1.5 Ethics

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF COMPUTER ETHICS, INCLUDING COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND PLAGIARISM COPYRIGHT IS A LEGAL BARRIER TO PREVENT OTHER PEOPLE FROM DOING A CERTAIN THING, AND ANYONE WHO DISOBEYS CAN BE PUNISHED BY THE LAW. IT IS WRONG TO BREAK COPYRIGHT LAWS.
PLAGIARISM IS WHEN A PERSON COPIES SOMETHING WITHOUT GIVING CREDIT OR SOURCING THE INFORMATION. IT IS WRONG TO DO SO, INFORMATION FROM SOMEPLACE OTHER THAN FROM YOU SHOULD BE SOURCED AND CREDITED. 

DISTINGUISH BETWEEN FREE SOFTWARE, FREEWARE AND SHAREWARE
FREE SOFTWARE - SOFTWARE WHICH IS OPEN SOURCE, ANYONE CAN MODIFY THE CODE, WHILST ATTRIBUTING THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPER.
FREEWARE - SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTED TO USERS AT NO COST, HOWEVER THE DEVELOPER STILL HOLDS COPYRIGHT. USERS CANNOT MODIFY THE CODE.
SHAREWARE - COPYRIGHT PROTECTED SOFTWARE WHICH IS DISTRIBUTED AT NO COST FOR A TRIAL PERIOD (TRIAL SOFTWARE).
 
SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE ETHICAL ISSUES RAISED BY THE SPREAD OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS, INCLUDING HACKING, CRACKING AND PRODUCTION OF MALWARE
COMPUTER MISUSE ACT - THIS LAW RESTRICTS PEOPLE FROM ACCESSING OR MODIFYING DATA WITHOUT PERMISSION
DATA PROTECTION ACT - PRIVACY LAW TO FORCE ORGANISATION TO LOOK AFTER PERSONAL DATA
PLAGIARISM - USING OTHERS’ IDEAS AND WORDS WITHOUT CLEARLY ACKNOWLEDGING THE SOURCE OF INFORMATION
CRACKING - PROCESS OF DEFEATING COMPUTER SOFTWARE SECURITY MEASURES IN ORDER TO DISTRIBUTE IT FOR FREE OR MODIFY IT
HACKING - ATTEMPTS TO GAIN UNAUTHORISED ENTRY INTO A COMPUTER SYSTEM OR NETWORK
MALWARE - SOFTWARE DESIGNED TO INFILTRATE OR DAMAGE A COMPUTER SYSTEM WITHOUT THE USER’S INFORMED CONSENT BESPOKE SOFTWARE - TYPE OF SOFTWARE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR AN ORGANISATION TO DO THE TASKS SET OUT BY THE ORGANISATION
GENERIC SOFTWARE - SOFTWARE THAT IS APPROPRIATE FOR A WIDE RANGE OF TASKS AND CAN BE USED IN LOTS OF AREAS OF WORK
BOTH LEGAL AND MORAL ISSUES ARE CREATED WHEN SOMEONE HAS DONE SOMETHING THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO. BUT WITH THE WIDESPREAD OF TECHNOLOGY MORE AND MORE OF THESE CAN BE SEEN, AND THESE ARE SEVERE ISSUES.

1.4.4 Security

DESCRIBE HOW THE KNOWLEDGE FROM 1.4.1, 1.4.2 AND 1.4.3 CAN BE APPLIED TO REAL-LIFE SCENARIOS INCLUDING, FOR EXAMPLE, ONLINE BANKING, SHOPPING
THESE SECURITY MEASURES AND REASONS CAN BE APPLIED TO ANY REAL LIFE SCENARIO, SUCH AS WHEN BANKING ONLINE, OR SHOPPING ONLINE OR POSTING PRIVATE INFORMATION ONLINE.

1.4.3 Security

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED TO KEEP ONLINE SYSTEMS SAFE FROM ATTACKS INCLUDING DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS, PHISHING, PHARMING
DDOS ATTACKS ARE WHEN A SERVER BANDWIDTH IS FLOODED WITH GHOST IP’S OR COMPUTERS ALL TRYING TO GET INFORMATION, TO PREVENT LEGITIMATE USERS FROM ACCESSING THE DATA. THIS CANNOT REALLY BE PREVENTED EXCEPT INSTALLING ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE TO PREVENT SOFTWARE TO LAUNCH THESE ATTACKED FROM BEING INSTALLED.
PHISHING - AN ATTACK THAT SENDS AN EMAIL OR DISPLAYS A WEB ANNOUNCEMENT FALSELY CLAIMING TO BE FROM A LEGITIMATE COMPANY IN AN ATTEMPT TO TRICK USERS INTO GIVE UP PERSONAL/PRIVATE INFORMATION.
PHARMING - REROUTES THE USER FROM GOING TO A LEGITIMATE WEBSITE BY REDIRECTING THEM TO A BOGUS WEBSITE TO GET THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION.

1.4.2 Security

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF HOW DATA ARE KEPT SAFE WHEN STORED AND TRANSMITTED, INCLUDING:
– USE OF PASSWORDS, BOTH ENTERED AT A KEYBOARD AND BIOMETRIC
PASSWORDS (LONGER PASSWORDS ARE BETTER) AND BIOMETRICS SUCH AS FINGERPRINT, RETINA SCANNERS ETC. 

– USE OF FIREWALLS, BOTH SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE, INCLUDING PROXY SERVERS
FIREWALLS MONITOR NETWORK TRAFFIC. PROXY SERVERS REDIRECT CERTAIN TRAFFIC AND ENCRYPT THEM TO PROTECT DATA. 


– USE OF SECURITY PROTOCOLS SUCH AS SECURE SOCKET LAYER (SSL) AND TRANSPORT LAYER SECURITY (TLS)
TLS IS A MORE SECURE PROTOCOL COMPARED TO SSL, TLS IS A MORE ADVANCED VERSION OF SSL, ALLOWING FOR BETTER SECURITY. TLS IS LESS VULNERABLE TO ATTACKS. 

– USE OF SYMMETRIC ENCRYPTION (PLAIN TEXT, CYPHER TEXT AND USE OF A KEY) SHOWING UNDERSTANDING THAT INCREASING THE LENGTH OF A KEY INCREASES THE STRENGTH OF THE ENCRYPTION
SYMMETRIC ENCRYPTION IS WHEN PLAINTEXT IS ENCRYPTED USING AN ALGORITHM (A KEY) AND MADE INTO CIPHER TEXT, AND THE DATA THAT IS ENCRYPTED IS ALSO DECRYPTED WITH THE SAME KEY. INCREASING KEY LENGTH INCREASES STRENGTH OF ENCRYPTION BY ABOUT 2 TIMES, AS IT DOUBLES THE NUMBER OF POSSIBILITIES.

1.4.1 Security

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED TO KEEP DATA SAFE FROM ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE, INCLUDING CORRUPTION AND HUMAN ERRORS
DATA CAN BE CORRUPTED OR LOST THROUGH MANY WAYS, SUCH AS ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE (DROPPING YOUR LAPTOP), CORRUPTION (INCORRECT SHUTDOWN PROCEDURE), AND HUMAN ERRORS SUCH AS ACCIDENTALLY DELETING A FILE.
 
SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED TO KEEP DATA SAFE FROM MALICIOUS ACTIONS, INCLUDING UNAUTHORISED VIEWING, DELETING, COPYING AND CORRUPTION
THERE IS ALWAYS PEOPLE WITH MALICIOUS INTENT, INCLUDING HACKING AND PEOPLE LOOKING AT AND CORRUPTING YOUR DATA. THEREFORE IN ORDER TO PREVENT THIS, DATA MUST BE KEPT SAFE USING SECURITY MEASURES.

1.3.7 High and low-level languages and their translators

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED FOR BOTH HIGH-LEVEL AND LOW-LEVEL LANGUAGES

Advantages of high-level languages	Advantages of low-level languages
Read and understand closer to human language	Make use of special hardware
Write in a shorter amount of time	Make use of special machine-dependent instructions
Debug at development stage	Write code that doesn’t take up much space in primary memory
Maintain once in use	Write code that performs a task very quickly

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED FOR COMPILERS WHEN TRANSLATING PROGRAMS WRITTEN IN A HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGE
COMPILERS TRANSLATES A PROGRAM WRITTEN IN A HIGH- LEVEL LANGUAGE INTO MACHINE CODE SO THAT IT CAN BE USED BY A COMPUTER TO PERFORM A SPECIFIC TASK.

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE USE OF INTERPRETERS WITH HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGE PROGRAMS  
AN INTERPRETER IS A COMPUTER PROGRAM THAT READS A STATEMENT FROM A PROGRAM LINE BY LINE.

SHOW UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED FOR ASSEMBLERS WHEN TRANSLATING PROGRAMS WRITTEN IN ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE
IT IS A PROGRAM THAT TRANSLATES A PROGRAM WRITTEN IN AN ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE INTO MACHINE CODE SO THAT IT CAN BE USED DIRECTLY BY A COMPUTER TO PERFORM A REQUIRED TASK.