Abstract

In this series of case studies, students learn to identify, assess, and control the risks of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in a real-world situation. PopVote was the electronic voting system used by the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong.
This case consists of cases A, B, and C. Case A gives the background on POP and PopVote. It describes the development history of PopVote, including past voting events, past cyber-attacks, and the evolution of its IT security infrastructure. Students are asked how to identify and assess potential security risks and how to prepare PopVote for an upcoming high-visibility voting event.
 

Learning Objectives

Through use of the PopVote cases, students are expected to:
Become familiar with the key components of risk management in information security, including risk identification, risk assessment, and risk control.
Learn how to compare, contrast, and evaluate the options available to an organization when facing the imminent threat of a DDoS attack.
Choose risk-control strategies for business continuity and disaster recovery.