Data Protection
Senior 2 · ICT
Data Protection
Lesson 2 of 5
14 min
Let's begin
Forty students share the twenty computers in your school's ICT lab. One afternoon, a student installs a "free" game from a flash drive. The next morning, every computer in the lab is slow and shows strange pop-ups. How could the school have stopped this? Part of the answer is to control who is allowed to do what on each computer.
A user account is a person's identity on a computer. It has a username, usually a password, and its own files and settings. Signing in to your account is called logging on. Signing out is logging off.
A privilege (also called a right or permission) is something an account is allowed to do, such as installing software or changing settings. Operating systems such as Windows and Linux group accounts by their privileges:
| Account type | What it can do | Who should have it |
|---|---|---|
| Administrator | Everything: install and remove software for all users, change system settings, create and delete other accounts, open any file. | Only the person who manages the computer, such as the ICT teacher or lab technician. |
| Standard user | Use installed programs, create and save their own files and change their own settings. Cannot install software for everyone or change other accounts. | Everyday users, including students and the administrator themselves for daily work. |
| Guest | Temporary use with very few privileges. Usually no password. Files may be deleted when the guest logs off. | A visitor who needs the computer for a short time. |
Some newer operating systems no longer offer a Guest account. There, a standard account with very few privileges does the same job.
Mr Habimana, the ICT teacher, sets up the lab computers:
Now, when a student tries to install the game, the computer asks for an administrator password. On Windows, this request is called User Account Control. Without the password, the installation stops, and so does the harmful program hidden inside it.
This follows the principle of least privilege: give every account only the privileges it needs, and no more. Harmful programs usually run with the privileges of the account that started them, so a standard account limits the damage they can do.
Tip
Admin for the manager, standard for the user, guest for the visitor
Even an administrator should do daily work, such as browsing and typing, in a standard account. Use the administrator account only for jobs that need it.
Which account type should a student in the ICT lab normally use?
Solution: A standard user account. It lets the student work and save files, but not install software or change system settings.
Uwase's cousin visits and wants to check her email for ten minutes on the family computer. Which account should she use, and why?
Solution: A guest account (or a limited standard account if there is no guest account). She gets only what she needs for a short time and cannot see the family's files.
Why is it risky for everyone in a cyber café to log on as administrator?
Solution: Any harmful program that one customer runs gets administrator privileges, so it can install itself deeply, change system settings and infect everyone who uses the computer afterwards.
Gatete goes to buy lunch and leaves his laptop open in the library. What should he have done?
Solution: Locked the screen, for example with Windows key + L, so that nobody can use his account while he is away.
Remember
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
