CS 2800 Spring 2013

Homework 1

Your task is to write a short research essay on the importance of reliable,
correct or secure computer systems.

This assignment is intended to provide an opportunity for you to explore
one aspect of the reliability/correctness/security issue in more detail,
and to practice presenting a convincing argument in written form. Select an
incident or topic, research it, and draw your own conclusions. You can
select any incident or topic you are interested in. Examples include: the
Ariane 5 crash, the Intel FDIV bug, the NIST study on the cost of software
bugs, Shamir's note on breaking RSA if the underlying hardware's arithmetic
is not perfect, the Patriot missile failure, or the Therac-25
incident. Again, you can pick a relevant topic outside of these examples if
you wish.

Your report should include answers to the following questions:

1. What did you find out about the incident? From what sources? What is the
evidence? Summarize in your own words.

2. What part of (1) was interesting or surprising to you? Why?

3. What lessons did you learn? Do you think the incident could have been
prevented? Do you think the same kind of incident could happen today, too?
Explain and justify.

Technicalities:
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The length of the essay should be 2-3 pages of single spaced ASCII text.
YOU MUST WORK ON THIS ALONE. Submission instructions for the class are
posted on the class website.

We will discuss Academic Integrity in class on Wednesday, but here is a
snapshot. Throughout your careers you will be required to read, analyze,
and process information, and to present your results. It is absolutely
crucial that you learn how to do this convincingly, and according to the
highest standards of integrity. Any sources you use must be cited. You can
use any reasonable method of providing citations; see for example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation

Make sure that you read and fully understand the Northeastern Academic
Integrity policy, which you can find at

http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academicintegrity/index.html