Topic Summaries

Identifying vulnerabilities

GCSE > Computer Science > Pearson IGCSE > GCSE Computer Science > COMPUTER SYSTEMS: Threats to computer systems and networks > Identifying vulnerabilities
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COMPUTER SYSTEMS: Encoding and compression

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: Network topologies

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: Wired and wireless networks, protocols, and layers

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: Threats to computer systems and networks

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: Operating systems and utility software

ALGORITHMS AND PROGRAMMING: Types of data

ALGORITHMS AND PROGRAMMING: Producing robust programs

ALGORITHMS AND PROGRAMMING: Designing, creating, and refining algorithms

ALGORITHMS AND PROGRAMMING: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Prevention methods What it prevents How it works
Penetration testing
  • Identifies security flaws, social engineering weaknesses, poor recovery planning
  • Simulates real attacks to test defences
  • May test users’ susceptibility to scams and ability to recover after attack
Network policies
  • Enforces good security practices across users and devices
  • Sets rules for passwords, access, software, backups, testing, and firewall use to reduce vulnerabilities
Network forensics
  • Helps trace and analyse past attacks to prevent repeats
  • Monitors and stores traffic
  • Analyses unusual activity to find attack source and improve security strategy
Anti-malware software
  • Blocks/detects/removes malware (e.g. viruses, backdoors, spyware)
  • Uses signatures and behaviour-based detection
  • Scans files and running apps
  • Quarantines threats
Firewalls
  • Blocks DoS attacks, spyware, external hacking attempts, and malware data leaks
  • Inspects network traffic
  • Uses filtering rules (packet, IP, port-based) to block harmful packets or data leaks
User access levels
  • Prevents unauthorised access, software installation, and insider misuse
  • Assigns permissions to groups/users so they can only access necessary files/features, limiting accidental/malicious use
Passwords
  • Protects against unauthorised access and brute-force attacks
  • Should be strong, long, secret, and regularly changed
  • Weak on their own but useful with other methods
Encryption
  • Protects data in transit and storage from being read if intercepted
  • Scrambles data using large prime number based keys
  • Only decryptable with the correct key
  • Used in VPNs, WPA2, etc.

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