Cyberethics

Objective Type Questions

Question 1

Policies of companies related to protection of personal information of users online are meant to safeguard ............... of users.

1. Safety
2. Security
3. Privacy
4. Well being

Answer

Privacy

Reason — By implementing privacy policies, companies protect personal information of users, such as their name, contact details, financial data, or browsing history from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, thus, maintaining their privacy rights and preventing misuse or exploitation of their data.

Question 2

Credit card fraud may include :

1. Stealing of credit card
2. Unauthorized and illegal use of credit card
3. Both of the above
4. Neither

Answer

Both of the above

Reason — Credit card fraud may include both stealing of credit card and unauthorized and illegal use of credit card.

Question 3

Using someone else's twitter handle to post something, will be termed as :

1. Fraud
2. Identity theft
3. Online stealing
4. Violation

Answer

Identity theft

Reason — Using someone else's twitter handle to post something, will be termed as identity theft.

Question 4

Standard security protocol that establishes encrypted links between a web server and a browser is called ............... .

1. Online safety technology
2. SDT technology
3. Web encryption technology
4. Secure sockets layer technology

Answer

Secure sockets layer technology

Reason — Standard security protocol that establishes encrypted links between a web server and a browser is called Secure sockets layer technology.

Question 5

Things like these, e.g., online email account, social media account or handle, online shopping account, online photo sharing account, trademarks, patents, own registered domain name etc. are collectively called ............... .

1. Online identity
2. Online estate
3. Digital identity
4. Digital property

Answer

Digital property

Reason — Things like these, e.g., online email account, social media account or handle, online shopping account, online photo sharing account, trademarks, patents, own registered domain name etc. are collectively called digital property.

Question 6

A ............... is an economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of, or impact of ICT.

1. Digital inequality
2. Difference of services
3. Digital divide
4. Differential divide

Answer

Digital divide

Reason — A digital divide is an economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of, or impact of ICT.

Question 7

Preeti needs to send a very confidential message to her colleague in office over a secure channel. She uses a technique wherein an actual message (which is in readable form) can be converted into an unreadable message. This concept is known as ................ .

1. Encryption
2. Decryption
3. Plagiarism
4. Data Security

Answer

Encryption

Reason — The concept of converting a readable message into an unreadable form is known as encryption.

Question 8

Which of the following techniques can be used for security of data ?

1. Authentication
2. Authorisation
3. Encryption
4. All of the Above

Answer

All of the Above

Reason — Authentication, authorisation and encryption techniques can be used for security of data.

Question 9

Which of the following is not a cybercrime ?

1. Plagiarism
2. Phishing
3. Using licensed software
4. Hacking

Answer

Using licensed software

Reason — Using licensed software is not a cyber crime. Plagiarism, phishing and hacking are cyber crimes.

Question 10

Secure data transmission means :

1. Data is accessible by any unauthorized person during transmission.
2. Data cannot be accessed by any unauthorized person during transmission.
3. Transmission of data happens easily
4. No one can access it

Answer

Data cannot be accessed by any unauthorized person during transmission.

Reason — Secure data transmission means the data can not be accessed by any unauthorized person during transmission.

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT an example of Intellectual Property rights ?

1. Patent
2. Trademark
3. Password
4. Industrial Design

Answer

Password

Reason — Password is not an example of Intellectual Property rights because it does not represent a legal protection for creations or inventions. Patent, Trademark and Industrial Design can be used to protect one's intellectual property rights.

Question 12

A ............... is the right given by the government to an inventor to protect his/her invention from being used/copied for a fixed period of time.

1. Copyright
2. Intellectual Property
3. Patent
4. Trademark

Answer

Patent

Reason — A patent is the right given by the government to an inventor to protect his/her invention from being used/copied for a fixed period of time.

Question 13

Arun clicks on a link received in a message on his phone which promises him a complimentary trip to a destination of his choice. He forwarded this message to his friend, Panshul and asked him to do the same. But Panshul refuses and tells Arun that his personal and private information, such as online account names, login information and passwords can be stolen and he should be careful of such ............... attacks.

1. Phishing
2. Spamming
3. Scamming
4. Plagiarism

Answer

Phishing

Reason — Phishing is a deceptive technique used by cybercriminals to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, or financial details.

Question 14

Charlene is an artist. She displays her artwork on the Internet using her website to attract buyers. One day while browsing the Internet she discovers that another artist has displayed her painting portraying it as his own. Which right of Charlene was infringed ?

1. Digital Privacy right
2. Intellectual Property right
3. Digital Property right
4. Intellectual Privacy right

Answer

Intellectual Property right

Reason — Intellectual property rights are the rights of the owner of information to decide how much information is to be exchanged, shared or distributed. Also it gives the owner a right to decide the price for doing so. Here, the artwork is the intellectual right of Charlene.

Question 15

Which of these is NOT an example of Cyber bullying ?

1. Copying a classmate's personal photo against his/her permission from his social media account and sending it to other friends on their emails
2. Bullying a classmate in the school corridor
3. Threatening someone on whatsapp
4. Posting mean messages about someone on their social media

Answer

Bullying a classmate in the school corridor

Reason — Cyber bullying refers to an act of bullying on internet. Bullying a classmate in the school corridor doesn't involve internet. Hence, it cannot be considered as cyber bullying.

The other three acts involve the use of internet for bullying. Hence, they come under cyber bullying.

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT a reason for the digital divide in different demographic regions ?

1. Cost of Technology
2. Lack of information
3. Lack of access to high performance computers
4. Lack of access to the disabled

Answer

Lack of access to high performance computers

Reason — Cost of Technology, lack of information and lack of access to the disabled are reasons of digital divide. Lack of access to high performance computers is not a reason for digital divide as information can be accessed even through a normally functioning computer or mobile phone.

Question 17

One of the most popular methods of encrypting data is Caesar cipher where original data is replaced by a key character like if key is -2 than 'a' will be replaced by ' y' , 'b' is replaced by 'z' and so on.
If the key is 2 i.e., every letter is replaced by its next to next letter means the letter 'A' will be replaced by 'C', the letter 'B' is replaced by 'D', and so on then what will be the replacement of the word 'CoMpUtEr'.

1. Eciorwygt
2. eQOrwVtG
3. eqroWVTG
4. Eq0rWvGt

Answer

EqOrWvGt

Reason — According to the key, each letter of CoMpUtEr is replaced as follows:

C → E
o → q
M → O
p → r
U → W
t → v
E → G
r → t

Question 18

Which of the following is a way to avoid Plagiarism when using material from the Internet ?

(i) Citing

(ii) Paraphrasing

(iii) Referencing

(iv) Embedding

Choose the correct option :

1. (i) and (ii) only
2. Only (i)
3. (i), (ii) and (iii) only
4. (ii) and (iv) only

Answer

(i), (ii) and (iii) only

Reason — To avoid plagiarism, while referring to someone's else's creation, we must always give credit whenever we use:

1. Another person's idea, opinion, or theory
2. Quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words
3. Paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words.

Question 19

............... is a software for which exclusive rights of modification in the source code remain with the owner.

1. Free Open-Source Software
2. Freeware
3. Open-Source Software
4. Proprietary Software

Answer

Proprietary Software

Reason — Proprietary Software is a software for which exclusive rights of modification in the source code remain with the owner.

Question 20

Pratham is excited to use a new software which is freely available to download but he cannot modify or change the source code. Pratham is using :

1. Freeware
2. Open-Source Software
3. Both (1) and (2)
4. None of the above

Answer

Freeware

Reason — A freeware software is available free of cost and allows copying and further distribution, but not modification and its source code is not available.

Question 21

Which one of the following software comes under Open-Source Software category ?

1. Photoshop
2. MS-Paint
3. Linux
4. Windows

Answer

Linux

Reason — The source code of Linux is available to customers and it can be modified and redistributed without any limitation.

Theoretical Questions

Question 1

What do you understand by privacy of data in e-commerce context ?

Answer

In e-commerce context, privacy of data is related to a company's policies on the use of user data. An e-commerce company must clearly state how it intends to use the data collected from the customer and whether the customer can restrict the use of personal information.

Question 2

What role does consumer consent play in implementing the privacy of user data ?

Answer

Consumer consent plays a vital role in implementing the privacy of consumer data. Consumer consent decides what information can and cannot be used. The consent also relates to whether the given information can be further exploited.

Question 3

What is the responsibility of e-commerce merchant to ensure before getting user's consent about his/her details' usage ?

Answer

Before getting user's consent about his/her details' usage, the e-commerce merchant must ensure the following:

1. The merchant must clearly state about how the user data will be used, in the terms and conditions of its site.
2. The merchant must ensure that the user has gone through the terms and conditions given on its site prior to making any transactions.
3. The merchant must assure the user about data safety by implementing proper data safety and security measures such as https protocol and other security mechanism so that users' data is safe from hackers too.

Question 4

What is online fraud ? Give some examples.

Answer

Fraud committed using the Internet is called Online fraud. Online fraud may occur in many forms such as :

1. Non-delivered goods
2. Non-existent companies
3. Stealing information
4. Fraudulent payments

Some examples of online fraud are:

1. Credit card fraud where credit card details are stolen from a user's online activities and the money is used without the user's knowledge.
2. Using someone's credentials to watch an online show or movie.
3. Non-delivery of goods after payment is another example. On investigation, a user may find that the company or website was fraud.

Question 5

What is credit card fraud ?

Answer

In credit card frauds, the credit card details of a user such as his credit card number, name, CVV, transaction pin, etc., are stolen from his/her online activities and then some payment frauds are carried out with this stolen information.

Question 6

What is identity theft ?

Answer

Online identity theft refers to an act of stealing someone's personal information such as name, login details etc. and then posing as that person online. Malicious activities like fraudulent posts, rumour mongering, riots fueling, fraudulent financial transactions, etc. can be carried out through identity theft.

Question 7

What measures can you take to curb online frauds ?

Answer

The measures that can be taken to curb online frauds are as follows:

1. A monitoring official body that ensures the authenticity of e-commerce company and delivery of goods/services as promised.
2. Strong security mechanism by the e-commerce site and payment gateways to prevent stealing of crucial information.
3. Official guidelines and safeguards on the selling of users' data to third parties.

Question 8

What is safe data transmission ? How can you ensure secure data transmission ?

Answer

Secure data transmission means applying enough technical safeguards so that data travels safely to its target, without being compromised or eavesdropped.
To ensure secure data transmission, following techniques are applied:

1. SSL secure data transmission — SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a standard security protocol which ensures data security by establishing encrypted online links between a web server and a browser.
2. Data encryption — Encrypted data when sent over Internet is hard to steal and hence is safer.
3. Using Safe protocols — such as for files, secure FTP protocol.

Question 9

What is intellectual property ? What do you understand by intellectual property rights ?

Answer

Any piece of information is produced or created with a lot of efforts and it consumes a lot of time. Creative creations of mind such as patents, literary and creative arts, copyrights, trademarks etc. are known as intellectual property.

Intellectual property rights are the rights of the owner of information to decide how much information is to be exchanged, shared or distributed. Also it gives the owner a right to decide the price for doing so.

Question 10

What is plagiarism ? How can you avoid plagiarism while referring to someone's else's creation ?

Answer

Plagiarism is stealing someone else's intellectual work, such as an idea, literary work or academic work etc., and representing it as our own work without giving credit to creator or without citing the source of information.

To avoid plagiarism while referring to someone else's creation, we must give credit whenever we use:

1. Another person's idea, opinion, or theory;
2. Quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words; or
3. Paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words

Question 11

What is digital property ? What are the threats to digital properties ?

Answer

Digital property (or digital assets) refers to any information about us or created by us that exists in digital form, either online or on an electronic storage device.

For example, any online personal accounts such as email, personal websites and blogs, domain names registered in our name, intellectual properties etc.

The common threats to digital properties are as follows:

1. Digital software penetration tools — There are many software penetration tools such as cracks and keygens which enable unauthorized users to freely access a software without actually paying for it.
2. Stealing and plagiarizing codes of digital properties — Other developers may steal a software's source code and use it to build their own versions of it, and then sell it under their own company name.

Question 12

How can you protect your digital properties ?

Answer

The following ways to ensure protection of your digital properties:

1. Anti-Tamper Solutions — They use a host of advanced technologies to prevent hacking, reverse-engineering or manipulating digital properties such as utility tools, software, apps, video games and so forth.
2. Legal Clauses — There must be a transparent clause in the software's Terms of Service that prohibits the scraping of the software's source code for reuse.
3. Limit the sharing of software code — One should share software code only with trusted individuals who are part of development team. Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution can protect a software from being scraped for source code using decompilers etc.

Question 13

Expand the terms:

1. OSI
2. FLOSS
3. FSF
4. GNU
5. GPL
6. W3C
7. OSS

Answer

1. OSI — Open Source Initiative.
2. FLOSS — Free Libre/Livre and Open Source Software.
3. FSF — Free Software Foundation.
4. GNU — GNU is Not Unix.
5. GPL — General Public Licence.
6. W3C — World Wide Web Consortium.
7. OSS — Open Source Software.

Question 14

What are open source based software ?

Answer

Open source software is the software whose source code is available and which can be copied, modified and redistributed as well. There may or may not be charges payable for open source software.

In open source software, the source code is freely available to the customer. For example, Linux.

Question 15(i)

Compare and Contrast: Free software and Open source software

Answer

Free software is the software which is free of cost, which can be copied, modified and redistributed as well and whose source code is available. No charges are payable for free software.

Open source software, on the other hand, is the software, whose source code is available and which can be copied, modified and redistributed as well. There may or may not be charges payable for open source software.

Question 15(ii)

Compare and Contrast: OSS and FLOSS

Answer

OSS refers to Open Source Software whose source code is made available to the public, allowing anyone to view, modify, and distribute the code. However, OSS does not necessarily mean that the software is completely free of charge. It only means that the source code is available for others to access and modify.

FLOSS refers to Free Libre/Livre and Open Source Software. The term FLOSS is used to refer to a software which is both free software as well as open source software. In addition to being Open Source, FLOSS also emphasises that no charges are applicable to the user for using and distributing the software.

Question 15(iii)

Compare and Contrast: Proprietary software and Free software

Answer

Proprietary software is the software that is neither open nor freely available. Its use is regulated and further distribution and modification is either forbidden or requires special permission by the supplier or vendor. Source code of proprietary software is normally not available. These softwares need to be purchased before they can be used.

Free software means that the software is freely accessible and can be freely used, changed, improved, copied and distributed by all who wish to do so. No payments are needed to be made for free software.

Question 15(iv)

Compare and Contrast: Freeware and Shareware

Answer

The term freeware is generally used for software, which is available free of cost and which allows copying and further distribution, but not modification and whose source code is not available. The right to use the software is limited to certain types of users for instance, for private and non-commercial purposes.

Shareware is a software which is made available with the right to redistribute copies, but it is stipulated that if one intends to use the software, often after a certain period of time then a license fee should be paid. The source code of shareware is not available and modifications to the software are not allowed.

Question 15(v)

Compare and Contrast: Freeware and Free software.

Answer

The term freeware is generally used for software, which is available free of cost and which allows copying and further distribution, but not modification and whose source code is not available. The right to use the software is limited to certain types of users for instance, for private and non-commercial purposes.

Free software means that the software is freely accessible and can be freely used, changed, improved, copied and distributed by all who wish to do so. No payments are needed to be made for free software.

Question 16

What is public domain software ?

Answer

Public-domain software is free and can be used without restrictions. It is, by its very nature, outside the scope of copyright and licensing.

Question 17

Name some common public domain software licenses.

Answer

Some open source licenses are Creative Commons License, General Public License and Apache License.

Question 18

What is GPL software license ? How is it different from LGPL software license ?

Answer

General Public Licence (GPL) grants and guarantees a wide range of rights to developers who work on open-source projects. With GPL, users can do the following:

1. Copy the software as many times as needed.
2. Distribute the software in any way
3. Charge a fee to distribute the software after modifying it but the software should still be under GNU GPL.
4. Make any type of modifications to the software

The LGPL and GPL licenses differ with one major exception. With LGPL the requirement that you have to release software extensions in open GPL has been removed.

Question 19

What is freedom of information ?

Answer

Freedom of information refers to the right to access information available on public platforms.

Question 20

What are the major factors behind digital divide ?

Answer

The major factors behind digital divide are:

1. Technology reach — Technological reach is not the same all across India, especially in rural and remote areas.
2. Digital Literacy — The rate of digital literacy is far less in rural areas as compared to urban areas. People in remote areas and rural areas are picking up with digital literacy, now.

Question 21

Write any one application each of e-Governance and e-commerce.

Answer

An application of e-Governance is filing of online application forms for Aadhaar card, passport, etc.

An application of e-commerce is that we can do online shopping.

Application Oriented Questions

Question 1

Kuhu has just learnt how to do online banking. Name any two precautions that she should take to prevent online fraud.

Answer

Two precautions that Kuhu should take to prevent online fraud are:

1. She should not share her user id and password with anyone.
2. She should avoid doing transactions from cyber cafe and other public places.

Question 2

Companies spend a lot on secure data transmission that requires enough technical safeguards.

(a) What do you understand by secure data transmission ?

(b) Why do you think companies spend so much on secure data transmission ?

(c) What are common technical safeguards that are applied to ensure secure data transmission ?

Answer

(a) Secure data transmission means applying enough technical safeguards so that data travels safely to its target, without being compromised or eavesdropped.

(b) Companies spend heavily on secure data transmission due to the following reasons:

1. Protection of sensitive information such as customer information, trade secrets, financial records, or intellectual property.
2. Many industries have stringent regulatory requirements regarding data protection and privacy. They invest in secure data transmission to comply with these regulations and avoid penalties.
3. Companies demonstrate their commitment to protecting customer data and maintaining trust.
4. Implementing secure data transmission helps mitigate potential financial implications.

(c) To ensure secure data transmission, following techniques are applied :

1. SSL secure data transmission — SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a standard security protocol which ensures data security by establishing encrypted online links between a web server and a browser. It encrypts the transmitted data and keeps it secure.
2. Data encryption — Encrypted data when sent over Internet is hard to steal and hence is safer.
3. Use Safe protocols — Use safe FTP protocol for files wherever possible, as safe protocols use some safety shells such as SSH.

Question 3

These days it is equally important to safeguard digital properties:

(a) What are digital properties?

(b) Why is above given statement/fact important?

(c) What are possible threats to digital properties?

(d) How can digital properties be safeguarded?

Answer

(a) Digital property (or digital assets) refers to any information about us or created by us that exists in digital form, either online or on an electronic storage device.

For example, any online personal accounts such as email, personal websites and blogs, domain names registered in our name, intellectual properties etc.

(b) Digital property rights lie with the owner. Legally a person who has created it or the owner who has got it developed by paying legally is the legal owner of a digital property. Only the owner can use and decide who all and in what form can his/her digital asset may be used by others, whether by making payments or by buying it or by obtaining its license or usage rights etc. Thus, it is important to safeguard digital properties.

(c) The common threats to digital properties are as follows:

1. Digital software penetration tools — There are many software penetration tools such as cracks and keygens which enable unauthorized users to freely access a software without actually paying for it.
2. Stealing and plagiarizing codes of digital properties — Other developers may steal a software's source code and use it to build their own versions of it, and then sell it under their own company name.

(d) The following are the ways to ensure protection of digital properties:

1. Anti-Tamper Solutions — They use a host of advanced technologies to prevent hacking, reverse-engineering or manipulating digital properties such as utility tools, software, apps, video games and so forth.
2. Legal Clauses — There must be a transparent clause in the software's Terms of Service that prohibits the scraping of the software's source code for reuse.
3. Limit the sharing of software code — One should share software code only with trusted individuals who are part of development team. Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution can protect a software from being scraped for source code using decompilers etc.

Question 4

Freedom of information refers to right to access information available on public platforms.

(a) What are the problems that are a hinderance in freedom of information for all?

(b) What are the ways to ensure freedom of information for all?

Answer

(a) There are several problems that hinder freedom of information for all:

1. Technology reach — Technological reach is not the same all across India, especially in rural and remote areas.
2. Digital Literacy — The rate of digital literacy is far less in rural areas as compared to urban areas. People in remote areas and rural areas are picking up with digital literacy, now.
3. Language and literacy barriers — Limited availability of information in different languages or low literacy rates can hinder individuals from accessing and understanding relevant information.

(b) To ensure freedom of information for all, the following approaches can be taken:

1. Legal safeguards — Enact and uphold laws that protect freedom of information.
2. Open data initiatives — Governments and institutions can proactively make information available to the public through open data initiatives, ensuring transparency and accessibility.
3. Strengthening digital infrastructure — Bridge the digital divide by expanding internet access, providing affordable connectivity, and promoting digital literacy programs.
4. Fact-checking and media literacy — Promote media literacy and critical thinking skills to help individuals identify and evaluate reliable sources of information.
5. International cooperation — Encourage collaboration between countries and organizations to promote freedom of information.