Chapter 8

Safety and Security

Safety & Security

Physical Security e-Safety

Security of Data Additional Security

Physical Security

Health Risk

Safety Risk
Health Risk

 Back and Neck Problems/ Strain

 Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
 Eyestrain
 Headaches
 Ozone Irritation
Back and Neck Problems/ Strain

Caused
by

Sitting in font of a computer screen

for a long periods in the same
position

Ways of eliminating or minimizing risks

• Use fully adjustable chairs to give the correct
posture
• Use foot rest to reduce posture problem
• Use screen than can be tilted to ensure the neck is at
the correct angle
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

Damage to fingers
and wrists

Caused
by

Continuous use of a keyboard or

repetitive clicking of mouse buttons

Ways of eliminating or minimizing risks

• Ensure correct posture of arms
• Make proper use of wrist rest
• Take regular break
• Make use of ergonomic keyboards
• Use of voice activation software to reduce the use
of finger and wrist
Eyestrain

Caused
by

Staring at a computer screen too

long or having incorrect lighting in
the room

Ways of eliminating or minimizing risks

• Ensure that there is no screen flicker
• Use LCD (less flicker) than CRT
• Take regular breaks (try focusing on point that is some distance away)
• Make use of anti-glare screens
• Use windows blinds to reduce sunlight reflecting from the screen
• Have eyes tested on regular basis
Headaches

Caused
by

incorrect lighting, screen reflection,

flickering screen etc.

Ways of eliminating or minimizing risks

• Make use of anti-glare screens
• Take regular breaks
• Have eyes tested on regular basis and use middle vision glasses if
necessary
Ozone Irritation

Caused
by

Laser printer in an office areas

(dry skins, respiratory problems)

Ways of eliminating or minimizing risks

• Proper ventilation should exist to remove the ozone gas as quickly as
possible
• Laser printer should be housed in a designated printer room
• Change to other types of printer if necessary
Safety Risks

 Electrocution
 Trailing Wire
 Heavy equipment falling and causing injury
 Fire risk
e-Safety

 e-Safety is all about knowing how to use the internet safely and
responsibly.

 includes keeping your personal information private in chat rooms,

social media, emails and when playing online games.
Using the internet to communicate

 The internet provides us with lots of different ways in which we can communicate
with each other. Some of these ways include:
 Instant messaging - (WhatsApp, Viber, Kik etc.)
 Social networking - (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.)
 Bloggs - (Huffington Post, Mashable, Life Hacker etc.)
 Emailing
 VoIP services - (Skype, Viber etc.)
 Chatting in online games.
 When used responsibly, all of these communication tools can make it extremely
easy for us to keep in contact with friends and family
 For example:
 If you have family who live in a different country, you can easily send a message
over WhatsApp and as soon as they are online they will receive it and respond.
 Before the internet, we would have had to use a standard telephone, arrange a
time for the call to be made and incur a large phone bill.
How can you use the internet safely?
 Never reveal personal information - including name, home address, phone number and
photograph
 Only use web sites recommended by teachers or parents
 Use search engines and web sites with filters so that inappropriate content can be filtered
out
 Only open emails from people you know
 Only open email attachments from people you know
 Only accept social media friend requests from people you know
 Use the privacy controls on social media - this will minimize the number of people who can read
your posts
 Never arrange to face-to-face meet people that you have met online - if you do, then take an
adult with you and meet in a public place
 Make sure that your parents know what you are doing online - this includes using social
media and chat rooms
 Know how to block people on social media and in chat rooms - block people who send
unwanted messages/content
 Report unwanted users - contact the owners of a chat room or social media site if you receive
inappropriate attention from other users
 Never post or email pictures of yourself in school uniform
 Never give out the name of your school.
Security of Data

 Hacking
 Phishing
 Pharming
 Spyware & Key-logging
 Viruses
 Spam
 Forum
 Cookies
What is Hacking
 To gain unauthorized access to a computer system without the user knowledge or permission.
 Most of the time, hackers will try to access the computer system using the internet.
 Hackers will usually try to break into the system by simply guessing the password or by using
a key logger.
 Hackers try to break into computers for the following reasons:
 To delete, corrupt, copy and edit files.
 Sensitive data could be sold to competitors.
 Identity theft- to steal user identity
 To expose a company ( for example wiki leaks)
 To cause disruption and stop production
What are the effects of hacking?
Strategies to prevent hacking to Protect Data

 Use of firewalls- sometimes part of the operating system.

 Use of strong passwords which are frequently changed
 Use of protection software to detect and block possible hacking attempts.
 Hire a professional hacker to test the weaknesses of your system.
Phishing
What is Phishing?
 The recipient will receive an email which looks legitimate.
 The email will normally request the user to update their details which could be their
password or payment details.
 To update the users details they will have to click on link which will take them to a face
website
Effect of Phishing

 The user will be tricked into entering their details into a fake website
 The sender of the initial email will have gained personal details from the user.
 These details can be used fraudulently or for identity theft.
Strategies to prevent Phishing

 Use a filter on your email account so that only emails from an allowed users appear in your
inbox.
 Always double check the URL and email address.
What is Pharming
 Internet scamming practice in which malicious code is installed on a personal computer or
server, misdirecting users to fraudulent web sites without their knowledge or consent.
 Pharming has been called “phishing without a lure”.
Effect of Pharming

 The fake website will look like the real website

 Users will be tricked into entering their personal details.
 Like phishing this can lead to fraud or identity theft.
Strategies to prevent Pharming

 Anti spyware software could eliminate pharming code from a computer

 Always double check the URL to see if is the same one you typed in
Spyware and key logging software

 A software which can monitor your use of the computer and monitor and log key pressed.
 Spyware software will send the data back to person who planted the spyware software on
your computer.
 This could include personal details like passwords and banking account information.
 Spyware software could also install additional software to read cookie data and change
web browsing preferences.
Strategies to prevent Spyware

 The use of anti spyware software which is regularly updated.

 The use of a pointing device to select characters when entering sensitive data.
What is Computer Virus?

 A computer virus is a piece of programming code/software which can install and replicate
itself onto a computer system without the user’s permission.
 It’s effect can cause:
 The computer to crash-become slower
 Sometimes files can be deleted – leads to computer malfunction
 Data files can be copied by the hacker or the files could be corrupted
 Could stop production until the virus has been quarantined
Strategies to prevent computer virus

 Install antivirus software and regularly update it.

 Do not use software or USB from unknown sources.
 Be careful about clicking on links from untrusted websites.
 Be careful about downloading attachments from unknown email addresses.
What is Spam Email?

 Spam junk email is sent out to recipients from a mailing list.

 The email could be part of a phishing scam or could be to promote certain products. They
are basically unwanted emails.
 Spam need to be prevented for many reasons:
 Uses up people’s time
 Generally annoys people
 Use up valuable bandwidth on the internet, slowing it down
 Can have viruses attached
 Can be a phishing scam
 Can clog up users’ inboxes
How to prevent Spam?

 Use spam filters

 Never reply to spam email
 Use disposable email
 Be wary about giving out your main email address
 Never reveal your email address on your website
 Try to avoid opening spam emails and clicking on links in spam messages
 Moderated

Forum
• Online forums are
interactive websites
where people can take
part in discussion
• Allow users to post their
own comments

unmoderated
Moderated Forum

 All user’s comment will be check by the administrator before they are posted to the forum
 Moderators will not allow any inappropriate comments
 Users who continually to break the rules would likely get banned
 Moderators make sure that rules are followed
Un-moderated Forum

 Do not have moderators or administrators

 Allow people to post what ever they want
 As a result:
 Offensive & inappropriate contents
 Spamming of adverts for rubbish products
 Phishing (tricking people to get their personal data)
Cookies

 Small file or code that are stores on a user’s computer

 Small lookup table containing pair of key and data
 Usually stored user preferences
 Under normal circumstances, cookies cannot transfer viruses of malware to your computer
 However, some viruses and malware may be disguised as cookies
 Form anonymous user profile, doesn’t contain personal data such as password but still
carry data within websites
Passwords

 Passwords are used to restrict access to data or systems.

 They should be hard to break and changed frequently to retain any real level of security.
 passwords are frequently used when
 accessing email accounts
 carrying out online banking or shopping
 accessing social networking sites.
Ways of doing passwords are protected

 Run anti-spyware software to make sure that your passwords are not being relayed back to anyone
 Change passwords on a regular basis
 Passwords should not be easy to break
 Strong passwords should contain:
 at least one capital letter
 at least one numerical value
 at least one other keyboard character (such as @, *, &. etc.)
 An example of a strong password would be: Sy12@#TT90kj=0
 An example of a weak password would be: GREEN
Exercise

Which of the following are weak passwords and which are strong passwords? Explain your
decision in each case.
i. 25-Apr-2005
ii. Password1
iii. ChapTer@06
iv. rX!3&tp%
v. 111111”