Journal Week 4

Develop a comparison outline of the types of resources (news articles, technical papers, discussion boards, scholarly journals…) you used, highlighting strengths and limitations of each tool.

I used two forms of resources for my project, each having it's own uses and advantages.

For my literary research, I relied on old textbooks of mine and a couple websites that list and define malware. These sources are great for helping me provide background information for my readers and lead into the main subject of my research. However it still does not provide the data I need to answer my main question, how secure does the average person feel they are from malware attacks?

The main source of my research is my survey, which will hopefully help me understand the attitudes people have towards malware and security and answer my defining question. I consider this a sociological issue and although there may be studies that already aimed to collect the same data I am going for, I thought it would be a good idea to collect the data for myself. So far I have 39 responses and I will still be conducting the survey for another week, allowing me to obtain a larger sample and have a more realistic idea of the general population.

Textbooks and websites
Pro: Provides background info for my topic
Con: Does not give a definitive portrayal on the general public's attitude about malware.

Survey
Pro: Gathers peoples opinions, which is the central focus of my study
Con: Does not define malware or ways to prevent it.