Discover the 19 worst passwords and learn how to keep your password safe from computer hackers in this article from NOVA scienceNOW. Students can read this article during a lesson on cybersecurity.
Learn about the exciting opportunities for and vital roles played by Cyber Security Analysts in the growing field of Cyber Security. Watch this Science Matters video to learn what it means to be a Cyber Security Analyst and see if this job could be the right fit for you.
Worms. Trojan Horses. Hackers and Clouds. It is not what’s happening in the movies, but what’s happening in cyberspace- that area that connects all of us and our computers to the internet and each other. Cyber Security is important to all of us and it's a HOT JOB of the future. This video comes with discussion questions.
Cybersecurity is a set of techniques to protect the secrecy, integrity, and availability of computer systems and data against threats. In this 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.
In this video, students will learn about the importance of web security which becomes a top priority with more information changing hands electronically.
Learn why protecting your information online is crucial with this video from the NOVA Cybersecurity Lab. The Internet was originally designed to connect large computers at universities, businesses, and governments. It grew exponentially once personal computers became common in the 1980s. Connecting to the Internet leaves computers vulnerable. People can use computers to delete data, spread viruses, or even steal someone’s identity. The good news is that there are several ways to stay safe online. You can learn about protecting information by trying coding, password cracking, and spotting email scams in NOVA’s Cybersecurity Lab. This video includes a student viewing guide to promote discussion.
New tech, like location services and smart devices, helps make our lives easier and opens opportunities that didn't exist before. But these innovations also come with a cost -- especially to our privacy. Help students consider the benefits and drawbacks of these new technologies -- and decide whether they're ultimately worth it.
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In the game, players work for a start-up social network company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Working alongside their friend and colleague—a brilliant, business-savvy entrepreneur—their goal is to grow their tiny company into a global empire. To do this, players must complete challenges to strengthen their cyber defenses and thwart their attackers. There are four major gameplay components: a coding challenge, a password challenge, a social engineering challenge, and a series of cyber battles.
The Lab also features stories of real-world cyber attacks, a glossary of cyber terms, short animated videos, and video quizzes. The videos explain the need for cybersecurity; privacy versus security; cryptography (cyber codes); and what exactly hackers are.
This alignment results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.
In this lesson, students are introduced to the need for encryption and simple techniques for breaking (or cracking) secret messages. Students try their own hand at cracking a message encoded with the classic Caesar cipher and also a Random Substitution Cipher. Students should become well-acquainted with the idea that in an age of powerful computational tools, techniques of encryption will need to be more sophisticated. The most important aspect of this lesson is to understand how and why encryption plays a role in all of our lives every day on the Internet, and that making good encryption is not trivial. Students will get their feet wet with understanding the considerations that must go into making strong encryption in the face of powerful computational tools that can be used to crack it. The need for secrecy when sending bits over the Internet is important for anyone using the Internet.
Students will be able to:- explain why encryption is an important need for everyday life on the Internet.- crack a message encrypted with a Caesar cipher using a Caesar Cipher Widget.- crack a message encrypted with random substitution using Frequency Analysis.- explain the weaknesses and security flaws of substitution ciphers.
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In this lesson, students learn about the relationship between cryptographic keys and passwords. Students explore the Vigenère cipher with a widget to examine how a cryptographic "key" can be used to encrypt and decrypt a message. Then, students use a tool that shows them about how long it would take to crack a given password using a standard desktop computer. Students experiment with what makes a good password and answer questions about the “human components” of cybersecurity.
Students will be able to:- explain the relationship between cryptographic keys and passwords.- explain in broad terms what makes a key difficult to “crack.”- reason about strong vs. weak passwords using a tool that shows password strength.- understand that exponential growth is related to an encryption algorithm’s strength.- explain how and why the Vigenère cipher is a stronger form of encryption than plain substitution.- explain properties that make for a good key when using the Vigenère Cipher.
This is a big multi-part lesson that introduces the concept of public key cryptography which is an answer to the crucial question: How can two people send encrypted messages back and forth over insecure channels (the Internet) without meeting ahead of time to agree on a secret key? In a nutshell, there are two main principles we want students to understand:
The lesson gets at these two core ideas through a deliberate chain of thought experiments, demonstrations, activities, and widgets. All parts are building blocks that lead to a deeper understanding of how it works.
Students will be able to:- explain what the modulo operation does and how it operates as a "one-way" function.- follow an asymmetric encryption algorithm to encrypt a numerical message using the Public Key Crypto widget.- explain the difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption.- describe the basic process of encrypting data using public key encryption.- explain the benefits of public key cryptography.
