, it is a priority that students are provided with strong educational programs and courses that allow them to be servant-leaders in their disciplines and communities, linking research with practice and knowledge with ethical decision-making. This assignment is a written assignment where students will demonstrate how this course research has connected and put into practice within their own career.

Assignment:
Provide a reflection paper of 500 words minimum (2 pages double spaced) of how the knowledge, skills, or theories of the course you are enrolled in have been applied, or could be applied, in a practical manner to your current work environment. If you are not currently working, share times when you have or could observe these theories and knowledge could be applied to an employment opportunity in your field of study. 

Requirements:

Provide a 500 word (or 2 pages double spaced) minimum reflection.

Use of proper APA formatting is required. References are not required, but if you wish to bolster your paper with supporting evidence from outside documents and articles, please make sure that proper APA formatted citations and references are used to support your writing. 

· You could share a personal connection that identifies specific knowledge and theories from this course. Maybe friends of friends – people you don’t really know – come to your residence and ask for your WiFi password. Maybe you share your Netflix credentials with a close friend, but you don’t know who they are sharing it with afterwards. Do you change your own passwords regularly?

· You could also demonstrate a connection to your current work environment. Maybe you use 2-factor authentication at work. Maybe you must change your passwords every 90 days. Maybe you regularly work at home over your company’s VPN. Does it work well? Or is it just easier to go to work? If you are not employed, demonstrate a connection to your desired work environment. 

You should NOT, provide an overview of the assignments assigned in the course. The assignment asks that you reflect how the knowledge and skills obtained through meeting course objectives were applied or could be applied in the workplace. 

Practical Connection Assignment

-Gaurav Venkatesh

I currently work at a financial organization as a software developer, and this course has helped me tremendously at work. It has helped me gain a better understanding of the existing security measures and also helped in creating new standards for the applications I build. The labs have provided me practical experience in employing security measures at a folder and file level. They have also helped me understand password policy and where/how the permissions can be set. All the labs that we worked on were in a Windows environment, and it would be great if we got a Linux level class on the same as well. The course enabled me to take the security concept on the windows OS and lookup the corresponding execution in a Linux environment. At work, I use an RHEL server to deploy most of my code, and I had some issues with my application. After I spent time in the lab, I immediately correlated that it could be a permission issue as well. I was then able to put the required requests and get a Service account created to perform the actions on my behalf and get my application to run. The labs also exposed me to Windows Powertools, which I was not aware of before. With the methods and calls available on the power shell, Windows can provide more specifications in security, which will make it more appealing in the future. One of our email exchange servers at work runs on a Windows server, and I had a chance to actually use the Windows Powershell to debug connectivity issues due to the exposure that I received in the lab.

From a theoretical standpoint, I learned a great deal about data management. Reading the posts from my peers helped me look into other technologies, and this resulted in me sorting my data more efficiently. This class has given me the insight that effective data management is critical in managing and deploying IT systems. With effective data management, it is easy to run business applications and provide analytical information to help drive operational decision-making and strategic planning by corporate executives, business managers, and other end users.

Another important topic that was visited in the class labs and discussions was password management. Thanks to my peers, I am using KeePass and a few other software to handle my passwords. It was getting incredibly hard to remember all the passwords, and it is absolutely not safe to use the same passwords across domains. I learned a single website hack could result in my commonly used password to be exposed. This would put my banking information at risk as well. I have moved away from writing passwords on notepads and text files and learned to encrypt them and store them on the cloud.

And last but not least, the research paper that my team and I are currently working on. After I completed my undergraduate degree, I never did any research into advancements in my field and just went into the workforce. This paper has helped me come to reality about the latest advancements in the technological field surrounding autonomous vehicles and its security. It has shaped my overall view on the topic and given me insight into the future of the workforce and inspired a shift in a career within me.