Search the California Content Standards

Standard:
Explain potential security threats and security measures to mitigate threats.

Descriptive Statement:
Cybersecurity is an important field of study and it is valuable for students to understand the need for protecting sensitive data. Students identify multiple methods for protecting data and articulate the value and appropriateness for each method. Students are not expected to implement or explain the implementation of such technologies. For example, students could explain the importance of keeping passwords hidden, setting secure router administrator passwords, erasing a storage device before it is reused, and using firewalls to restrict access to private networks. Alternatively, students could explain the importance of two-factor authentication and HTTPS connections to ensure secure data transmission.

Standard:
Apply multiple methods of information protection to model the secure transmission of information.

Descriptive Statement:
Digital information is protected using a variety of cryptographic techniques. Cryptography is essential to many models of cybersecurity. At its core, cryptography has a mathematical foundation. Cryptographic encryption can be as simple as letter substitution or as complicated as modern methods used to secure networks and the Internet. Students encode and decode messages using encryption methods, and explore different levels of complexity used to hide or secure information. For example, students could identify methods of secret communication used during the Revolutionary War (e.g., ciphers, secret codes, invisible ink, hidden letters) and then secure their own methods such as substitution ciphers or steganography (i.e., hiding messages inside a picture or other data) to compose a message from either the Continental Army or British Army. (HSS.8.1) Alternatively, students could explore functions and inverse functions for encryption and decryption and consider functions that are complex enough to keep data secure from their peers. (CA CCSS for Mathematics 8.F.1)

Standard:
Compare levels of abstraction and interactions between application software, system software, and hardware.

Descriptive Statement:
At its most basic level, a computer is composed of physical hardware on which software runs. Multiple layers of software are built upon various layers of hardware. Layers manage interactions and complexity in the computing system. System software manages a computing device's resources so that software can interact with hardware. Application software communicates with the user and the system software to accomplish its purpose. Students compare and describe how application software, system software, and hardware interact. For example, students could compare how various levels of hardware and software interact when a picture is to be taken on a smartphone. Systems software provides low-level commands to operate the camera hardware, but the application software interacts with system software at a higher level by requesting a common image file format (e.g., .png) that the system software provides.

Standard:
Describe issues that impact network functionality.

Descriptive Statement:
Many different organizations, including educational, governmental, private businesses, and private households rely on networks to function adequately in order to engage in online commerce and activity. Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the capability of a network to provide better service to selected network traffic over various technologies from the perspective of the consumer. Students define and discuss performance measures that impact network functionality, such as latency, bandwidth, throughput, jitter, and error rate. For example, students could use online network simulators to explore how performance measures impact network functionality and describe impacts when various changes in the network occur. Alternatively, students could describe how pauses in television interviews conducted over satellite telephones are impacted by networking factors such as latency and jitter.

Standard:
Describe the design characteristics of the Internet.

Descriptive Statement:
The Internet connects devices and networks all over the world. Large-scale coordination occurs among many different machines across multiple paths every time a web page is opened or an image is viewed online. Through the domain name system (DNS), devices on the Internet can look up Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, allowing end-to-end communication between devices. The design decisions that direct the coordination among systems composing the Internet also allow for scalability and reliability. Students factor historical, cultural, and economic decisions in their explanations of the Internet. For example, students could explain how hierarchy in the DNS supports scalability and reliability. Alternatively, students could describe how the redundancy of routing between two nodes on the Internet increases reliability and scales as the Internet grows.

Standard:
Compare and contrast security measures to address various security threats.

Descriptive Statement:
Network security depends on a combination of hardware, software, and practices that control access to data and systems. The needs of users and the sensitivity of data determine the level of security implemented. Potential security problems, such as denial-of-service attacks, ransomware, viruses, worms, spyware, and phishing, present threats to sensitive data. Students compare and contrast different types of security measures based on factors such as efficiency, feasibility, ethical impacts, usability, and security. At this level, students are not expected to develop or implement the security measures that they discuss. For example, students could review case studies or current events in which governments or organizations experienced data leaks or data loss as a result of these types of attacks. Students could provide an analysis of actual security measures taken comparing to other security measure which may have led to different outcomes. Alternatively, students might discuss computer security policies in place at the local level that present a tradeoff between usability and security, such as a web filter that prevents access to many educational sites but keeps the campus network safe.

Standard:
Compare and contrast cryptographic techniques to model the secure transmission of information.

Descriptive Statement:
Cryptography is a technique for transforming information on a computer in such a way that it becomes unreadable by anyone except authorized parties. Cryptography is useful for supporting secure communication of data across networks. Examples of cryptographic methods include hashing, symmetric encryption/decryption (private key), and assymmetric encryption/decryption (public key/private key). Students use software to encode and decode messages using cryptographic methods. Students compare the costs and benefits of using various cryptographic methods. At this level, students are not expected to perform the mathematical calculations associated with encryption and decryption. For example, students could compare and contrast multiple examples of symmetric cryptographic techiques. Alternatively, students could compare and contrast symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic techniques in which they apply for a given scenario.

Standard:
Categorize and describe the different functions of operating system software.

Descriptive Statement:
Operating systems (OS) software is the code that manages the computer’s basic functions. Students describe at a high level the different functions of different components of operating system software. Examples of functions could include memory management, data storage/retrieval, processes management, and access control. For example, students could use monitoring tools including within an OS to inspect the services and functions running on a system and create an artifact to describe the activity that they observed (e.g., when a browser is running with many tabs open, memory usage is increased). They could also inspect and describe changes in the activity monitor that occur as different applications are executing (e.g., processor utilization increases when a new application is launched).

Standard:
Examine the scalability and reliability of networks, by describing the relationship between routers, switches, servers, topology, and addressing.

Descriptive Statement:
Choice of network topology is determined, in part, by how many devices can be supported and the character of communication needs between devices. Each device is assigned an address that uniquely identifies it on the network. Routers function by comparing addresses to determine how information on the network should reach its desgination. Switches compare addresses to determine which computers will receive information. Students explore and explain how network performance degrades when various factors affect the network. For example, students could use online network simulators to describe how network performance changes when the number of devices increases. Alternatively, students could visualize and describe changes to the distribution of network traffic when a router on the network fails.

Standard:
Explain how the characteristics of the Internet influence the systems developed on it.

Descriptive Statement:
The design of the Internet includes hierarchy and redundancy to help it scale reliably. An end-to-end architecture means that key functions are placed at endpoints in the network (i.e., an Internet user's computer and the server hosting a website) rather than in the middle of the network. Open standards for transmitting information across the Internet help fuel its growth. This design philosophy impacts systems and technologies that integrate with the Internet. Students explain how Internet-based systems depend on these characteristics. For example, students could explain how having common, standard protocols enable products and services from different developers to communicate. Alternatively, students could describe how the end-to-end architecture and redundancy in routing enables Internet users to access information and services even if part of the network is down; the information can still be routed from one end to another through a different path.