Topic 9.  Security & data management

Today we’re going to talk about how to keep information secret, and this isn’t a new goal. From as early as Julius Caesar’s Caesar cipher to Mary, Queen of Scots, encrypted messages to kill Queen Elizabeth in 1587, theres has long been a need to encrypt and decrypt private correspondence. This proved especially critical during World War II as Allan Turing and his team at Bletchley Park attempted to decrypt messages from Nazi Enigma machines, and this need has only grown as more and more information sensitive tasks are completed on our computers. So today, we’re going to walk you through some common encryption techniques such as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange, and RSA which are employed to keep your information safe, private, and secure. 

Cybersecurity is a set of techniques to protect the secrecy, integrity, and availability of computer systems and data against threats. In today’s episode, we’re going to unpack these three goals and talk through some strategies we use like passwords, biometrics, and access privileges to keep our information as secure, but also as accessible as possible. From massive Denial of Service, or DDos attacks, to malware and brute force password cracking there are a lot of ways for hackers to gain access to your data, so we’ll also discuss some strategies like creating strong passwords, and using 2-factor authentication, to keep your information safe. 

Now, not all hackers are are malicious cybercriminals intent on stealing your data (these people are known as Black Hats). There are also White Hats who hunt for bugs, close security holes, and perform security evaluations for companies. And there are a lot of different motivations for hackers—sometimes just amusement or curiosity, sometimes for money, and sometimes to promote social or political goals. Regardless, we're not going to teach you how to become a hacker in this episode but we are going to walk you through some of the strategies hackers use to gain access to your devices, so you can be better prepared to keep your data safe. 

President Obama just unveiled a number of proposals to crack down on hackers. It's great that the government is working on this but we need to do a better job of protecting ourselves. So we sent a camera out onto Hollywood Boulevard to help people by asking them to tell us their password.  

A short video to explain the difference between virus, worm and trojan horse

Google Security Princess Parisa Tabriz and Jenny Martin from Symantec introduce the most common types of cybercrime, including viruses, malware, DDOS attacks and phishing scams. 

E-Crime Wales