Cyber Safety, Ethics, and Emerging Technologies
What the exam tests
Safe practices, malware and attack types, legal and ethical issues, software licensing, and definitions of emerging technologies.
Core concepts
- Malware: virus (attaches to files), worm (spreads itself across networks), trojan (disguised as useful), ransomware (encrypts files and demands payment), spyware and keyloggers (steal data), adware.
- Attacks: phishing tricks users into revealing credentials through fake email or sites; pharming redirects to a fake site via DNS; vishing uses phone calls.
- Protection: strong unique passwords, two-factor authentication, updates, firewall, antivirus, encryption, backups, and checking the URL before logging in.
- Law and ethics: the Information Technology Act, 2000 governs cybercrime in India; identity theft, cheating by personation and publishing obscene material are offences. Report at cybercrime.gov.in or on helpline 1930. Plagiarism, software piracy and unauthorised access are both unethical and illegal; digital signatures provide authenticity and non-repudiation.
- Licences: proprietary (paid, restricted), open source (source code available and modifiable under the licence), freeware (free but closed source), shareware (trial then pay).
- Emerging tech: cloud (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), IoT, AI and ML, blockchain, big data, 5G, quantum computing.
Worked example
An email from [email protected] asks you to confirm your account number and OTP through a link within 24 hours. The domain is not the bank's, urgency is manufactured, and an OTP is being requested - banks never ask for one. The link is the delivery mechanism. Correct action: do not click, verify through the official app or number, and report. Handing over the OTP would let the attacker complete a transaction even though the password was strong.
Traps
- Freeware is not open source; only open source guarantees access to the code.
- SaaS (Gmail) versus PaaS (an app hosting platform) versus IaaS (raw virtual machines) is a favourite one-mark item.
- Antivirus does not stop phishing, which targets the user rather than the machine.
- Ethical hacking is authorised testing; unauthorised access is an offence whatever the intent.