security, privacy and data integrity

• Data Security


  Ensuring data is protected against loss and unauthorized access
• Data Integrity


  Making sure that data is valid and does not corrupt after transmission
• Data Privacy


  Ability to determine what data is shared with a third party
• Data Security


  Protection of data on a computer system to prevent corruption of data and prevent hackers from using data
• System Security

  Protection of the computer system to prevent access of viruses to the system and prevent hackers from entering your computer system
• Data Security


  • Encryption
• System Security

  • ID & Password
• Threats to Computer & Data Security

  • Malware
  • Hacking
  • Phishing
  • Pharming
• Malware


  Software intentionally designed to damage a computer or computer network, including Virus & Spyware
• Virus

  Software that replicates itself by inserting a copy of itself into another piece of software, which may cause the computer to crash and can lead to deletion or corruption of data
• Spyware

  Software that gathers information about users' online and offline activity, including accessed sites, applications, and downloaded files
• Risk restriction for malware

  Ensure anti-virus and anti-spyware software is installed, regularly updated and run
• Hacking


  Illegal access to a computer system that can lead to the deletion or corruption of data and identity theft
• Risk restriction for hacking

  Use strong passwords and ensure firewall
• Phishing


  Attempt through emails to obtain user's confidential data which can cause identity theft
• Risk restriction for phishing

  Ignore suspicious mails and ensure firewall criteria include SPAM filters, blacklist, etc.
• Pharming


  Redirects user to a fake website that appears legitimate to gain confidential data
• Risk restriction for pharming

  Use a reliable ISP; check that links are genuine and ensure https is present in the URL
• Computer System Security Measures

  • User Accounts and Passwords
  • Firewalls
  • Authentication
  • Anti-virus software
  • Encryption
• User Accounts and Passwords

  Usernames & passwords to deny access to unauthorized users, with user-assigned privileges to prevent access to admin rights
• Firewalls


  Hardware or software that filters information travelling between the computer system and the internet, making decisions about what to allow and block
• Authentication

  Process of determining whether someone is who they claim to be, to prevent unauthorized access through log-on using digital signatures, passwords and biometric scans
• Anti-virus software


  Runs in the background to detect & remove viruses by checking files for known malicious patterns
• Encryption


  Conversion of data to code by encoding it, which doesn't stop illegal access but appears meaningless and requires decryption software to decode
• Data Security Measures

  • Encryption
  • Access Rights to data (authorization)
  • Data Backup
  • Disk-mirroring strategy
• Access Rights to data (authorization)


  Different users assigned different authorization levels which prevent them from accessing all data, increasing security
• Data Backup


  An exact copy of an original piece of data in case the original is lost or corrupted, within the same computer system or at different site
• Disk-mirroring strategy

  Real-time strategy that writes data to two or more disks at the same time, so if one fails, the other is still there to be read off of
• Data Integrity

  Data validation and data verification help protect the integrity of data by checking whether the data entered is sensible and accurate, respectively
• Data Validation Methods

  • Range check
  • Format check
  • Length check
  • Presence check
  • Existence check
  • Limit check
  • Check digit
• Data Validation


  Checks if data entered is valid, but not its accuracy
• Data Entry Verification Methods

  • Visual Check
  • Double Entry
• Data Verification


  Checks data entered is accurate during data entry and data transfer
• Data Transfer Verification Methods

  • Parity Check
  • Checksum Check
• Parity Check


  Checks that the number of 1s in a byte is either an odd number or an even number, as agreed between communicating devices
• Checksum Check


  Computer adds together all bytes being sent, and the checksum is calculated before and after data sent to detect if any bits are lost