Theory question 104
Data SecurityPaper 2, Section A
The Local Area Network (LAN) in a certain school is connected to the Internet. The school also has a Management Information System (MIS) which is used to enroll staff and students in the school. The system requires that users be authenticated before access is granted. Students are also allowed to use computers in the network during their leisure time. (a) (i) State two problems associated with an uncontrolled access to the internet by the students. (ii) How can the problem stated in 4a(i) be prevented? (b) Give one reason for users' authentication before access to the system is granted. (c) To use the MIS a staff is expected to log in using a registered username and password. Table 2 shows login activities and the login steps to the MIS. Specify the correct order or steps in the login process in column Y using the letter A-E attached to the login activities in column X.
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(a)(i) Any two: visiting harmful or indecent websites; downloading viruses/malware; wasting time on games and social media; cyber fraud; using up bandwidth.
(ii) Any one: use a firewall or content filter to block bad sites; give each student a password-controlled account; supervise/monitor use; set an acceptable-use policy.
(b) Any one: to make sure only authorised people get in (security); to protect the data from being changed or stolen; to track who did what (accountability).
(c) (i) E – Enter username; (ii) C – Enter password; (iii) B – Click on login; (iv) A – System authenticates username and password; (v) D – Access granted/denied.
The user acts first (username, password, login), then the system checks and replies.