Student Book Answers
6 Security
6.1 Security threats
Data security
1. These are the two reasons why this data is
valuable to the company:
● The data represents an investment. It has
taken time, effort and resources to create the
data.
● The data has value because it can be used to
make a new product that can be sold to make
a profit.
2. The company has personal and financial
data about employees. This could be used
by criminals. It has personal value to the
employees. The data must be kept safely so
the employees are paid correctly. For all these
reasons it should be kept private, safe and
secure.
3. Looking at someone else’s emails without
permission is a data privacy issue.
4. Changing a test result on a computer system is a
data integrity issue.
Security threats
1. Hardware faults: The computer might be
poorly made. Someone might break it by
accident. There could be a fault in secondary
storage or data transmission to and from the
computer.
Software faults: There might be errors in the
application software or in the operating system.
2. To protect the file, you could:
● take a backup
● provide guidance and training for employees
about how to treat equipment with care
● test equipment and software before use.
3. There are many correct answers. There could be
designated areas for eating and drinking which
are well away from the computer.
4. There are many correct answers, depending
on local conditions. Some places are affected
by different types of bad weather, earthquakes,
flooding, power cuts, etc.
Malpractice and crime
1. You shouldn’t you tell anyone else your password
because it is used to identify you for security
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purposes. If someone else knows it they can
pretend to be you.
2. Typically teachers, administrative staff and
students will be authorised to access a school
computer system. Sometimes parents also have
access.
3. Crime is deliberate, and typically done for
personal gain. Malpractice is poor use of the
computer system by accident or because of not
knowing the right thing to do.
4. Software downloaded from the Internet can
contain hidden malware.
Online attacks
1. A DoS attack overloads the system with many
requests for access.
2. Pharming is pretending to be a respectable
website from a reliable company. People may
input personal data because they trust the
company, but the website is a trick. Criminals
will take someone’s identifying details and use
them to impersonate that person online (this is
identity theft).
3. The email might not be from the bank. The
person on the other end of the line might be
a criminal hoping to get your identifying
details.
4. The Internet is extremely useful and beneficial
for a business. It can be used to find information,
to buy and sell, and to market products and
services. With proper precautions the online risks
can be avoided.
6.2 Security protection
Proof of identity
1. There are many valid answers: for example to get
money out of a bank account, to log on to a social
media account such as Facebook or Twitter.
2. You can make a password harder to guess by
using unusual words, or unusual combinations
of words, letters and other characters.
3. Two physical characteristics that might be used
for biometric identity checks: fingerprint, retinal
scan.
4. Advantages of biometric checks are that there
is nothing to lose or forget and the results are
difficult to steal or fake. The disadvantage is that
1

biometric checks are more expensive than other
identity checks, partly because special equipment
is required.
Firewalls
1. A router joins two networks together. Typically it
joins a LAN to the Internet.
2. A proxy server holds a copy of a web page. This
is accessed instead of the page itself.
3. A proxy server provides a fast connection to the
Internet. It allows a check on traffic to and from
the site. It gives greater privacy and security.
4. The firewall system is composed of a device
(hardware) and a set of instructions (software).
5. All data passing to and from the local network
is checked before it is passed on. Dangerous
content is not passed through the firewall.
Security protocols
1. The two parts of the TLS protocol are the record
protocol and the handshake protocol.
2. TLS protects transmission between two devices.
No other device can read a message sent between
the two devices and nobody can make changes to
the message.
3. During the handshake a device can check the
other device’s certificate for authenticity and
can agree on an encryption key for the record
protocol.
4. Your computer checks that you are connected to
the Amazon website so that you don’t send your
bank payment details and other personal facts to
any other site.
Encryption
1. If someone intercepts the communication they
cannot read it if it is encrypted in cypher text. It
will look like random letters and other symbols.
2. The key is used by the sender to encrypt the text
according to a regular formula. A key is also
needed to decrypt the text by the receiver.
3. A computer user needs to remember the
password and type it in. The user doesn’t need
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Student Book Answers
to know the encryption key. The computer takes
care of encryption and decryption without the
user’s involvement.
4. In asymmetric encryption the private key is not
transmitted so it cannot be intercepted by a third
party.
Security examples
1. Advantages:
● You can bank from home or elsewhere at
times convenient to you.
● You don’t have to spend time travelling to a
bank.
Disadvantages:
● You don’t get personal service.
● There is less human contact.
● The service is not tailored to your particular
needs.
● There may be security issues.
2. Advantages:
● It is quicker.
● There is less travel.
● You don’t have to carry your purchases home.
Disadvantages:
● There is more risk in sharing your financial
details online.
● The goods might not arrive.
● You have to be at home to accept the delivery,
or pick it up from somewhere.
3. Advantages:
● Less time and money is spent commuting.
● Roads have less traffic, so it is better for the
environment.
● The employer can have smaller cheaper
business premises.
Disadvantages:
● It is harder to supervise employees.
● Only some business can be carried out
remotely.
● There is less social contact for the workers.
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