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Lessons / Introduction to cyber security

Introduction to cyber security

Unit of work

3 lessons

MakeCode

11-14 yrs

In this series of three lessons aimed at students in the first year of secondary school, students gain a greater understanding of the importance of cyber security and explore the need to create strong password before writing algorithms and programs to create their own ‘strong password generator’ using the micro:bit. Ideally, this unit should be taught after Computing fundamentals.

Computational thinking:

Algorithms

Pseudocode

Programming:

Selection

Variables

Safety & security:

Ethical hacking

Malware

Passwords

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Lesson 1 details

Overall key learning

  • can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science
  • have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs to solve problems
  • are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

Additional skills

Problem-solving, collaboration, creative thinking.

Lesson 1: What is cyber security?

Students learn about the importance of cyber security and explore ethical hacking.

Key learning:

  • to understand about the importance of cyber security in the world today
  • to be able to explain what is meant by the term ‘ethical hacking’
  • to understand how to recognise potential malware attacks and how to protect data and devices.
Lesson 1 details

Lesson 2: Strong passwords

In this lesson students explore the need for strong passwords and design an algorithm to create a strong password generator using the micro:bit.

Key learning:

  • To understand the need for secure password and what makes a password secure.
  • To plan, test and debug an algorithm for a password generator.
  • To use selection and variables in an algorithm and explain their use.
Lesson 2 details

Lesson 3: Making a password generator

Key learning:

  • To follow a pseudocode algorithm to program a password generator using a micro:bit
  • To write a program using variables correctly
  • To test and debug code to create a working password generator
Lesson 3 details

This content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence.

These lessons are mapped to the following learning objectives and standards:

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