Question(s): In your response posts, evaluate the attributes your classmates chose and examine if they depict an accurate picture of key components of a network for the given industry. Provide additional comments and questions accordingly.
PEER POST 1
I am getting my MS in IT with a focus in application development and I will be graduating in May. I got my BS in biology, and I am currently a high school biology and cybersecurity teacher. Furthermore, I also earned my Network + certification about 3 months back.
In banking, one of the most important things to the integrity of the network is the security. Cybersecurity is the act of protecting the network and networked data transmitted over the internet and stored on hardware devices. Protecting financial data is the cornerstone of trust between customers and their banking institutions. A breach of this trust could result in the loss of time and money for all parties involved (Sharma 2024). The high pay-off, pun intended, of hacking financial institutions requires that banks pay extra attention to their network security. Banks employ multiple layers of protection to their hardware and software systems to avoid these potential pitfalls.
The second attribute required is availability. Availability is the accessibility of the network, and it can be measured or assessed by a number of metrics that are often monitored by IT staff. The primary metric used to measure this would be uptime. Uptime is the percentage of time in a measurable set that a website or application was available. This should normally be at 99.99% or above for uptime to be considered “high” (Solarwinds 2024). When websites do go down, companies may use mean time between failure (MTBF) to measure how often the system loses availability, and mean time to recover (MTTR) to measure how long it takes the IT team to restore functionality in the event of a system failure. In banking, people need their money, and they need it now. With increasing fear of hackers and data breaches, downtime can erode trust between customers and banks.
PEER POST 2
My name is Emanuel Yates. I’ve been serving in the USAF for 17 years. I have a family of six, and we live overseas. I’m majoring in IT with a focus on data analytics, and I’m just three classes away from graduating.
In my time and studies, I’ve seen how important reliable and secure telecommunication networks are in military intelligence. Reliable networks are crucial because they ensure that information flows without interruption, which is vital for mission success and the safety of our personnel. For example, intelligence officers need real-time data from different sources to make critical decisions during operations. If the network goes down, it could lead to missed opportunities or put lives at risk. With advanced technologies like drones and satellite communications, having highly reliable networks becomes even more essential for smooth data transmission and coordination.
Security is just as important because the information handled in military intelligence is often highly sensitive and classified. Strong security measures, like advanced encryption, secure communication channels, and strict access controls, are necessary to protect this information from unauthorized access and cyber threats (Kshetri, 2013). Encrypting communications and data transmissions makes sure that intercepted data can’t be read without the right decryption keys. Using multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of protection, keeping unauthorized people from accessing classified information (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2017).
