Protection Software Research

Overview

Students will read about and share their findings on various anti-virus, and other software designed to protect a computer from attackers.

Purpose

Anti-virus and other software is used to keeps computers safe and prevent issues related to viruses, malware, and other harmful software.

Many people don’t use this software or only use the software that came with their computer. Students should look at the options available and determine their recommendations.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify the purpose of anti-virus and other software.
• Recommend a software product based on related factors.

Preparation

• Make copies of worksheet or distribute digitally.
  • Antivirus Software Research

Links

• For the Teacher

• For the Students

  • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/cyber/

Vocabulary

Teaching Guide

Getting Started:

• Anatomy of a Virus (Stuxnet)
  • https://vimeo.com/25118844

Activity:

Lookup and research software for:

• Antivirus
• Anti-spyware
• Adware, Spyware
• Firewalls
• Hardware maintenance
  • Defragment
  • Disk Clearner

Fill out accompanying worksheet.

• Nova Cyber Labs
  • When students complete the research, go through the nova cyber activity.

Wrap-up

Discussion:

• What tools do you currently use on your computer?
• What are tools you would like to install and use going forward?
• What would you recommend to your parents or grand parents?

Everyday Cybercrime

• http://www.ted.com/talks/james_lyne_everyday_cybercrime_and_what_you_can_do_about_it

Assessment Questions

What is the purpose of each:

• Firewall
• Anti-virus software
• Anti-spyware

Extended Learning

EFF Browser Extensions Lesson

• https://sec.eff.org/topics/https-everywhere-and-privacy-badger

EFF End-to-end Encryption communication

• https://sec.eff.org/topics/e2e-encrypted-apps

EFF How to use Signal Lesson

• https://sec.eff.org/topics/how-to-install-signal

Standards Alignment

Indiana - CS3S-4.3

License

Cyber Security Curriculum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.