When each Year 7–9 unit is taught. Select a unit to see its lessons.
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Cambridge IGCSE Computer Science (0478) across Years 10 and 11, 3 lessons a week. Select a topic to see what it covers and open its lessons.
GCSE year plan
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IB Diploma Computer Science for the 2027 exams, across Years 12 and 13, 4 lessons a week. It follows the IB's suggested order: A1 to A3 and then programming (B1 to B3) in Year 12; the internal assessment, A4 Machine learning and the Paper 1 case study in Year 13. HL extensions are taught alongside each topic.
A Level year plan
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Case study: investigate a real breach (assessed)
Year 9 · Cybersecurity · Lesson 6 of 6On device
What you'll learn
Identify the threats and weaknesses in a real cyber attack
Explain the impact of a breach on people and organisations
Recommend defences using correct IGCSE terms
Open the slidesSlides open in Google Slides present mode (full screen, laser pointer) for signed-in users with a plan or school access.
Fact file 1: WannaCry (May 2017). Ransomware spread around the world in a single day, reaching over 200,000 computers in about 150 countries. It also acted like a worm, spreading across networks by itself using a weakness in older versions of Windows. Microsoft had released an update to fix the weakness two months earlier, but many computers had not installed it. Files were encrypted and a payment in Bitcoin was demanded. In England, many NHS hospitals and GP surgeries were hit and thousands of appointments were cancelled. It was stopped when a security researcher found and switched on a hidden kill switch.
Fact file 2: TalkTalk (October 2015). Attackers got into a UK phone and internet company's customer database through old web pages that had a known weakness. They typed database commands into the website to make it hand over data. Personal details of about 157,000 customers were taken, including around 15,000 bank account numbers. The company was fined £400,000 by the UK data regulator for weak security. Several of the attackers were teenagers, who were later convicted.
Fact file 3: Equifax (2017). Attackers broke into a credit-checking company through a weakness in website software. A fix for the weakness had been released in March 2017 but had not been installed. The attackers stayed hidden for about two months and took personal data, including names, dates of birth and addresses, of about 147 million people, mostly in the USA. The company later agreed to pay up to about 700 million US dollars in a settlement.
Which fact file have you chosen?
B. Your report
Write your report on the computer with these five headings.
Heading
What to include
1. What happened?
When, who was attacked, what was taken or damaged
2. What type of threat?
Use key terms, e.g. ransomware, worm, hacking
3. Why was it possible?
The weakness, e.g. missing updates
4. What was the impact?
On people, on the organisation, money and trust
5. How could it have been stopped?
At least two defences, each with how it helps
C. Mark table
Tick each row you think you have met. Your teacher will check.
Success criteria
Marks
Me
Teacher
Accurate summary of what happened, in your own words