AS Level · Topics 6–7
Protect data and justify its use
Connect threats, integrity checks, privacy, ownership, and ethical decisions.
Lessons distinguish AS topics 1–12 from A Level topics 13–20. Examples include Cambridge pseudocode and Python.
Match controls to the threat
Confidentiality restricts disclosure, integrity concerns unauthorized alteration, and availability concerns access when needed. Authentication, authorization, encryption, and backups address different aspects. Name the asset and attack before proposing a control.
Validation checks whether input follows specified rules; verification checks whether a transfer or entry matches its source. A valid-looking date may still have been entered incorrectly. State what each check can and cannot establish.
Evaluate stakeholders and ownership
A school may find activity logs useful for diagnosis while students reasonably expect limits on collection and access. Identify the purpose, minimum necessary data, retention period, and who can read the records.
Respect licenses and acknowledge sources when reusing software or media. A technically possible action is not automatically an ethical one. Compare the effect on affected groups and explain an alternative that reduces a specific harm.
Check yourself
Does checking that a mark is between 0 and 100 prove that it was copied correctly?Show answer
No. It validates the range but does not verify the value against the original record.
References used to build these lessons
We used these official documents as references when building this course's lessons. They are the sources for the syllabus structure and course requirements.
Cambridge International · 9618 · Exams 2027–2029