Computer Science 9618 - Security, Data Privacy, and Data Integrity Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering security measures, malware threats, data integrity techniques, validation checks, and verification methods based on Cambridge Computer Science 9618 Paper 1 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 persons.

Data Security

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

Encryption

The process of scrambling or encoding data using an encryption key to create Cipher Text, making it meaningless without the decryption key.

Data Backup

A process where a copy of data is made and stored in another location so it can be used to restore the data if original data is lost.

Disk Mirroring

A technology where data is stored on two or more disks simultaneously so that if the first disk fails, data can be accessed from the second disk.

Firewall

Software or hardware that monitors incoming and outgoing traffic, blocks unauthorized access/websites, blocks unused ports, and maintains an allow list or deny list based on specific criteria.

User Account

A access system requiring a valid username and password to limit access to specific resources and prevent unauthorized system entry.

Anti-Malware

Software that regularly scans the computer for malicious code against a database of known threats and quarantines or deletes any malicious software found.

Access Rights

Permissions assigned to individuals or groups (such as read-only or read-and-write) to restrict users from editing or reading data they are not permitted to access.

Proxy Server

A server that acts as a middleman between a user and the internet, hiding the public IP address of the user.

Malware

Software intentionally designed to cause damage, corruption, or unauthorized access to a computer system or server.

Computer Virus

Malicious program code that replicates itself by inserting itself into another piece of software with the intention of deleting/corrupting files or causing systems to crash.

Spyware

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

Phishing

An attack where an email pretends to be from an official body to persuade individuals to disclose private information or redirect them to an unofficial website via a link.

Pharming

Malicious code installed on a user's computer or web server that automatically redirects the user to a fake website without requiring user action.

Data Validation

An automated check carried out by a computer to ensure that input data is reasonable, sensible, and within specified bounds.

Data Verification

A process of checking that the data entered or transferred is identical to the original source data.

Range Check

A validation check that ensures data entered falls between a specified lower and upper limit.

Format Check

A validation check ensuring that data has been entered in the agreed format (for example, $dd/mm/yyyy$).

Length Check

A validation check verifying that entered data contains the required or expected number of characters.

Presence Check

A validation check making sure that a data field is not left empty when data is required.

Existence Check

A validation check that verifies whether data in a file or a specified filename actually exists.

Limit Check

A validation check that checks only one limit, such as an upper limit or a lower limit.

Check Digit

A final digit appended to an identifier, calculated from the other digits using an algorithm, used to verify correct entry.

Double Entry

A data verification method during entry where data is typed twice and compared by the computer to check if both entries match.

Visual Check

A data verification method during entry where the user manually compares the entered data on screen with the original document.

Checksum

A verification calculation performed on a block of data before transmission, sent with the data, and recalculated by the receiver to detect transmission errors.

Parity Check

An error detection check during data transmission where a parity bit is added to a byte to ensure the total number of 1s is either odd or even.

Parity Block Check

An error checking method that groups bytes into a grid with horizontal and vertical parity checks, allowing the system to identify the precise row and column of a corrupted bit.

Digital Signature

An encrypted document digest created using the sender's private key that can be decrypted with the sender's public key to authenticate the origin and integrity of a message.

Hashing Algorithm

A mathematical function that processes data of any length to produce a fixed-size digest or hash key.