Computer Science 9618 - Security, Privacy, and Data Integrity

Vocabulary flashcards covering security terms, data integrity concepts, validation/verification types, and threat prevention strategies based on Computer Science 9618 notes.

Data Integrity

Ensuring the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of data during and after processing, as well as keeping data up to date.

Data Privacy

Ensuring data can only be accessed by or disclosed to authorized personnel.

Data Security

Keeping data safe and preventing data loss or unauthorized access/damage during and after processing.

Encryption

Scrambling or encoding data using an encryption key to create cipher text, rendering it meaningless without the decryption key.

Data Backup

Creating a copy of data stored elsewhere so it can be restored if the original data is lost or corrupted.

Disk Mirroring

Storing data on two or more disks simultaneously so that if the first disk drive fails, data is accessed from the second disk.

Firewall

Software or hardware that monitors incoming and outgoing traffic, blocks transmission from unauthorized sources, and filters data based on user criteria or allow/deny lists.

User Account

A security measure requiring a username and password to restrict system and resource access to authorized users.

Anti-Malware

Software that scans a computer for malicious code against a database of known threats, quarantining or deleting any malicious software found.

Access Rights

Setting permissions (such as read-only or read-and-write) for individual users or groups to restrict editing or unauthorized access.

Proxy Server

A server acting as a middleman that hides the user's public IP address and intercepts requests before forwarding them to the internet.

Malware

Software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer or server.

Virus

Malicious program code that replicates itself by inserting into another program, with the intention of deleting/corrupting files or crashing the system.

Spyware

Malware downloaded without user knowledge that secretly records actions or keystrokes and sends logs to a third party.

Phishing

An email pretending to be from an official body prompting users to click a link to a fake website or disclose private information.

Pharming

Malicious code installed on a user's computer or web server that automatically redirects the user to a fake website.

Validation

Checks carried out during input to ensure that data entered is reasonable, sensible, and within acceptable parameters.

Verification

Checks carried out to ensure that data entered or transferred matches the original source data exactly.

Range Check

A validation check ensuring that input data falls between a specified upper and lower limit.

Format Check

A validation check ensuring that input data follows a pre-defined format (e.g., dd/mm/yyyy).

Length Check

A validation check verifying that input data contains the required number of characters.

Presence Check

A validation check ensuring that a data field is not left empty.

Existence Check

A validation check that verifies whether entered data or a specified file/filename already exists.

Limit Check

A validation check testing data against a single boundary limit (such as an upper limit or a lower limit).

Check Digit

A calculated digit appended to a numeric or alphanumeric identifier to verify entry accuracy using an algorithm (e.g., Modulus-11).

Double Entry

A verification method where data is keyed in twice and compared by the system to detect entry discrepancies.

Visual Check

A verification method where entered data is manually compared against the original input document.

Checksum

An error detection calculation made on data before transmission, sent alongside it, and recalculated by the receiver to verify matching values.

Parity Check

An error detection check where a bit is added to data bytes to maintain an agreed-upon odd or even count of 1s.

Parity Byte

An additional byte sent with a block of data containing vertical parity bits for each column to locate corrupted bits.

Digital Signature

An encrypted digest created using a sender's private key that can be decrypted with the matching public key to authenticate a document or email.

Hashing Algorithm

A mathematical function that processes input data to generate a fixed-size hash key or digest.