Team: 12
School: Sandia Preparatory
Area of Science: Computer, cybersecurity
Interim: This project is about finding a better way to protect your private information on your computer. We have been developing ways to encrypt people’s information on both their phone contacts and search browsers. We are looking into Python and JavaScript, using multi-level encryptions to recognize patterns like phone numbers and password codes, among other things. We plan to develop a program using JavaScript that will better protect people’s private information, as well as be easy to use.
Thus far, we have both been learning JavaScript and Python and starting to code the basics of our program. We have been conducting research on different types of encryptions and the most common losses of privacy. We have learned about the most common causes of data loss and privacy breaches, such as human error, malware, hard drive damage and power outages to name a few. Data loss is quite common, and usually very serious. According to our research, we have found that in a case of massive data loss:
94 percent of companies that experience severe data loss do not recover
51 percent of these companies close within two years of the data loss
43 percent of these companies do not reopen again
70 percent of small firms go out of business within a year of a large data loss incident
67 percent of data loss is caused by hard drive crashes or system failure
14 percent of data loss is caused by human error
10 percent of data loss is a result of software failure
This means that our program would focus largely on conserving data from hard drive crashes, as well as educating people against malwares and how to detect one before it causes damage. Malware is short for malicious software, and like the name suggests, it is either installed, downloaded, or sent to a computer with the express purpose of causing harm. The three most common types of malware are worms, viruses, and a trojan. Worms reproduce and spread from computer to computer. A virus, the best known, is a piece of code that inserts itself into the code of another program, then forces that program to take malicious action and spread itself and the virus inside it. A trojan, is a program that can’t reproduce itself but tricks people into spreading it, usually by an ad for something they want. By far the most common instance of malware is spam mail, which is usually in the form of a trojan. The best way to make certain that you don’t come into contact with malware is to download an antivirus program for your email. We are attempting to figure out a better way to encrypt email against malware.
Citation: Allan, Patrick. “What “Classified Information†Means, And What Happens If You Divulge Itâ€. lifehacker.com. https://lifehacker.com/what-classified-information-means-and-what-happens-i-1795303295 (11/25/20).
Citation: Wikipedia. “Turing Completenessâ€. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness (12/1/20)
Citation: Crucial.com “What is a Browser or Computer Plug-in, Add-on, or Extension?†Crucial.com. https://www.crucial.com/articles/pc-users/what-is-a-browser-plugin (12/4/20)
Citation: csoonline.com. “Malware explained: How to prevent, detect and recover from it†https://www.csoonline.com/. https://www.csoonline.com/article/3295877/what-is-malware-viruses-worms-trojans-and-beyond.html (12/18/20)
Citation:varonis.com “What is PGP Encryption and How Does It Work†varonis.com https://www.varonis.com/blog/pgp-encryption/ (12/8/20).
Citation: CTI. “10 Common Causes of Data Lossâ€. CTI, Consolidated Technologies, Inc. https://consoltech.com/blog/10-common-causes-of-data-loss/ (11/25/20)
Team Members:
Sponsoring Teacher: Joelle Shaw