Email Attachments and Risks
Examples of Work - Look at these examples of work from students. In small groups discuss
what level you would give them and suggest possible ways of improving the work to meet the
learning outcomes.
Pass Requirements
Briefly commented on the risks of opening email attachments
Merit Requirements
Summarised risks of receiving and opening email attachments. (Fuller summary,
perhaps with some examples)
Distinction Requirements
Summarise the risks of receiving and opening email attachments and suggest actions
that could be taken to reduce these risks.
Student 1 - Grade Awarded: Student 1
Pass Risk Of Opening Email
Merit
Distinction If you open your emails then a virus
could be sent to your computer, so don't
Suggested Improvement: open an email from someone you don't
know. To stop this you should install the
latest anti-virus software onto your
computer. You can also tell if it is a virus
by the size of the folder, if the folder size
is bigger than usual then it probably had
something attached to it.
Student 2 Student 2 - Grade Awarded:
Risks of Opening Email Attachments Pass
Merit
When you open emails there a several risks, you can get Distinction
viruses which can completely ruin your hardrive, and
break your computer. You could find yourself spending Suggested Improvement:
hundreds of pounds buying yourself a new computer, just
because you were to careless and didn't think of the risks.
You can avoid getting viruses by installing firewalls.
Some viruses spread themselves as email attachments.
Often they are disguised as something interesting, and
worth to open for example a free prize, Maybe a laptop or
the latest mp3 player. An email arrives with an attached
file that has a misleading file name or a message, so we
then open it in interest and our computer is attacked with
a virus. You can scan the files for viruses first, yes it takes
longer but it is definitely worth the wait.
Student 3 Student 3 - Grade
Awarded:
E-mails
Pass
There are many risks of opening emails from people that you may Merit
not know. Distinction
You have to look at the size of the attachment; you can do that buy Suggested
going to properties. If you don't know who the email is off it may Improvement:
crash your computer or give you a virus. You can avoid this by
using the latest anti virus software e.g. Norton anti-virus. Anti-virus
protection provides full scans of your PC to locate infected files of
any kind. It automates the discovery of virus and hacker
vulnerabilities in your PC's security system. Providing top-class
anti-virus and anti-spyware tools that fight security breaches for
every system on your computer, browser, etc, protecting your
privacy against even annoying aware and "hidden" viruses.
So what is a computer virus?
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and
infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user.
The original virus may modify the copies or the copies may modify
themselves, as occurs in a metamorphic virus. A virus can only
spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the
uninfected computer, for instance by a user sending it over a
network or the Internet, or by carrying it on a removable medium
such as a floppy disk, CD, or USB drive. Additionally, viruses can
spread to other computers by infecting files on a network file
system or a file system that is accessed by another computer.
Viruses are sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan
horses. A worm can spread itself to other computers without
needing to be transferred as part of a host, and a Trojan horse is a
file that appears harmless until executed.
Student 4 - Grade
Awarded:
Pass
Student 4
Merit
Distinction
If you get sent an email this is what you should check:
Suggested
Improvement: What size it is because if it has an attachment which is too large
it will take too long to come through
If you get sent an email from someone you don't know it could be
a virus if you think it's a virus don't open it
But sometimes the virus lets its self out when you receive the
email but if a virus escapes there are many sites with antivirus
software — for example
http://www.avguk.com/doc/welcome