MT 47-DSE

ENG LANG
HONG KONG DIPLOMA OF SECONDARY EDUCATION EXAMINATION
PAPER 4
MOCK TEST 47
ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 4

PART A Group Interaction

This article appeared on a website:

Technology: Cybersecurity

Are you doing enough to protect your personal data? Statistics say the answer is probably ‘no’.
According to a recent report, it is estimated that at least two million Internet users in Hong Kong were
the victims of some kind of cybercrime between September 2016 and September 2017 alone.

As the Internet has become an integral part of our lives, controlling everything from our communication
with friends to the temperature in our homes, this innovation has made us vulnerable to cybercrime.
According to one researcher, cybercriminals are even using our selfies to hack our accounts. High-
resolution digital cameras allow thieves to zoom in on our fingers and duplicate fingerprints.

There are steps people can take to protect their own personal information. You should start by closing all
unused accounts because older systems tend to be more vulnerable to cyberattack. Next, make sure you
use strong, unique passwords for all websites and devices, and sign up for two-step authentication, a
system that requires a unique code to be sent to your phone every time you log in. It is also important to
be wary of free public Wi-Fi where thieves might be able to access your system. Finally, be careful about
what information you share online, so your personal information does not land in the wrong hands.

It is likely that technology will become even more integrated into our lives, so make sure you develop
good cybersecurity habits before it’s too late.

Your group is part of the Student Union and you are discussing ways to raise students’ awareness of
cybersecurity. You may want to talk about:

 what kinds of personal information students share

 what cybersecurity threats there might be to students in particular

 how to encourage students to protect their data

 anything else you think is important

PART B Individual Response

1. Do you share personal information online?
2. Have you or your friends ever had an online account hacked?
3. What might a hacker do with people’s information?
4. Why do some people have poor cybersecurity habits?
5. Is it necessary to share personal information online?
6. Do you think companies are responsible for protecting their customers’ personal data?
7. What can the government do to prevent cybercrime?
8. What might happen if all personal data were freely available online?

DO NOT TAKE AWAY

(S6) MT 47-DSE-ENG LANG 4–1 1 © Oxford University Press

Written by Erika Thorkelson (6.2/2019-20)
This mock test may be adapted by teachers. OUP accepts no responsibility for changes made to original materials.
Possible answers
Part A
A: Hello, everyone. We’re here to help our school
raise awareness of the issue of cybersecurity.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
B: First of all, I’d say this article was quite a
shock for me. I knew cybercrime was a serious
issue, but I didn’t realize it was so common in
Hong Kong. Students often share all kinds of
information online. For instance, I share my
name and the school I go to on my website.
People could even find out where I live there.
C: I also share a great deal of information online.
Almost my whole life takes place over social
media. All my accounts have my date of birth
so my friends can remember to wish me happy
birthday. Many apps even have access to my
current location.
D: I’ve been pretty careful about what I share on
social media, but this conversation reminds
me of how often I use the banking app on my
phone to send money or buy things. It would
be very easy for thieves to hack into my bank
account through my phone. I don’t have a lot
of money, but it’s still a danger.
A: I am sure you have a passcode that locks your
phone. That’s supposed to help in case your
phone gets lost or stolen.
B: Personally, I worry more about how
advertising companies target students based
on the likes and interests we share on social
media. It makes me uncomfortable that they
know so much about me.
D: I don’t mind that so much. I like that I get ads
for things I actually want to buy.
C: I worry more about how social media
companies use that information to target
political ads. It’s weird that some people see
certain information that other people don’t see.
How can we make informed decisions if we’re
not seeing both sides of the issues?
B: Of course, you’re right, but I think we need to
get back to talking about cybersecurity
threats. What do you think?
A: Well, one thing I’ve heard a lot about recently
is how the Internet is being used to control
household devices like lights and temperature.
Apparently, that kind of technology is easy to
hack and can tell thieves all kinds of things
about us.
C: Right. I heard that those voice-activated
systems sometimes record what people are
saying even when they’re not supposed to be
on. It’s kind of terrifying.
D: That is worrisome. However, rather than
thinking about our whole lives, we should
focus on cybersecurity threats to students in
particular.
B: Cyberbullying is one serious issue that I think
students struggle with. I’ve heard of students
creating accounts under the name of a person
they are bullying so they can make fun of
them.
(S6) MT 47-DSE-ENG LANG 4–2
This mock test may be adapted by teachers. OUP accepts no responsibility for changes made to original materials.
C: I agree. Cyberbullying is probably the most
serious cybersecurity threat that students
face. It can distract people from their school
work and cause serious anxiety and even
depression.
D: I’ve never really thought about it before, but I
would be very upset if cyberbullies hacked
into my accounts. Imagine the pain they could
cause.
A: OK, well, cyberbullying is certainly one of the
issues we can ask the school to address. What
other security issues do you think students in
particular face?
B: Well, I’d say one thing that students share
quite often is pictures. My friends and I take
selfies all the time. Is that a cybersecurity
threat?
C: It’s possible, according to the article. For
example, if someone steals one of your
photographs, they could open a social media
account and pretend to be you.
D: That’s not cool! I read recently that sometimes
an adult will go online and pretend to be a
teenager to make friends with young people.
Then he tries to get them to meet somewhere.
B: Well, that is really scary. I read somewhere
that when you take online quizzes or upload
photos to apps, they are really just collecting
your data to share it with companies that want
to sell you stuff. We need to be more careful
about that.
A: OK, so another thing for the school to focus
on would be protecting your identity online.
That would include being careful who you
share images with, but it would also include
who to trust.
D: I agree. Another thing that would be worth
thinking about for students in particular is the
source of the apps we download. I’ve heard
that an app that comes from a bad source can
sometimes carry a virus.
B: That’s true. I heard of a school recently that
had all its student records stolen because a
student downloaded a virus onto one of the
computers in its network. They had to call the
police.
C: I’ve also heard that if you download the wrong
program, it can give someone else access to
your computer. They can go through your
whole hard drive and look at whatever they
want. They can even turn on your camera and
film you without your permission.
A: It seems to me that the key to avoiding a lot of
these issues is using stronger passwords.
That way, people’s data will be better
protected.
B: What makes a good password?
C: A good password should have numbers and
letters as well as special symbols. It should
also be quite long. I use my phone to randomly
generate strong passwords for all my
accounts. I also change my passwords once a
month.
2 © Oxford University Press
B: The article also mentions two-step Part B, Question 6
authentication. I use that for my e-mail and I
think it’s very secure. I just need to have my I think that companies have a great deal of
phone with me all the time so I can get the responsibility to protect customers’ personal
code. information. I’ve heard a lot recently about
C: That’s great! My mother works at a technology companies being hacked and having all their
company. She makes sure the whole family records stolen. This is a huge problem because
has very good cybersecurity in place. often that information includes sensitive details
D: Hey, I have an idea. Do you think your mother such as email passwords or credit card numbers. If
would be interested in coming to give a talk you have someone’s credit card information, it
about how students can protect themselves would be quite easy to buy things in their name. If a
online? thief has your email password, they can hack into
C: She’s extremely busy, but I’m sure someone at your account and learn all kinds of details about
her company would be happy to come. Having you. They could even contact people in your email
an expert visit would be a great way to start and pretend to be you. While some people would
the conversation. say that users are the ones who control how they
A: Agreed. What are some other ways we could share this kind of information online, companies
encourage students at our school to protect should ultimately be responsible for protecting this
their data? kind of data because it’s part of doing business
these days. Companies ask for people’s data in
B: A poster campaign can also be quite effective. order to provide customized service to them. We
We could create posters that focus on all the are willing to share that information because we
aspects of cybersecurity that we’ve talked assume that it will be protected and not shared with
about. others. Of course, it’s not always possible for
D: Yes. We could also make stickers to put on all security to be perfect. Even real-world stores get
the computers in the school reminding people broken into once in a while, but they must still take
not to download weird programs. That would responsibility for what is stolen.
keep our school network safe.
C: That’s a terrific idea. However, not everyone
pays attention to posters or stickers. I think we
should also suggest that the computer classes
do a lesson just on protecting yourself online.
That way we’d be sure to catch all the
students.
B: We could even create a little questionnaire to
get students thinking about how safe their
data is and share the results in the school
newspaper.
C: Great idea, as long as all the answers are
anonymous. We have to protect the data.
B: Of course!
A: OK, so it sounds like we’ve got a lot of great
ideas for helping to spread the word about
cybersecurity among students. This has been
a really interesting discussion. Thank you,
everyone!

(S6) MT 47-DSE-ENG LANG 4–3 3 © Oxford University Press

This mock test may be adapted by teachers. OUP accepts no responsibility for changes made to original materials.