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.
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- Activity sheet
- External link
Activity sheet
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.
External link
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).
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.
