Question on encryption

Encryption would be necessary for the school to keep data secure. this is because much of the data shared between the staff and home will be private information, if this information inst encrypted then it can be seen by anyone that owns the public key and this would then be a breach of the data protection act. information has to be encrypted because it could contain sensitive information that if discovered by a middle person could cause problems for the sender or the receiver. for example, if staff are sending off information on a students grades being too low, and a middle man gains this information, then he could turn to a life of crime and bully the student over the low grades. this is not good in a school environment as students need to feel safe and secure. furthermore, if a students parents are sending in payment details such as their card number (in a likely case where school resources need to be purchased) then these could be at a risk to others.


encryption is needed so that people cannot read the data on the USB. data can be encrypted by using keys, these allow the sender to encrypt the message so that only the receiver can access the message using another key.
encryption can stop middle men from accessing the data as a the sender can encrypt the data with the receivers public key and then encrypt it again with their own private key. when this is sent off the outer encryption can be opened by using the senders public key- the purpose of this encryption is to show the receiver who sent the information. the inner encryption however can then only be opened by the receivers by using their private key. this is a way in which it stops middle men from accessing the data since they do not hold the private key of the receiver and cannot therefore access any of the information sent over.