Network Analysis and Resource Allocation for Critical Nodes and Links

Determining Scale-Free or Small-World Characteristics of Your Network

Task:

Complete the network analysis of your selected network, and include the following: Determine if your network is scale-free or small-world, and make judgments on why this matters. Remember, the main purpose for using network analysis is to identify critical nodes and links. Focus your risk analysis on at least 1 of these critical hubs, and include it in your Key Assignment. Your network analysis will also provide you with better information upon which you might base your choice or design of a resource allocation model. Discuss how the network analysis will inform your resource allocation decisions. Present your output in a well-delivered and clearly understandable format of your choosing, using any media that you desire. Remember to analyze the information that employing your software or model reveals. Such analysis will constitute your findings and should be presented as such.

Part 2 Key Assignment: Final Draft Below are the instructions for the Key Assignment (KA), the outline of which was due during Week 4, and the final version, due in Week 5. All of the elements are required for the final KA. Content For your Key Assignment, be sure to include the following content: Cover the sector, network, and assets that you selected earlier and referenced throughout the term. Both your draft KA, and later your final, refined version should address the following: Discuss the placement of the selected sector in context nationally, regionally, or as otherwise applies. This context should also include discussion of related or overlapping critical infrastructure (CI) sectors that are also relevant to your selected network. Consider any issues or factors pertaining to networks, integration with, or dependence upon other sectors, sector-centric challenges, and so forth. What you choose to include is indicative of your thorough and intelligent approach to covering this requirement.

Include your research and presentation of legal, regulatory, policy-related, and political considerations regarding your selected network, that if not precisely real-world are realistic and reasonable as influences on CI prioritization and resource allocation. This portion will expressly employ applied research methodologies. Utilize the full application of a vulnerability analysis tool, methodology, or fault tree to analyze your selected network and to identify critical nodes, capabilities, and assets. Include a complete risk assessment (RA) of at least 1 critical node, identified through your conduct of a vulnerability analysis. This RA model may use an existing tool, be designed by you, or reflect a hybrid of models. The RA will consider threats, vulnerabilities, costs, and risks and identify the most significant among these. Provide comprehensive recommendations for mitigation, prevention activities, and devices to strengthen protection and resiliency of the network and its assets. Apply an existing, self-designed, or hybrid model of a resource allocation model to make recommendations on how resources should be applied toward the protection and resiliency of nodes and assets.

Your Key Assignment must include the addition of the following: Give recommendations for future public- and private-sector initiatives in effecting protected and resilient CI, drawing on lessons gathered from completing this network analysis and extending these lessons to a larger CI context. Identify and explain potential solutions to mitigate the risks and vulnerabilities you assessed for your asset. Draw conclusions about the remaining challenges for your network or asset. Refine your entire product so that it would be suitable for a homeland security (HLS) manager’s use. References Be sure to adhere to the following standards: Include 8 or more academic, technical, or governmental references that may or may not include course materials. Using more references reflects more research into the topic and better mastery of employing multiple sources. You may not use wikis or any other shortcut-type sources. Mechanics and Requirements For your Key Assignment, be sure to meet the following requirements: 6–8 pages, not including title page, reference page, or externally produced annexes. Annexes or appendices that you produce may be included, and the length should be appropriate to capture material that you introduce. Include a title page and table of contents (these do not count in the 6–8 pages you must produce). Double-space your work in 11- or 12-point font of any style with 1-inch margins all around. Your citations must appear in proper APA style. Consider your topic early in the term, continue to practice high-quality, scholarly writing, and begin reviewing the possible sources you may employ. If you have trouble locating material to draw from, let your instructor know early in the term. Style Include the following elements of style in your Key Assignment:

You may deliver the required components in whatever order or format you see fit. You can employ a case study model, a traditional research project, add quantitative or qualitative elements, produce a unique construct to accommodate your topic, and so forth. This is not a thought piece for you to simply share personal perspectives and philosophies. Do not include your personal opinions. The tone must be scholarly, and if there is a perspective to advance, use evidence, not opinion, to do so. If analysis is required for your product, support your arguments by referring to the facts or evidence you provided in your product, formal documents, or expert perspectives you included. You can still assess these, but be scholarly and assertive in your tone. Do not use “I” statements anywhere in the paper. The majority of the paper should consist of original work. Use plenty of sources, but weave them into the fabric of the paper’s presentation, analysis, and content. Do not use huge portions of someone else’s material. Also, do not use huge portions of someone else’s material verbatim and without proper annotation, as this constitutes plagiarism. You should be familiar with the university’s plagiarism policy. A student does not need to intend to cheat to have cheated. Contact your instructor if you are worried about your use of material. When in doubt, cite any outside material, and when using it verbatim, properly annotate the same. Subtopic headers are recommended because they are useful to both the writer and reader. Write primarily in narrative style, not in bullets. Do not use enumerated or bulleted lists unless they are used and noted as someone else’s original words. This is scholarly writing, not a military or business style memorandum.