OCR H446/01 – 1.2 Software and software development - 101 Computing

UK Legislation relevant to Computer Science

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, A Level Quiz, Computer Science, GCSE Concepts, GCSE Quiz, J277 - Computer Science GCSE (OCR), Quizzes, UK Legislation

As a computer scientist, you need to be aware of the legislation that is relevant to the use of Computer Science related technologies.

Whether you are designing a new website, creating a computer program or system or just using a computer in your work, you have to make sure you are always acting lawfully.

In the UK, there are three main acts that are very relevant to the use of computer science technologies:

The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act
The Data Protection Act
The Computer Misuse Act

Let’s find out more about this legislation.

The Copyright, Designs & Patents ActThe Data Protection ActThe Computer Misuse Act

The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act

This act provides a legal means of ensuring that content creators can protect the work they have produced.

When anyone creates something, they automatically own it. This could include:

a picture, drawing or photograph
an animation, a film or a video clip
a sound file, podcast or music
a piece of text incl. an article, news report, blog post or a book
a video game or a computer program (e.g. source code)

When using copyrighted material, it is illegal to…

Make copies
Publish
Distribute
Sell copies

…unless you have been given permission by the copyright owner.

The Data Protection Act

The purpose of this act is to ensure our personal data is being used and dealt with sensibly.

Example of personal data:

Name and address
Date of birth
Employment records
Medical records
Religion/faith

This act stipulates that personal information stored on a computer system must be kept securely.

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully in accordance with the rights of data subjects.

When an organisation stores personal data about individuals on a computer system, they must only store data that is relevant/necessary, accurate and up-to-date.

Personal data kept by an organisation on a computer system shall not be kept for longer than is necessary and should be deleted if it is no longer needed.

When personal data is shared with a third party, it has to be done fairly and lawfully, securely and with the permission of the data subject.

The Computer Misuse Act

The purpose of this act is to discourage people from accessing computer systems without permission (hacking) whether to intend to commit further illegal activities or not.

This acts make it illegal to access data on a computer when that material will be used to commit further illegal activity, such as fraud or blackmail.

It is also illegal to access and change the contents of someone’s files without their permission. It is therefore illegal to install a virus or other malware on someone’s computer as this is done without their consent.

UK Legislation: Drag and Drop Task

Complete the following activity to test your understanding of the three main UK legislation relevant to Computer Science.
UK Legislation – Drag and DropOpen in New Window

Types of Software

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Computing Concepts, GCSE Concepts, GCSE Quiz, J277 - Computer Science GCSE (OCR), Quizzes

A computer system is made of both hardware and software.

The hardware components of a computer systems are the physical components of the system and include the motherboard, the CPU, RAM and ROM and all input, output and output devices.

Software consists of the computer programs that run on hardware. They fall into three main categories:

Operating Systems

The Operating System is an essential software needed to operate a computer. The Operating System is responsible for:

Process Management & Multitasking: The operating system allocates CPU time to the different jobs being processed by the CPU and may allow for multitasking, enabling the end-user to work on different applications at the same time.
Memory Management: The Operating System allows the user to load files and applications into the primary memory (RAM) and to remove these from RAM when they are no longer needed.
File Management: The Operating System lets the user organise their files in a folder structure. Users can create, rename, delete or move folders, subfolders and files that will be stored by the Operating System on the secondary storage devices.
Providing a User Interface to allow the user to interact with the computer. On a laptop or desktop computer most Operating systems (e.g. Windows, MacOs, Linux etc.) provide a Graphical User Interface (GUI) enabling the user to open apps in separate windows, use the mouse pointer to click on menus and icons. Similar Graphical User Interfaces are also available on smartphones running an iOS or Android Operating Systems.
User Management: Maintaining User Accounts and Access Levels: The operating system enables users to authenticate themselves often using a username or password or, on more recent smartphones, a fingerprint scanner or facial recognition software. Once logged in, the identified user will be given access to their own files, folders and settings based on their access-level
Peripheral Management: Managing the hardware including input, output and storage devices: The Operating System is the only software that will communicate with the different hardware components to decide what to display on screen, where to save or retrieve a file on secondary storage, what information to send to the printer, etc…

Drivers

To enable the Operating System to communicate with a wide range of hardware peripherals from many different manufacturers it is sometimes required to install drivers which are used to teach the OS how to communicate with a specific peripheral. (e.g. When connecting a new printer or game controller, you may have to install the required driver first).

Utility Software

Utility software is specific software that performs tasks to help with maintaining the computer system, to optimise the resources and keep the system secure.

There is a wide range of utility software including:

File Management software to help you organise your files using folders and sub-folders, move, rename or delete files and folders.
Disk cleanup software to help you free up space on your hard disk, and hence improve system performance. Disk cleanup software scans your disk to locate temporary files, Internet cache files, and other unnecessary program files that you can safely delete to free up space.
Defragmentation software is used to reorganise/optimise how files are stored on a hard-disk drive resulting in reduced read/write time when accessing files.
Backup software can be used to perform regular automated backup of all your files. Taking a backup of your files can be useful in case you have lost a file or your files are corrupted.
File compression software is used to create compressed files or group of files to save space on your secondary storage or to save time when transferring these files across the Internet.
Anti-virus and Anti-malware software that scan the content of your hard-disk drive to identify and quarantine potentially infected files and other malware such as trojan horses, worms, spyware or ransomware.
Firewall Software can be used to scan all incoming and outgoing traffic from/to your computer and block malicious requests and potential hacking attempts.
Encryption software is used to encrypt sensitive information before either storing it (e.g. Password Management Software) or before sending it across the network/ the Internet