A Walk in the IT Director’s Shoes
The final assignment for this course is a Final Paper. The purpose of the Final Paper is for you to culminate the learning achieved in the course. The Final Paper represents 32% of the overall course grade.

Focus of the Final Paper

Assume you are an Information Technology Director for a small, growing firm and are tasked with developing an electronic resource security policy to deploy within your organization. The policy needs to protect the organization’s valuable electronic assets, but be flexible enough to accommodate employees as they go about executing their jobs and getting business done. It also needs to address communication and data security aspects such as remote data access, smartphone access, and internal electronic communications such as IM (instant messaging) and email.

**(Note that a policy is different from a plan. Be sure you address primarily the policy aspects of this task.).

In a minimum five page APA formatted paper (excluding title and reference pages) using the lecture, supplemental resources, and your own research, discuss the following elements.
Discuss the differences between ‘implementation’ and ‘policy’, and describe the importance of their separation.
Using information from the course, including the lectures and weekly reading, develop an outline of your security policy which addresses the areas identified in the prompt. Be as specific as possible.
Compare the policy differences between users who work remotely or use wireless hotspots to users who work on site in a traditional office environment.
Discuss how you would implement your security policy within the organization, including how employees would be apprised of the new policies. Be sure to explain which elements are critical for a successful implementation of your policy
Include a minimum of five sources, one of which may be the textbook. Of these sources, three must be from the Ashford Library or from IT industry standard periodicals.
Writing the Final Paper

The Final Paper:
Must be a minimum of five double-spaced pages (excluding title and reference pages) in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a title page with the following:

Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
Include a minimum of five sources which may include the text. Of these sources, three must be from the Ashford Library or from IT industry standard periodicals.
Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.