Cybersecurity
This is a highly applicable topic to safeguarding personal data and gaining an awareness of the range of threats and how to mitigate against them. Cybersecurity at A-Level focuses primarily on the techniques associated with securing a network, while also touching on the associated laws and ethical and moral values.
Cybersecurity threats
This document outlines categories of network threat and how they can be detected. The resource is produced by Cybersecurity Challenge UK and is aimed at GCSE students however, is also a valuable resource for A level students as a starting point for further investigation and discussion.
Penetration testing
Penetration testing is a vital part of any organisation’s security procedures. Students will learn what it is and why organisations carry it out. There are no practical activities attached to this lesson from Cybersecurity Challenge UK.
Social engineering
Social engineering attacks are a vulnerability of corporate networks and personal data and identity. This lesson plan from Cybersecurity Challenge UK outlines different methods of social engineering
Network security lesson plan and activities
This lesson plan was developed by AQA for their GCSE course however its content is suitable for A level as a starter lesson for this topic. There are a range of different learning activities that introduce or revise keywords (depending on a student’s prior study).
Being a hacker
This resource is developed by the Hacker High School site to improve online security for students by increasing their knowledge of cybersecurity. This lesson plan focuses on what hackers do and how attacks happen. The lesson includes discussions, scenarios and research which will help students to evaluate the harm and, in some cases, good, that hackers can cause.
Compression, encryption and hashing topic exploration pack
This document is produced by the awarding body OCR and provides links and suggested activities for the topics of compression, encryption and hashing. It includes an encryption activity using a simple cipher implemented using a spreadsheet.
The Peruvian Coin Flip - Cryptographic Protocols
This is a very interesting activity from CS unplugged that involves using the outcome of a coin toss to generate an encrypted message. Although designed to be used with younger students, this activity illustrates the nature of cryptographic protocols and will be thought-provoking for A level students.
Kid Krypto - public key encryption
A resource from CS Unplugged that covers the basics of public key encryption and key generation. Although aimed at younger students it is a perfectly suitable activity for A level.