Cyber security: threats and defences
Computer Science · Key Stage 3 · The School
Most attacks target people
Phishing emails imitate a bank or a school and ask you to log in on a fake page. Social engineering just asks — a phone call claiming to be IT, needing your password "to fix something". These work far more often than technical attacks, because people are easier to trick than encryption is to break.
How encryption helps
Encryption scrambles data so only someone with the key can read it. In transit (HTTPS) it stops eavesdropping; at rest (a locked disk) it protects a stolen laptop. It does not protect against someone who tricks you into handing over the key — which is exactly why phishing remains the biggest threat.
Layered defence
Personal: unique long passphrases, two-factor authentication, updates installed, suspicion of unexpected links. Organisational: firewalls, staff training, backups tested by restoring them, least-privilege access. No single defence is enough; security is layers, so that one failure is not a total failure.
"Dear Customer, your account will be closed in 24 hours. Click here to verify." Four warning signs: it does not use your name; it manufactures urgency; it asks you to click rather than to visit the site yourself; and hovering over the link shows a domain that is not the company's. No encryption was broken here — the attack is entirely on the reader, which is where most successful attacks happen.