1. Using the components of risk assessment documentation presented in the chapter, draft a tentative risk assessment of a lab, department, or office at your university. Outline the critical risks you found and discuss them with your class.
2. Create a spreadsheet that takes eight values that a user inputs into eight different cells. Then create a row that transposes the cells to simulate a transposition cipher, using the example transposition cipher from the text. Remember to work from right to left, with the pattern 1 > 3, 2 > 6, 3 > 8, 4 > 1, 5 > 4, 6 > 7, 7 > 5, 8 > 2 where 1 is the rightmost of the eight cells. Input the text ABCDEFGH as single characters into the first row of cells. What is displayed?
3. Go to the Web site of VeriSign, one of the market leaders in digital certificates. Determine whether VeriSign serves as a registration authority, certificate authority, or both. Download its free guide to PKI and summarize VeriSign’s services.
4. Go to csrc.nist.gov and locate “Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 197.” What encryption standard does this address use? Examine the contents of this publication and describe the algorithm discussed. How strong is it? How does it encrypt plaintext?
