Overview – Every organization must consider the mandatory and recommended practices when creating their information security program and/or security policies. Legislative documents such as FISMA are mandatory, yet standards documents such as FIPS 200 can also be mandatory. For this project you will compare and contrast two or more technical standards. You have the option of comparing FIPS 140-2 with ISO: 19790 OR comparing DES with Triple DES with AES. There is no requirement to relate this research to your selected organization. The goal is to understand the standards and be able to identify their similarities and their differences.

Learning Objective – After completing this project students will be able to 1) identify at least two technical standards, 2) describe at least two technical standards, and 3) compare and contrast technical standards.

Deliverable – Your research paper should be at least three (3) full pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, New Times Roman 12-Pitch font, include a cover page (team member names, course number, date, title of paper) and a reference page. The cover page and reference page are not included in the three-page minimum. Papers not meeting the three full-page minimum will lose points. You must have at least three (3) sources, correctly formatted per APA guidelines. Submit your research paper to the appropriate TurnItIn assignment area by the due date. Be sure and use the mandatory template. This URL takes your to short video with additional details about the assignment and the template.

Detailed Description of Learning Activity

1. As a team, select which standards options 1) ISO versus FIPS or 2) DES, Triple DES, and AES your team wants to research, compare, and contrast.

2. If you select FIPS versus ISO, identify three to five points of analysis from the first standard (i.e., FIPS 140-2) that you will compare and contrast against the second standard (i.e., ISO 19790:2012).

3. If you selected DES versus Triple DES versus AES, identify three to five points of analysis from the three standards and compare contrast those points against the other standards. For this option you will compare the three standards against one another for each point of analysis.

4. Research the security issues related to or solved by the three to five points of analysis.

5. Write your research paper. Use the MANDATORY template for your paper. At a minimum, the paper should include:

a.) An introduction that includes the purpose of your paper and introduces your standards.

b) A standards section that describes the two or three standards you selected for the paper

c) A Points of Analysis section that describes your three to five points and why you selected them (see #2 or #3 above)

d) A Compare and Contrast section comparing and contrasting the details of each standard for the three to five points of analysis (see #2 or #3 above)

e) A conclusion that summarizes what you wrote

6. Use Spell and Grammar Checker before submitting. It is also a good idea to have someone else read your paper. You should also review the below grading rubric to ensure you have all the graded components.