Unit 4: Cyber security

2 dot points across 2 inquiry questions, in syllabus order. Each dot point has a focused answer, with exam-style questions and worked answers where available.

How are data and networks protected from threats, and what does the law require?

Explain privacy obligations for organisations (including Australian Privacy Principle 11 and the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme), identify common cyber security threats and matching countermeasures, and apply the CIA triad, the AAA framework and ethical hacking practices

What APP 11 and the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme require, common threats (phishing, malware, ransomware, DoS, SQL injection, man-in-the-middle, social engineering) and their countermeasures, the CIA triad, authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA), and ethical hacking with red and blue teams.

9 min read →

How does cryptography keep communication confidential and trustworthy?

Explain symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hashing and digital signatures, and how digital certificates and TLS combine them to secure communication over networks

How symmetric encryption (one shared key) and asymmetric encryption (public and private key pairs) work, their strengths and weaknesses, hashing and digital signatures, what a digital certificate proves, and how TLS uses all of them in a handshake to secure HTTPS.

8 min read →