Information Security and Safe Use of ICT
Core ideas
Security covers confidentiality, integrity, availability. Threats include malware (viruses, worms, trojans), phishing, social engineering, and password attacks. Defenses: antivirus, firewalls, updates, strong passwords, encryption, backups, and cautious behavior. Legal/ethical points: respect copyright, do not distribute personal data, follow netiquette.
Traps to watch
- Confusing a virus (needs a host file) with a worm (self-replicating over networks).
- Thinking a firewall removes viruses - it filters traffic; antivirus handles malware.
- Believing HTTPS guarantees the site is honest - it only encrypts the connection.
- Treating a strong password as "long but reused" - reuse is a major risk.
- Ignoring that backups protect against ransomware where decryption may be impossible.
Rule of thumb
For any scenario, ask: What is the asset, what is the threat, what control addresses it? Match control to threat - antivirus↔malware, firewall↔intrusion, backup↔data loss, strong unique passwords↔account takeover.
Worked example
"A student receives an email asking to confirm a bank password via a link." This is phishing (social engineering). Correct response: do not click, verify the sender, report it. A firewall or antivirus would not prevent the user from voluntarily typing the password - behavior is the control here.