USING WORD TO MAKE A POSTER

Be secure online

When you use the internet, you may be connected to thousands of other computers that you exchange information and data with, including personal details. It is important to make sure your computer, your information and your privacy are as secure as possible.

How your computer could be at risk

Most people store a lot of personal information on their computers. If you don’t protect your computer properly when you are online, it’s possible that personal details could be stolen or deleted without your knowledge.
Your computer can be attacked in a number of ways over the internet. Viruses and spy-ware can delete files and allow criminals to scan your computer for personal information. Your computer could even be hacked (where a person gains access to your computer through your wireless network).
Get Safe Online has detailed information about the risks to your computer and how to deal with them.

• Get safe online(external link)

Being aware of the risks

Viruses

Viruses are destructive software that can run on your computer without you knowing. They spread through the internet and emails by copying themselves to documents and programmes on your computer. Viruses can cause damage by deleting files and can allow criminals to monitor your computer and steal personal information. They can slow down your computer and take days to remove.

Spy-ware

Spy-ware is software that's often downloaded with other software, like music sharing software. It can allow criminals to scan your computer for information stored on it, install pop up advertisements, and let viruses through.

Botnets

A botnet is a network of virus-infected computers that are used together and can be remotely controlled. The attacker can then have access to the computers and use them for malicious activities such as sending spam. All this can be done without the computer users knowing what is happening.

• Protecting your computer (Get Safe Online website)(external link)

Security measures you can take

Using the most up-to-date version of your operating system

Your operating system is the main piece of software controlling your computer. The most common systems are Microsoft Windows (used on PCs), Macintosh OS (used on Macs) and Linux (used on Linux computers).
All new computers have this software installed. The most recent version of the software is usually the most secure. Updates are usually available from the software manufacturer, and are free to download.

• Protecting your computer (Get Safe Online website)(external link)
• Safer Mac use (Get safe online website)(external link)
• Safer Linux use (Get safe online website)(external link)

Make sure you have a desktop firewall in place

A firewall is software or hardware that acts as a filter between your computer or network and the internet. Using a firewall prevents unauthorised access to your computer and is designed to stop worms (another type of malicious software).
Desktop firewalls for individual computers are available in high street shops. Some operating systems have built-in firewalls but it's best to check with the manufacturer and find out if it provides adequate protection.

• Firewalls (Get Safe Online website)(external link)  

Using up-to-date antivirus software

Antivirus software checks your computer for viruses and alerts you about it recognises. It's important to keep this software up to date, as new viruses are being created all the time.

• Viruses & Spyware (Get Safe Online website)(external link)  

Use strong passwords

Many websites use passwords to protect your identity. If passwords are easy to guess, your personal details will be easily accessible. Using strong passwords is especially important when you're spending money online. Good passwords should:

• never be shared, written or observed  - don't tell helpline staff your password
• be at least seven characters long
• include lower and upper case letters, numbers and other keyboard characters
• change regularly - every three months is a good guide
• not be the same on all the sites you use

Log off and collect print-outs

If you’re accessing a site where you have provided personal details or a password, always log off and close your browser window when you've finished. This is especially important if you are using a shared computer – for example in an internet café or a library.
Make sure you collect anything you print from the printer, or your personal details might fall into the wrong hands.

Monitoring your family's use of the internet

Make sure everyone's aware of internet safety issues - especially young people - who may use file-sharing programmes, instant messaging and chatrooms more than adults. Think about restricting sites they can view and what they can download. It's usually possible do this through the settings on your browser, or you can buy separate software.

• Staying safe online (young people section)  

Online scams

A scam is an illegal scheme that tries to trick you out of your money. Online scams use the internet and email.
If you think you discover a scam, either on the internet or otherwise, you can report it using the link below.

• Report a scam online (do it online section)

Shopping safely online

There are a few steps you can take to shop online safely and keep your financial details secure.

Before you buy

Before you buy online, note the address, telephone and fax of the company you’re buying from. Never rely on just an email address.

Always use secure sites

Sites with 'https' in front of the web address mean the company has been independently checked to make sure it is genuine. A yellow padlock symbol will appear in the browser window to show the payment process is secure.
When buying online:

• never transfer or receive money for someone else
• check the site's privacy and returns policy
• print a copy of your order and any acknowledgement you receive
• check your bank statement carefully against anything you buy online
• keep your passwords secure
• take your time making decisions that involve parting with money
• get independent financial advice before making investments
• only do business with companies you recognise or have been recommended by someone you trust - don't judge a company on how professional their website looks
• if in doubt, check a company is genuine by looking them up on Companies House or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) websites
• Financial Services Register (FCA website)(external link)
• Internet shopping (government, citizens and rights section)

Other ways to stay secure

You could:

• avoid disclosing personal information as much as possible
• only open email attachments from people you know
• be careful about sharing files and downloading software, as these can easily spread viruses and hide spy-ware

For more help on staying safe from internet fraud see the article 'How to avoid online fraud' or visit the 'makeITsecure' website for top tips.

• How to avoid online fraud  
• Top tips (makeITsecure website)

Social networking security and safety tips

Social networking sites enable people to post information about themselves and communicate with others around the world using forums, interest groups, blogs, chat rooms, email, and instant messaging. While you can make new friends through social networking sites, you may also be exposed to embarrassing situations and people who have bad intentions, such as hackers, identity thieves, con artists, and predators.
Protect yourself by taking some common-sense precautions.

• Guard your financial and other sensitive information. Never provide or post your Social Security number, address, phone number, bank account or credit card numbers, or other personal information that could be used by criminals.
• Picture social networking sites as billboards in cyberspace. Police, college admissions personnel, employers, stalkers, con artists, nosy neighbors – anyone can see what you post. Don’t disclose anything about yourself, your friends, or family members that you wouldn’t want to be made public. And remember that once information appears on a Web site, it can never be completely erased. Even if it’s modified or deleted, older versions may exist on others’ computers. Some social networking sites allow users to restrict access to certain people. Understand how the site works and what privacy choices you may have.
• Be cautious about meeting your new cyber friends in person. After all, it’s hard to judge people by photos or information they post about themselves. If you decide to meet someone in person, do so during the day in a public place, and ask for information that you can verify, such as the person’s place of employment. 
• Think twice before clicking on links or downloading attachments in emails. They may contain viruses or spyware that could damage your computer or steal your personal information – including your online passwords and account numbers. Some messages may “spoof,” or copy the email addresses of friends to fool you into thinking that they’re from them. Don’t click on links or download attachments in emails from strangers, and if you get an unexpected message from someone whose address you recognize, check with them directly before clicking on links or attachments.
• Protect your computer. A spam filter can help reduce the number of unwanted emails you get. Anti-virus software, which scans incoming messages for troublesome files, and anti-spyware software, which looks for programs that have been installed on your computer and track your online activities without your knowledge, can protect you from online identity theft. Firewalls prevent hackers and unauthorized communications from entering your computer – which is especially important if you have a broadband connection because your computer is open to the Internet whenever it’s turned on. Look for programs that offer automatic updates and take advantage of free patches that manufacturers offer to fix newly discovered problems. Go to www.staysafeonline.org or www.onguardonline.gov to learn more about how to keep your computer secure.
• Beware of con artists. Criminals scan social networking sites to find potential victims for all sorts of scams, from phony lotteries to bogus employment and business opportunities to investment fraud. In some cases they falsely befriend people and then ask for money for medical expenses or other emergencies, or to come to the United States from another country. Go to www.fraud.org to learn more about how to recognize different types of Internet fraud.

HOW TO STAY SAFE WHEN USING THE INTERNET

Personal contact information

 Addresses and phone numbers could help potential burglars or stalkers locate you much more easily.

- Identity theft is made simpler by every piece of information the thief can obtain.

Financial information  

- Do not post pictures of checks or credit cards.

- Do not post account numbers, or even the name of your bank or credit card companies.

- Do not make comments about your finances, even in general.

Password or password hints  

- Do not post your password to Facebook or to any other accounts.

- Do not post information that could give crooks information about your password hints. 

Some common ones include your mother’s maiden name, your first pet’s name, or the name 
of the street you grew up on.

When you will be or are away from home  - Do not post comments about going out of town for the night or week. It will give others an idea
 of when  your house will be empty.

- Do not post photos while on vacation, as again, potential burglars will be able to tell they have time
 to pay your home an unwanted visit.

- Consider avoiding “checking in” to places, as this is also a record of when you aren’t home.

Anything you don’t want others to share - If you don’t want everyone to know about something, do not post it. Others can share your status or
 photos, or save them and send to whomever they choose.

- Complaints about work or other people are likely to get back to your employer or the other person,
 and that can hurt your job or your social life.

- If you have any doubts about whether a comment or photo is appropriate for public viewing, it is best
 to not post it.

3. Understand security measures that need to be taken when using ICT

3.1  Give examples of ways of ensuring passwords and PINs are secure.

3.2  Give examples of ways to ensure ICT systems are secure.

3.3  Demonstrate how to check that virus protection is valid.

 Tips to Ensure Safe Passwords

Getting users to adhere to your security policies is one of the most difficult parts of an IT administrator's job. Passwords are an especially big issue: Users choose passwords that are easy to remember, they jot them on sticky notes attached to their monitors, and they seldom change them. To address this security risk, Large Software offers the following 5 tips for creating and maintaining safe passwords.

  

 Keep them Guessing: Never use personal information to create a username, login, or password (i.e., names of pets, relatives, nicknames, dates of birth, birth location). In this day and age where information is often finding its way onto the web and identity theft experts have become ever-savvy at ferreting out these details, it is crucial to choose usernames and passwords that are disassociated from your personal history. Does it make it harder to remember? Yes, but you'll be thankful when you're spared the potentially hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars it often costs to fix a stolen identity.

Keep it Fresh- Diversify: Avoid using the same login and password across multiple sites and/or cards and accounts. If a thief gains access to one, it will be like a house of cards, allowing them to quickly wreak havoc across your entire financial portfolio. Are you the type that says, "I never share my PIN?" It's amazing how often those "unshared" digits are misused by a jilted lover or nosy house cleaner.

Bigger is Better! Cliché but true. Studies have consistently shown that a large fraction of all user-chosen passwords are readily guessed automatically. Shorter passwords are more susceptible to commercially available password recovery tools. Such software is capable of testing 200,000 passwords per second. To improve the cipher strength of your password, longer passwords are better. Include a minimum of 8 characters--using both upper and lower case letters and a mix of letters, numerals, and symbols. Do not use words found in the English dictionary.

Think Like a Thief--Don't Make it Easy on Them: Put yourself into a thief's shoes--don't even think about using an overly simplified password such as "12345678," "222222," "abcdefg." Avoid sequential passwords or using passwords derived from the use of adjacent letters on your keyboard; this will not make your password secure. Also, avoid using only look-alike substitutions of numbers or symbols. Criminals and other malicious users who know enough to try and crack your password will not be fooled by common look-alike replacements, such as replacing an 'i' with a '1' or an 'a' with '@' as in "L@rgeSoftw@re" or "P@ssw0rd". But these substitutions can be effective when combined with other measures, such as length, misspellings, or variations in case, to improve the strength of your password.

    Consider a Password Manager: There are many decent applications on the market that will digitally safeguard your various passwords. Avoid using the free ones "built-in" to browsers as these have been widely exposed for their security flaws. Consider software that memorizes and securely stores each username and password that you enter on a website.

Improving password quality

We have referred several times to weak passwords and the threat that they may pose to network security, but what do we mean by weak passwords? Characteristically, they are anything that might occur in a dictionary, which is to say simple, proper words utilizing only letters and no other type of character. For instance, proper names are poor choices for passwords.

Another flawed password is one that relies on personal information about the user, such as birthdays, anniversaries, spouse's names etc., that will make the password easier to remember. As discomfiting as it may seem, hackers often have access to users' personal information. By using a technique known as social engineering, hackers will use a legitimate user's personal information to make educated guesses of the user's password. By incorporating this information into the password, the hacker has a much better chance of cracking the password. A good hacker will socially engineer the target account, carrying out a little research into your hobbies, interests, date of birth even family members and pets. Selecting obscure words, phrases and symbols should prevent this.

While it is important to create a password that does not consist of orthodox everyday words, but that can be reasonably easily remembered, it is also important to use different characters in the password. Users should try to incorporate letters (both upper and lower case,) numbers and symbols. They can achieve this by mingling characters from the various character sets, which include:

    uppercase letters such as A, B, C;

    lowercase letters such as a, b,c;

    numerals such as 1, 2, 3;

    special characters such as $, ?, &; and

    alt characters such as µ, £, Æ.

Strong passwords replace simple letters with other characters so that they form memorable words but don't necessarily form dictionary words. For example, 'Password' may become 'Pa55w0rd'. Unfortunately, this step is already outdated; dictionaries have been already been created to combat this technique. As a result, users have been forced use combinations of 2 or more unrelated words, each of which should consist of characters from each of the five character sets.

2. Understand the need to backup copies of work.

2.1  Give reasons for making backup copies.

2.2  Demonstrate ways to create a backup copy.

2.3Give the advantages and disadvantages of the ways given in 2.2 including reference to security of data.

If your hard drive fails, it’s easy to lose precious photos, videos and emails. But there is a way of preventing this from happening to you – by making sure you have backed them up elsewhere. Therefore if the worst happens, you have copies of the lost files safely stored away.

Hard drives fail. If that happens, it’s usually expensive and sometimes impossible to recover all the lost files. But there are several ways to ensure that your precious photos, videos, emails and other files survive a computer disaster. You can back them up to CD or DVD discs, to external hard drives, and even to online services.

There are two main approaches to backing up your computer. The first, and possibly the most common, is to make copies of important files. The second is to back up your whole PC hard drive. This makes it easier to recover from a disaster, but uses more space.

External hard drives

An external hard drive (EHD) is exactly the same as an internal hard drive, except it’s packed in a separate box. It’s very easy to copy files from your internal drive to an external one, although it can take a while. (If you have Microsoft Windows 7 or Vista, try using the built-in Robocopy, which is short for ’Robust copy’.) Usually, copying is done via a USB 2.0 cable, since most PCs now have at least one USB 2.0 port.

Remember that external hard drives can also fail and that having backups means having at least two copies of everything. If you move files from your PC to an external hard drive to free up space, you still only have one copy. That’s not a backup.

If you buy a big external hard drive, you can have it ’mirror’ directories on your PC so that they are always backed up. Centred System's Second Copy is a sound option, and one of the simplest to use is Microsoft’s free SyncToy.

An alternative to backing up selected files is to take a ’snapshot’ of the whole hard drive. Many programs can do this, though the current favourite is Acronis True Image. Free alternative disk imaging programs include Runtime’s DriveImage XML (free for personal use), EaseUS Todo Backup and Paragon Backup & Recovery.

Network storage servers

Today, many homes have several computers, so people are starting to move to the sort of systems used in businesses. The leading example is NAS (Network Attached Storage), which allows people with different computers to save files on a shared stack of hard drives. You can now buy NAS drives for not much more than the cost of an external hard drive.

Apple offers its own NAS drives under the Time Capsule label. They are expensive in terms of the storage they provide, but are very easy to use and have a strong appeal to Mac users.

Portable media

Other more portable options are available to store data and move it easily and conveniently between different computers and other devices. Memory cards are small data storage devices which are commonly used in digital cameras and cell phones. Laptop computers will often include slots for them but this is less common for desktop computers.

Flash drives plug into USB ports, drawing power from the computer’s own supply. They can also be plugged into other devices that have USB ports such as the PS3, Xbox and many DVD players. Both memory cards and flash drives are capable of holding many gigabytes of data. Top of the range devices hold up to 256GB and are expensive, but they offer a lot of data storage in a small package.

People generally seem reluctant to spend money on backing up their files because - as with insurance - there’s no real benefit unless something goes wrong. But think how much you’d pay to get your photos back if you lost them all in a hard drive crash. That might encourage you to spend a bit more.