Put Unit 7 on the map, then take the test. This page is everything you can do before it — the traps and practice that isn’t on the real test. There are no test questions here.
No new reading. Want a two-minute check? Skim Runestone 20.3 Cybersecurity and note any term that feels fuzzy.
Security wraps the Internet region and reaches back to People — the picture of the whole unit: a human problem sitting on a technical one.
| Don’t confuse | The one-line difference |
|---|---|
| public vs private key | Send a secret: lock with the recipient’s public, they open with their private. Signatures run the other way. |
| secret method vs secret key | The method is public. Strength comes from a huge key space. |
| encrypted vs anonymous | HTTPS hides the contents, not which site, when, or how much. |
| padlock vs honest | A certificate proves the name and the encryption, not the site’s honesty. |
| two passwords vs multifactor | MFA needs two categories: know, have, are. |
| virus vs worm | A virus needs a file to be run. A worm spreads on its own. |
The test (70 points): twelve multiple-choice questions (3 points each), written as scenarios with people in them; two multi-part short responses (7 each); and a 20-point written response that asks you to explain what a protection does and what it doesn’t. Practice naming limits.
Twenty terms. Read the definition, pick the term. Misses come back at the end.
Six scenario questions in AP style. None is on the real test.
Prompt. A messaging app says: “All messages are end-to-end encrypted — only you and the person you’re messaging can read them.”
(a) Explain what this protects, and from whom. (b) Identify two things this encryption does not protect. (c) Describe one way an attacker could still read a user’s messages without breaking the encryption.
□ (a) Names what and from whom. The message contents are unreadable to anyone along the path — routers, the network, and even the app company’s servers — because only the two devices have the keys.
□ (b) Names two specific limits. Metadata: who messaged whom, when, how often. Messages sitting unlocked on either phone. Screenshots or forwards by the other person. Backups stored without the same encryption.
□ (c) Names an attack on the person or the device, not the cipher. Phishing the account login; malware or spyware on the phone; someone unlocking a stolen phone; a keylogger. No cipher gets broken in any of these.
□ Doesn’t over-claim. “Encrypted, so it’s completely private” loses the points this question exists to award.