3.4.4 Define the terms “standard protocol”, “data integrity” and “data
security” in the context of data transmission across a network.
Teaching Note:
Students must know that standard protocols are a set of rules that are
internationally recognized in the transmission of data. The difference
between data security and data integrity must also be recognized.
Students do not need to know specific or technical details such as the
ISO (OSI) system of layers, TCP/IP and so on.
Sample Question:
In relation to data transmission across a network:
(a) Define the term data security. [1 mark]
JSR Notes:
It says define.
And though that should be "nub said" for this one, there are a couple of things I should note.
"Standard protocol" has two words to it. They kind of go together, but actually, "protocol" could stand on it's own. A protocol is a set of rules. But by saying "standard protocol", we are implying international recognition of the set of rules we're talking about. There are lots of protocols of what you do when you leave a gym locker. In Canada you don't say anything, unless you know the people there. In the Czech Republic, the protocol is to say goodbye, period. Whereas in small-town Canada, you wave to everybody you pass by as you’re driving along (in your half-ton truck), that is not the protocol in the Czech Republic - at least I get no response when I try it... But, to keep on with the ridiculous, but instructive, it is a ***standard**** protocol the world over for McDonalds servers to ask you if you'd like to have an apple pie with your Big Mac. And it's standard protocol to say, No thanks.
And actually, to define "Big Mac" and other concrete things is easier than to define "data integrity" and "data security", rather more amorphous terms. So: Data integrity is the correctness of data; the degree to which it does not change, particularly when transmitted from one device to another. Data security is the degree to which data storage and data transmission are secure; that is the degree to which they do not get into the hands of others for whom they are not intended.
Meantime, you'll note the introduction of packets etc. in the text book. That's not really necessary here, though it is instructive to have a glimpse into the types of things that need to be standard in the set of rules that computers use to pass information back and forth. And we went over it, so I'd like you now to know this, but you'll note that more details on these kinds of things will be required and gone over in Topic 6.