student population compared to 1970 when they less than half. Moreover, millennials are also attending colleges while they are a bit older than before. Currently, 40% of millennial student populations are more than 25 years old in comparison to 28 years during the previous years.

Millennials are Not As Religious as Generation X

Religion is another aspect that shows the differences between college education between millenials and generation X. The Huffington Post posits that the number of college first years that do not identify with religion has risen from 16% in 2005 to 15% in 2014 (Kurz, Geng, and Daniel, 194). The research cited the University of California’s Cooperative Institutional Research programs, which surveyed over 150,000 full-time first-year students in over 200 universities and colleges. Additionally, the number of students in catholic colleges that do not identify with any religion rose by over 4% during the period in review. Moreover, the percentage of college students that do not associate with religion in religious institutions also rose. This is contrary to generation X, who were more religious than millennials.

Conclusion

In closing, the college experiences of generation X is very different from that of millennial. The cost of a college education has increased over the years, and college students’ composition has become more diverse. Moreover, Millennials are lucky as they currently employ technology in their learning, which generation X did not encounter because back- technology was not as advanced as today. Further, millennials are less religious than their generation X counterparts. Both generations had unique experiences in college education and while some are negative majority are positive.

Works Cited

Enam, Annesha, and Karthik C. Konduri. “Time allocation behavior of twentieth-century American generations: GI generation, silent generation, baby boomers, generation X, and millennials.” Transportation Research Record 2672.49 (2018): 69-80.

Kurz, Christopher J., Geng Li, and Daniel J. Vine. “Are millennials different?.” Handbook of US consumer economics. Academic Press, 2019. 193-232.

CMIT-425-Discussion-Questions

Week 1 DQ 1

Each of us have own reasons for pursuing our CISSP certification.  Why did you choose to pursue yours?

The reason I am looking to get my CISSP is for job security reasons and the fact that will get me in a Technical 3 level when it comes to being compliment with DOD’s 8570. I also would love to have a fun job catch hackers with the F.B.I. so the CISSP will put me in the running to get one of those jobs. I also think there is a good pay raise that comes when you have a cert of this level. I was also looking into the CASP because it seem a little bit easier.

Week 1 DQ 3

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

After viewing the video on IT Governance, describe the IT governance model and discuss its importance in instituting a comprehensive security program. What are security blueprints?

In your own words, describe the personnel best practices of mandatory vacation, separation of powers, principle of least privilege, and job rotation. Give an example of where you have seen these practices applied from your own experience.

Mandatory Vacation is when upper management has to make an employee take a few days off this. This is done for auditing purposes. If the person works and don’t take any time off they could be doing things on the system that people are unaware of and the security team might need some time to examine their system to make sure everything is copasetic.

Separation of powers or what is called separation of duty is used to compartmentalize a job or an organization. This is used to make sure one person is not a single point of failure or that one person does not have too much power. “Designed to prevent error and fraud by ensuring that at least two individuals are responsible for the separate parts of any task. (Wigmore, 2014) ”

Principle of least privilege is to make sure that everyone only has access to what they need and have the lowest access control to folders and files and places. Most state the rule for least privilege is to deny everything and then as a person needs access start opening up rights. “If all processes ran with the smallest set of privileges needed to perform the user’s tasks. (Merrifield, 2014)” So the first step in hardening an account is to deny all.

Job rotation is used to make sure people don’t get to relaxed in their jobs so every so often they have you do another job this is kind of a way for companies to use a checks and balance system. That way if you are doing anything wrong in your job the other person will see it and maybe report it to upper management. “Job rotation is an operational control to detect errors and frauds. (Kokcha, 2012) ”

In my day to day life I have never had a madatory vacation because I take off a good amount of time every year. I have created user accounts before at an ole job so I totally get the process of least privlege. When creating an account they tell us to lock down the account and have the users TASO tell you what that person should have access to, I would stat that most of these accounts where on a role based system.

 

Works Cited

Kokcha, R. (2012, 05 16). Job Rotation. Retrieved from http://security.koenig-solutions.com: http://security.koenig-solutions.com/blog-home/job-rotation

Merrifield, J. (2014, 10). Using a Least-Privileged User Account . Retrieved from http://technet.microsoft.com: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700846.aspx

Wigmore, I. (2014, 01 01). segregation of duties (SoD). Retrieved from http://whatis.techtarget.com/: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/segregation-of-duties-SoD

Week 2 DQ 1

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

What are the different Access Control Models available to secure access to resources? Give an example of one that you have used in a work situation or if that is not possible, one that you’ve read about.

Identify the Access Control Categories and give an example of one that you have read about or have knowledge of from your own experience.

Describe threats to the Access Control domain from what was covered within the reading and give an example of each.

What are the main goals of access control and what are the best practices recommended to help in achieving them.

What are the different Access Control Models available to secure access to resources? Give an example of one that you have used in a work situation or if that is not possible, one that you’ve read about.

RBAC which is also known as Role Based Access Control – This access control gives people access based on their role in the organization. An example of that is let’s say the base commander was leaving and there was a new one coming in you would mirror the new base commander’s access to the old one. I have had to do then when creating accounts in AD and group email accounts.

DAC which is also known as Discretionary Access Control- This access control restricts access to data by placing users in different groups and giving the group access to parts of the network. Also there are data owners in the group who can change the level of access each person in the group has. An example is when someone gives another person access to their outlook email account and the owner of the account can dictate weather they won’t the person to have rights to send on the behalf of the email account.

MAC which is also known as Mandatory Access control – This access control method gives the data a sensitivity labels or classification and if the users does not have the classification level they are denied access to the data. “Is a system-controlled policy restricting access to resource objects (such as data files, devices, systems, etc.) based on the level of authorization or clearance of the accessing entity, be it person, process, or device. (Rouse, 2008)

Works Cited

Rouse, M. (2008, 12). mandatory access control (MAC). Retrieved from http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/mandatory-access-control-MAC

Week 2 DQ 2

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

What are the challenges that an Identity and Access Management system helps overcome? What benefits does it provide?

In your own words describe the four main activities that comprise the System Access Control Process. What guidelines must be followed within the Identification phase?

Identify the Information and Access Management Technologies and describe one that you are familiar with either from your own experience or give an example of one that you’ve read about.

Describe the three factors that can be used in authentication and give at least two examples for each.

Describe the three factors that can be used in authentication and give at least two examples for each.

The Three factors of authentication are something you know, something you have and something that you are.

Most networks have some type of authentication process for user’s login this is to make sure the user has the correct access to the objects that they need and also this is used for Identification purposes also.

One way to sign into the network is with a user name and pin. This is the least secure method because there are serval ways a hacker can gain access to a user name and a password. They could use social networks and guess what the password might be or they can you things like dictionary attacks or brute force to crack the password. This method is also called something you know.

Another authentication is something you have this is a little bit more secure then something you know cause you have to physically get something that the users has such as a token or a smart card. I use a multi factor log in method at my work place and we need to have a CAC to log into the network along with a pin. Ways that people can get around this is by taken the token but or duplicating the smart chip in the CAC but these ways are much harder to do.

The best type of single authentication would be something you are. These are things like” Biometric methods provide the something you are factor of authentication. Some of the biometric methods that can be used are fingerprints, hand geometry, retinal or iris scans, handwriting, and voice analysis. Fingerprints and handprints are the most widely used biometric method in use today. (Gibson, 2011)” I worked at a help desk where the walk ups could come and reset there biometric log in or change the method of login in this was very interesting the processes and why the scanner works. This method is a hard way to gain access but it is not impossible.  

 

Works Cited

Gibson, D. (2011, jUN 6). Understanding the Three Factors of Authentication. Retrieved from http://www.pearsonitcertification.com: http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1718488

Week 3 DQ 1

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

Identify the malicious threat sources to physical security and their corresponding countermeasures.

Describe the main components of a CCTV system. What are some of the concerns with CCTV deployments?

Describe three perimeter intrusion detection systems from the physical security domain and give an example of one that you have seen deployed either at work or another location that you are familiar with.

The main components of a CCTV system consist of cameras, transmitters, receivers, a recording system, and a monitor.  The camera captures the data, transmits to the recording system, and then displays on the monitor. One of the concerns with the deployment of the CCTV system include the circuit not being tamperproof whereby this would allow attackers to compromises the companies CCTV system this is a problem that compromises the devices integrity and manipulating the video feed to play back recordings from another recording timeframe. Also depending on the system the feed could be easily hi jacked. Also vandalism could be another problem it CCTV faces the camera is behind a harden plastic cover but if someone mess up that cover it is hard to see though.  Another concern would be choosing the correct lens. The lens should have the proper focal length that covers the entire area or depth of focus, and having the capability to adjust the lens. Light is another concern with the CCTV system, deploying a light-sensitive camera which “allows for the capture of extraordinary detail of objects and precise presentation.” (Harris, 2013) Using the use of an auto iris lens can regulate the amount of light that enters the lens.

Reference

Harris, S. (2013). Alll-in-One CISSP. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Week 3 DQ 2

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

Describe the functions of hubs/repeaters, bridges, switches, routers, and gateways. At what layers of the OSI model does each device operate?

Describe the different Wireless standards within the 802.11 family. What is a rogue access point, and what do we have to worry about?

Describe the differences between bus, ring and star topologies. List the various wiring standards that are available for use within these topologies.

From the videos, pick one hacker profiled and describe the types of attacks they used in exploiting vulnerabilities of the networks that they targeted. What opening did they gain access through? How were they detected?

HubRepeater operates at the physical layer. They repeat incoming frames without examining the MAC address in the frame.

Bridges connects “two or more media segments on the same subnet, and filters traffic between both segments based on the MAC address in the frame. They divide a network into segments to reduce traffic congestion and excessive collisions” (Harris, 2013) by connecting two networks and passes traffic between them based only on the node address, so that traffic between nodes on one network does not appear on the other network.  Bridges operate in the data link OSI layer.

Switches operate at data link layer. A multiport bridge that performs filtering based on MAC addresses can process multiple frames simultaneously, guaranteed bandwidth to each switch port. Switches offer guaranteed bandwidth. (Webtycho, 2013)

Routers assign a new address per port which allows it to connect different networks together. Also discovers information about routes and changes that take place in a “network through its routing protocols; and filters traffic based on ACLs and fragments packets.” (Webtycho, 2013) Because of their network level, they can “calculate at the shortest and economical path between the sending and receiving hosts” (Harris, 2013). Routers operate in the network OSI layer.

Gateways- can be a combination of hardware andor software that connects individual LANS to a larger network and can act like a translator. This usually involves converting different protocols. For example, a “gateway could be used to convert a TCPIP packet to a NetWare IPX packet”. (Webtycho, 2013) Gateways operate in all seven OSI layers.

Reference

Harris, S. (2013). Alll-in-One CISSP. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Webtycho, U. (2013, October).Network Course Content Material . Adelphia, Maryland.

Week 4 DQ 1

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

Describe in your own words the differences between steganography, digital watermarking, and digital rights management.

Choose three of the basic cryptosystems and give an overview of each.

Describe the operation of a one-time pad (OTP) and give an example of a device that uses an OTP either from your own experience or from research.

A one-time pad (OTP) uses a pad of random values, where a plaintext message that needs to be encrypted is converted into bits. The encryption process uses a binary mathematic function exclusive-OR (XOR) that is applied to two bits and when combining the bits, if both values are the same the result is 0 (1 XOR 1=0)m, but if the values are different from each other the result is 1(1 XOR 0=1). For instance when User A and User B “produce a huge number of random bits and share them secretly. When User A has a message to send to User B, User A retrieves a number of random bits equal to the length of User A’s message, and uses them to be the message’s key. User A applies the exclusive or operation (xor) to the key and the message to produce the encrypted message. The key must be exactly the same size as the message. The key must also consist of completely random bits that are kept secret from everyone except User A and User B. When User B receives the message, User B retrieves the same bits from his copy of the random bit collection. User B must retrieve the same random bits in exactly the same order that User A used them. Then User B uses the sequence of random bits to decrypt the message. User B applies the xor operation to the message and the key to retrieve the plain text.” (Cryptosmith, 2007) An example of a device that uses the one-time pad would be a mobile phone.

 

Reference

Cryptosmith, (2007). One-Time Pads, Retrieved from: http://b.cryptosmith.com/2007/06/09/one-time-pads/

Week 4 DQ 2

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of symmetric key cryptography? Give an example of where this type of cryptography is used. What are the strengths and weaknesses of asymmetric key cryptography? Give an example of where this type of cryptography is used.

What are the types of message integrity controls and what benefit is provided by them? Give a short description of the various secure email protocols that are referenced in the Shon Harris book and the Course Content.

What benefit do digital signatures provide and what are their characteristics? In your own words, what does non-repudiation mean? 

The types of message controls and their benefit include, The One-Way Hash, the benefit it provides a fingerprint of a message by taking a variable-length string and a message and produces a fixed-length value; HMAC, the benefit it provides data origin authentication and data integrity.  A symmetric key is used and concatenated to produce a MAC value that is appended into a message and sent to the receiver; CBC-MAC, the benefit it provides is that the message is encrypted with a symmetric block cipher in CBC mode and the output of the final block of ciphertext is used as the MAC; Hashing, this has various algorithms such as MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA, HAVAL, Tiger. The benefit it provides is that it generates messages digests to detect whether modification has taken place; Digital Signature, the benefit it provides is that it encrypts the sender’s private key.

The various secure email protocols are:

Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM) – an internet standard that provides secure-email over the Internet for in-house communication infrastructure that provides authentication, message integrity, encryption, and key management.

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) – a freeware email security program that was the first widespread public key encryption program. PGP is a complete cryptosystem that uses cryptographic protection to protect email files.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) – a technical specification that indicates how multimedia data and email attachments are to be transferred; and a mail standard that dictates how mail is formatted, encapsulated, transmitted, and opened.

Harris, Shon. CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition. McGraw-Hill/Osborne. © 2013. Books24x7. <http://common.books24x7.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=50527>

Week 5 DQ 1

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

What are the steps in the business continuity planning process? Why is a clear understanding of a company’s enterprise architecture critical to this process?

Describe the steps in a Business Impact Analysis (BIA).

What different loss criteria types can be associated with threats identified during the Business Impact Analysis process? 

The following are the steps in the business continuity planning process. It is extremely important to have a clear understanding of the company’s enterprise architecture because you have to know what you’re protecting and how it would affect the organization and its stakeholders if those assets identified were damaged or destroyed.

Develop the continuity planning policy statement. Write a policy that provides the guidance necessary to develop a BCP, and that assigns authority to the necessary roles to carry out these tasks (Harris, 2013).

Conduct the business impact analysis (BIA). Identify critical functions and systems and allow the organization to prioritize them based on necessity. Identify vulnerabilities and threats, and calculate risks (Harris, 2013).

Identify preventive controls. Once threats are recognized, identify and implement controls and countermeasures to reduce the organization’s risk level in an economical manner (Harris, 2013).

Develop recovery strategies. Formulate methods to ensure systems and critical functions can be brought online quickly (Harris, 2013).

Develop the contingency plan. Write procedures and guidelines for how the organization can still stay functional in a crippled state (Harris, 2013).

Test the plan and conduct training and exercises. Test the plan to identify deficiencies in the BCP, and conduct training to properly prepare individuals on their expected tasks (Harris, 2013).

Maintain the plan. Put in place steps to ensure the BCP is a living document that is updated regularly (Harris, 2013).

Reference:

Harris, S. (2013). CISSP All-In-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition. [Books24x7 version] Available fromhttp://common.books24x7.com/toc.aspx?bookid=50527Week 5 DQ 2

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

Describe the differences between the hot, warm, and cold site methods of facility recovery.

Define the full, incremental, and differential backups and describe the differences between these data backup types.

Describe the differences between disk shadowing, electronic vaulting, and remote journaling. What is disk duplexing and how does it differ from disk mirroring? 

Effective data recovery plans must include hot sites, warm sites and cold sites. When the capabilities of each site is considered, companies are better able to predict the recovery time following a disaster. Knowing how long it will take until systems begin running again is vital. A hot site is considered “proactive”. It allows a company to keep servers and a live backup site running incase a disaster occurs. This is unlike a warm or “preventive” site which enables the pre-installation of a company’s hardware and it allows the company to preconfigure bandwidth necessities. In a warm site, all a company would have to do is simply load software, as well as data in order to restore the business’ systems. Cold sites are also referred to as ‘recovery’ sites. These sites include data center space, power and network connectivity that is available whenever a company may need it. In these facilities, a company’s logistical support team would assist in the moving of hardware into the data center and get the company back up and running. This process may take an extended period of time, unlike a transition into a hot site where there would be immediate cutover if disaster were to arise. Hot sites are essential for mission critical sites (Core X Change, 2014).

References

Core X Change. (2014). Disaster Recovery Hot, Warm and Cold Sites: Key Differences.Colocation & Connectivity by Zayo. Retrieved from https://www.corexchange.com/blog/disaster-recovery-hot-warm-cold-sites-key-differences

Week 6 DQ 2

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

What is a View-based access control in database? What is a Data warehouse? What is Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)?

What is Change Management and how is it used to control security breaches? What is Configuration Management and how is it used to control security breaches? What is Patch management and how is it used to control security breaches?

In a database, to control security, lock controls are implemented and tested using the ACID test. Explain the following terms for each letter within the ACID method: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability. 

The ACID method consist of atomicity which divides transactions into units of work and ensures that all modifications either take effect or none takes effect- where the database either commits or is rolled back; consistency is where a transaction must follow the integrity policy developed for that particular database and ensure all data are consistent in the different databases; isolation is where transactions execute in isolation until completed, without interacting with other transactions; and durability which pertains to once the transaction is verified as accurate on all systems it is committed and the databases cannot be rolled back.

Week 7 DQ 1

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

Describe the administrative management practices of separation of duties, job rotation, and mandatory vacations and their role within operations security.

Describe the differences between the following sanitization methods of media control: clearing, purging, zeroization, and degaussing. What is data remanence? 

The difference between the following sanitization methods of media control are:

Clearing – a process of removing data from media that it is not readily retrieved using routine operating system commands or data recovery software.

Purging –method of removing the data on media making it unrecoverable even with great effort.)

Zeroization- method of overwriting data on media with a pattern designed to ensure that the data cannot be recovered

Degaussing – the process of magnetically scrambling the patterns on a tape or disk that represents the data stored on the disk and destroying the media through either shredding crushing, or burning-

Data remanence is the residual physical representation of data that remains on the drive even after the data has been removed or erased.

Week 7 DQ 2

After reading/viewing this week’s materials, please respond to one or more of the following questions.

Describe the different methods of RAID. What is RAIT?

Define the different types of trusted recovery. What is meant by the term “fail secure”?

Describe three of the following attack types in the Operation Security domain: man-in-the-middle, mail bombing, war-dialing, ping-of-death, teardrop, and slamming-and-cramming 

The different methods of RAID consist of RAID 0 which deals with data striping, RAID 1 handles mirroring, RAID 2 where data parity are created with a hamming code which identifies any errors, RAID 3 is considered the Byte-level parity, where data is striping over all the drives and the parity data is held on one drive, RAID 4 is where parity is created at the block-level, RAID 5 is where data is written in disk sector units to all the drives-this is the most widely used because of its redundancy, RAID 6 is the fault tolerance, which is a second set of parity data written to all drives, RAID 10 is where data are simultaneously mirrored and striped across several drives and can support multiple drive failures.

Redundant Array of Independent Tapes (RAIT) is similar to RAID but it uses tape drives instead of disk drives. In RIAT data is striped in parallel to multiple tapes drives with or without redundant parity drive.

Week 8 DQ 1

As the course wraps up this week, please share your reflections on this course, including lessons learned. 

What are you goals moving forward?Though a very challenging and fast-paced class, I learned quite a bit in each of the CISSP domains. It is easy to see why an exam of this level is contingent upon five years of job experience in at least two of the domains (although you can take the exam without the experience and only achieve SSCP) ((ISC)2, 2014). 

From the perspective of taking the exam, I will likely take another couple months to circle back to each domain take more practice tests, and really focus on topics that need more attention. Though this was an eight week class, the scope of the CISSP is very large and requires a lot of attention. 

I haven’t yet received feedback on my risk assessment paper, but I’ll say that it was a challenging yet rewarding assignment. It was great to take the topics we learned in class and directly apply them to a project, which isn’t far from what is in the real world. If I wasn’t a procrastinator, I could have easily doubled or tripled the length of this paper, given the topics I learned in this class that I wanted to apply to GFI’s, such as writing more detail about a security policy, vulnerability management, etc. I’ll have to leave that for a other courses, which I hope to be able to take. 

All in all, this was a great class. I would have much preferred not to have taken it online, and take it in a 16 week session, but there is still a lot I’ve learned that I will be able to apply to my current job to make me a better Information Assurance Auditor. 

Good luck to you all in your future studies!

Works Cited

(ISC)2. (2014). How to Get Your CISSP Certification. Retrieved 12 14, 2014, from (ISC)2: https://www.isc2.org/cissp-how-to-certify.aspx

CMIT-425-Week-1-Assignment

An ISP is a detailed plan in which the company measures its risk. Most ISP assessments looking at a company’s strategic, Tactical and Operational plan. The plan also rank and assess amount of risk the company is taking these documents normally take account for contain such as Privacy, Policy, audit, Compliance and technical security and Access control. This plan also details how to protect the company’s information. And also should have a roster of people in the organization.

Strategic has organization and Authority. Enterprise security framework and Security vision and strategy. (BCP, Back up servers)

Tactical has Policy, audit & compliance, risk management, privacy, awareness and education. (Training, user agreements and checks and balances.)

Operational access control, monitoring, assets and physical. (Gates, PTZ and turnstiles)

The stuxnet virus made an Iranian nuclear facility lose the availability of their nuclear reactors when the virus made raised the RPM of the rotors spin so fact that they physically broke. So at that point they had no way to use the reactor until it was fixed.

If some way was to comprise an email hash and was able to change around the message then that would damage the integrity of the message because we don’t know what the original message looked like.

By someone giving up secret information they could out us Assets and unveil spies confidently. Well the amount of data can be counted in risk assessment in a qualitative manor. There is no way to really but a number price on to lost data also when it comes to human loss of life. But when it comes to something like damaged computers you can assess that in a quantitative manor. You can place a number on that and say that it cost an dollar amount and if need be it can be replaced.

CMN, Question One (Virtual Reality)

Name

Professor

Course

Date

CMN, Question One (Virtual Reality)

Virtual reality is a form of modern communication that uses technology as opposed to traditional means. This form of education is a direct result of the introduction of the World Wide Web. This concept consists of forming a social playground with people who are not in close contact. This medium allows for a person to distance themselves from reality into other worlds that is surreal in nature. Each individual has at one point had an encounter with virtual reality due to the introduction of modern ideas such as computer games, 3D and avatars (Woolgar, p. 244).

This has thus changed the way people communicate with each other. The traditional form of communication is more engaging. It places emphasis on personal interactions which brings forth an understanding of the parties involved. Virtual reality on the contrary focuses on creating a world that fits into a certain identity. This assists individual’s form an identity to their likelihood. This identity is similar to the other characters in the world due to the characteristics they share. This form of communication has changed the dynamics of the social cultural interaction in the community as a whole. This situation continues to worsen in that people use the world to get away from the real world. This results in an enclosed society that remains indoors to socialize (Szigeti, p. 138).

Media presence simply means using a certain medium such as the internet to have a virtual experience. This is represented by an illusion that can disappear or appear at any time. Inner presence is the adaptation of a more critical virtual state that comprises of psychological personalities.

Question two (Confession and identity)

Identity is the recognition of oneself in relation to all aspects of life. Self identification is a process that does not occur in a short period of time. Individuals learn something about themselves each and every day. A person identifies themselves through their, family, culture, surrounding environment and character traits. These qualities are essential in that they influence the decisions of an individual. Identity involves accepting all these qualities as your own and learning how to work around them (Hymer, p. 91).

Confession on the other hand involves exposing these qualities to outsiders. These qualities are both positive and negative in nature. It is difficult to relate with the negative aspects of a person’s personality. Learning how to deal with this factor improves the self esteem or self worth of the person in the society. The self is a state that comprises of qualities that are separate from the personal identity. There are other factors that determine the realization of oneself. The use of confessions is one of the ways that improve the personal identity of an individual. The use of confession is essential in releasing burdens that a person may have. One of the ways of doing this is through talking to a friend, family member or a therapist.

In order for a person to improve on their identity, an individual has to take the time to learn about themselves. This can be done through a personal or public analysis. Both the confession and identity complement each other. The removal of one element reduces the growth of another. It is thus ideal for individuals to learn about their personal identity so as to improve on their relationships in the environment. Placing self identity and confession improves the rate of communication in the society and thus breaks barriers as a result (Corbey, p. 124).

Works cited

Corbey, Raymond. Alterity, Identity, Image: Selves and Others in Society and Scholarship. Amsterdam u.a: Rodopi, 1991. Print.

Hymer, Sharon. Confessions in Psychotherapy. New York: Gardner Press, 1988. Print.

Szigeti, Tim. Cisco Telepresence Fundamentals. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press, 2009. Print.

Woolgar, Steve. Virtual Society?: Technology, Cyberbole, Reality. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.