Legislation relevant to Computer Science

A youth centre is creating a network with 20 computers in a single building that will be connected in a Local Area Network (LAN).

Identify two reasons why this network will be a LAN and not a Wide Area Network (WAN).

The network design connects the computers in a mesh topology.

Describe what is meant by a mesh topology.

Describe one benefit and one drawback of the network using a mesh topology instead of a star topology.

The network design originally only had wired connections. The design is updated to include wireless connections via Wi-Fi.

Explain the benefits to the youth centre of also providing Wi-Fi connections.

The decision to use wired and/or wireless connections can affect the performance of the network.

Complete the table by explaining how each factor can affect the performance of a network.

The youth centre is going to store data about users and events using cloud storage.

Describe the drawbacks to the youth centre of storing the data on the cloud.

Users will have access to the internet.

Identify one device that will be required to allow the LAN to connect to the internet.

The computers will be allocated an IPv4 address.

Tick (✓) one box on each row to identify if the IPv4 address is valid or invalid.

When a user wants to access a website they enter the URL into the address bar of a web browser.

Describe the steps that take place to convert the URL into the website’s IP address.

Identify one piece of legislation that the youth centre will need to follow when storing users’ data and describe the steps they need to take to meet the requirements of this legislation.

Steps the youth centre needs to follow........

4* A computer programmer has developed a computer game that they want to release for users to download over the internet. The programmer needs to decide whether to release the game as open source or proprietary software.

Discuss the features, benefits and drawbacks of each type of licence for this program and make a recommendation to the programmer.

You should include the following in your answer:

• features of each licence

• legal and ethical issues of each licence

• benefits and drawbacks of each licence.

An artist has a computer that they use to create images.

Their computer has both hardware and software.

The hardware includes primary and secondary storage.

Explain why a computer needs both primary and secondary storage.

Give one example of a secondary storage device that the artist’s computer will have and an example of the data that will be stored on it.

Secondary storage device........

The computer has Virtual Memory (VM).

The table has four statements about VM. Not all of the statements are correct.

Tick (✓) the True column for the statements that are correct.

Re-write any statement that is incorrect in the False column by changing the statement to make it true.

The computer has an operating system and utility software.

State the need for utility software in a computer.

The artist uploads images to be displayed on a website. This is a client-server relationship.

Identify the computer that is acting as the client in this scenario and justify your choice.

Identify the computer that is acting as the server in this scenario and justify your choice.

The artist is working with a programmer on the development of a new piece of software.

The software will allow users to edit images on devices such as mobile telephones.

They are considering releasing the software as open source instead of proprietary.

Describe two benefits to the artist and programmer of releasing the software as proprietary.

Describe one benefit to the users of releasing the software as open source.

6* A shopping centre has a security system that includes CCTV cameras to record activities in the centre. The security system is being upgraded to include the use of facial recognition to identify, track the movements of and record individuals throughout the shopping centre.

Discuss the positive and negative impacts of this upgrade including:

• ethical issues

• privacy issues

• legal issues

A software development company wants to protect their computer systems and data from unauthorised access.

Identify two methods of physical security that the company could use to protect their computer systems.

Identify and describe two software-based security methods that the company can use to protect their computer systems and data.

Tick (✓) one box on each row to identify the legislation that would cover each of the given