NEED A DISSERTAION TOPIC

I AM A FINAL YEAR STUDENT DOING COMPUTER NETWORK SECURITY, IN UK. I NEED SOME SUGGESTIONS IN CHOOSING A DISSERTATION TOPIC.

hi there,
i was faced with the same dillema when i was going to do my project. your best point of information would be your university. check on your university web site where it talks about your project and other related topics. discuss with your tutors and your faculties, decide on which subject you would be doing your project on, and then talk with the relevant faculty. he/she would be able to guide you straightaway. there would be plenty of seminars regarding project topics in your own university. try attending them to get a better idea on how to go about deciding on a topic.

Welcome to firewall.cx, vasud2.

Computer Network Security is a wide-ranging subject, so I would recommend homing in on aspect of it that is of particular interest to you. So if your interest is in the protection of networks from external attack, you could choose something like "Design of a Network Gateway Protection Scheme", or if you are more interested in internal hackers, you could choose "Techniques for hardening a computer network to mitigate against internal attacks". If web application security pushes your buttons, you could choose something like, "Hardening [Application X] running on Apache/IIS". Another interesting approach would be to set up Honeypots running either a particular OS of interest or webserver or any network service you wish to investigate and base your dissertation on that.

If you are more interested in the the "first principles" type of stuff like how underlying network protocols work, etc, you could also go in that direction. People like Arani may be able to give some more suggestions in that area.

The key thing though is to enjoy as you will be a significant amount of time on it.

completely agree with DaLight. i know by now you must have come across some websites which sell topics and even the dissertation projects themselves. stay clear those sites. even if they say they can give you 100% guarantee against plagairism, your supervisors, and the external markers are far more knowledgeable than those people behind these sites. they will in an instant make out that it's not your original work.
networking security is a huge field. specially the wireless networking arena is growing rapidly. since no specific protocol has been made into a standard, the security issues are also up for grabs at this moment. why not try at finding out what are the security issue with wireless networks, research the various protocols present at this moment for wireless security i.e. WEP, or , WPA - FSK etc. this is a very good area to work on. you will find good support from quite a few areas. maybe some years from now wireless networks will be the "in - thing". why not dip your hands into the probable future?

Yes indeed ... as my fellow mates point out Wireless is one very hot topic doing rounds and you could end up choosing this for one of many reasons :

a. Presently reports a highly active status as far as technology performance advancements, deployment possibilites over long distances (WiMAX) & most importantly in terms of security concerns (WEP (old), WPA & WPA-PSk (current) & WPA-2 (AES in the future))

b. It will ensure you a highlighted presentation since general awareness is high but detailed awareness is low

c. Research material is readily available online and resources are bountiful for a properly planned, time-lined, specifics-oriented seminar.

Moreover, Lack of availability to appease your curiosity or the listener's delight and interest is never a possibility

Think abt it wid an open mind .... after all the bottom line is tht you ought 2 be comfortable with what you present.


Cheerz n Beerz