A2.4 Network security questions for IB Computer Science
103 questions on Network security, written by Augment in the style of IB exam papers. Six of them are below in full, to answer on paper.
- IB Computer Science
- Part of A2 Networks
- SL and HL
Questions by paper and level
SL and HL questions are for students at either level. HL only questions cover what only HL students study.
| Paper | SL and HL | HL only | All |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | 65 | 37 | 102 |
| Paper 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Every paper | 66 | 37 | 103 |
Counted on
Questions to try
Written by Augment in the style of IB exams, not past papers. Answer them on paper, then check each one against its markscheme with a free account.
An accountancy firm lets its staff work from home two days a week. Staff connect to the firm's office network through a virtual private network (VPN) using their home broadband.
- (a)
Explain how the VPN keeps client financial data confidential as it travels between a member of staff's home and the office.
4 marks
- (b)
Outline one limitation of using the VPN for home working.
2 marks
A university's IT team has noticed repeated attempts to guess staff passwords on its online services. The team decides to apply computational thinking to the problem before choosing any software.
Explain how decomposition, pattern recognition and abstraction could each be used by the team to tackle this problem.
6 marks
A regional bus company has a head office and four bus depots spread across a large county. Each depot has its own network of computers used by the depot managers and the maintenance team.
- (a)
Identify the type of network used inside each depot.
1 mark
- (b)
Outline why a wide area network (WAN) is needed to connect the depots to the head office.
2 marks
- (c)
The company is considering two ways of building the WAN: leasing private lines between every depot and head office, or connecting each depot to the public internet and using a site-to-site VPN.
Describe how a site-to-site VPN would connect a depot to the head office.
3 marks
- (d)
A manager says: "Once the VPN is in place, our network will be safe from viruses."
Explain why the manager is wrong.
2 marks
- (e)
Evaluate the use of a site-to-site VPN over the internet rather than leased private lines for the bus company.
4 marks
An online pharmacy lets customers order prescriptions and pay by card on its website. All pages are served using the hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS).
- (a)
State one difference between HTTP and HTTPS.
1 mark
- (b)
Explain how HTTPS protects a customer's card details when they place an order.
3 marks
- (c)
Outline one risk to the customer's data that HTTPS does not protect against.
2 marks
Patients on a hospital ward wear a small sensor patch that measures heart rate. The patch sends its readings by Bluetooth to the patient's bedside monitor, which is connected to the ward's LAN.
- (a)
Outline two characteristics of the personal area network (PAN) formed by the patch and the bedside monitor.
2 marks
- (b)
Explain one reason why the hospital must consider the security of the PAN.
2 marks
A secondary school has 900 students. Students bring their own laptops to lessons and connect to the school Wi-Fi; teachers use desktop computers in classrooms. Parents log in to an online portal to view reports.
- (a)
Identify two network devices, other than a router, that are needed so that students' laptops can use the school Wi-Fi to reach the internet.
2 marks
- (b)
Outline the function of the school's hardware firewall.
2 marks
- (c)
Describe how a student's laptop is given an IP address when it connects to the school Wi-Fi.
3 marks
- (d)
Explain why the parents' portal should use HTTPS rather than HTTP.
3 marks
- (e)
The school is considering moving its students' files from servers in the school to a cloud storage service. Evaluate this proposal.
5 marks
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More questions in Networks
- A2.1Network fundamentals
- A2.2Network architecture
- A2.3Data transmissions
- A2.4Network securityThis page
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