Digital Literacy and Emerging Technologies
Core rules
Digital literacy means finding, evaluating, creating and communicating information safely with digital tools. The exam tests both safe behaviour and accurate vocabulary for new technologies.
- Account security: use long unique passphrases, enable two-factor authentication, never share an OTP, lock screens and update software. A password manager reduces reuse.
- Phishing signs: urgency, threats, mismatched sender domain, unexpected attachments, shortened links and requests for OTP, PIN or password.
- Digital signature vs scanned signature: a digital signature uses public-key cryptography and verifies integrity and origin; a scanned image is only a picture.
- HTTPS: encrypts traffic between browser and site; the padlock does not prove the site is honest.
- Emerging technologies: AI and its subset machine learning; IoT (sensors plus connectivity plus processing); cloud computing with IaaS, PaaS and SaaS; big data (volume, velocity, variety); blockchain as a distributed, tamper-evident ledger; AR/VR; 3D printing; drones and robotics.
- Digital payments: UPI, cards and wallets; verify payee details and keep transaction references.
Worked example
An email says your bank account is blocked, uses a lookalike domain, offers a shortened link and asks for an OTP. Reasoning: banks do not ask for OTPs; urgency is a pressure tactic; the domain is not the official one; shortened links hide the destination. The safe action is to ignore the link, open the official banking app or type the address, and report the message.
Traps that cost marks
Treating a padlock as proof of legitimacy; confusing AI with machine learning; equating cloud computing with the internet; sharing an OTP with “bank staff”; assuming deleting an app removes your digital footprint.