The skip behind the office
A firm replaces forty old PCs. A van takes them away. Three weeks later a stranger sells customer files that he found on one of the hard drives.
The drives were never wiped. Nobody checked.
This lesson has four more weak points, from software that was never installed to a drive that was never wiped.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Malware | Software made to harm a computer or steal data. |
| Virus | Malware that attaches itself to a file and spreads when the file is opened. |
| Worm | Malware that spreads by itself from device to device. |
| Trojan | Malware that pretends to be a useful program. |
| Ransomware | Software that locks your data and demands money to unlock it. |
| Buffer overflow | A fault where a program writes more data than a space can hold, and spills into the space next to it. |
| WEEE | Waste electrical and electronic equipment: old devices that must be recycled the right way. |
| Wiping | Overwriting a drive so that the old data cannot be recovered. |
| Network | Computers and devices linked so they can share data. |
| Firewall | A gate that lets some traffic in or out and blocks the rest. |
| Encryption | Scrambling data so only a person with the right key can read it. |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can name four more common weak points and give the controls that fix them.
Starter: the first four weak points
Have a go
Starter: the first four weak points
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Weak point 5: no protection software
A device with no anti-malware is open to every kind of malware:
- a virus hides in a file and spreads when it is opened
- a worm spreads by itself across the network
- a trojan pretends to be a useful program
- ransomware locks your files and demands money
Controls: protect against malware, update the security software, and monitor it, so that a stopped scanner is noticed.
Buffer overflow
A buffer overflow happens when a program takes in more data than it has room for. The extra data spills into the next space and can overwrite code. An attacker can use this to run their own code.
Controls: install updates, because makers fix these faults, and use security software that watches for odd program behaviour. Developers also check the size of input.
Check: malware
Have a go
Check: malware
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.