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How can you protect your personal information?

Glowing blue padlock among lines of binary code

Glowing blue padlock among lines of binary code (LuckyStep48, iStockphoto)

Glowing blue padlock among lines of binary code

Glowing blue padlock among lines of binary code (LuckyStep48, iStockphoto)

Technology & Engineering
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PE 9 Science Grade 9 (revised 2018) Decisions and Perspectives
PE 10 Science 421A (2019) Decisions and Perspectives
PE 12 Chemistry 621A (draft 2021) Decisions and Perspectives DP1
PE 11 Chemistry 521A (draft 2021) Decisions and Perspectives DP1
ON 10 Digital Technology and Innovations in the Changing World (2023) A. Computational Thinking and Making Connections
ON 10 Digital Technology and Innovations in the Changing World (2023) B. Hardware, Software, and Innovations

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Protect your personal information with different types of encryption.

Materials:

You can build your encryption either on a computer or on a piece of paper!

Some things that might be handy:

What to do!

  • Start by writing out the name of your favourite colour. This represents your personal information. It’s important to protect your personal information, especially when you put it online. This is where encryption comes in. Encryption is a way of disguising your information. The more different ways you can disguise it, the better.
  • A simple first step to make it harder for anyone to know what your colour is is to write your colour backwards. This isn’t an actual form of encryption but it can make it harder for someone to guess it.
  • Now it’s up to you to decide how many layers of encryption you want to use, which types you want to use and in which order.

Some common methods for encryption include:

  • Shift Ciphers: Where you replace each letter with another letter that is a specific number of spaces away in the alphabet. Cryptograph wheels can be used to code and decode this type of encryption.
  • Binary Code
  • Morse Code
  • Can you think of any others?

Each type of encryption that you apply to your information makes it harder for someone else to figure it out. Keep in mind though that you’ll need a way to be able to decrypt (unscramble) your message if you are sending it to someone. This decryption process also introduces the possibility of mistakes if the information is not decrypted correctly. This added effort and possibility for error are the main reasons why multiple layers of encryption may not be the best solution for every type of information online. Some things may be secur

With our world becoming more and more dependent on technology, the amount of information that we put online grows every day. Any of this digital information can be at risk of being hacked, stolen, or even held for ransom. That’s why it’s more important than ever to critically think about the information that we put online and how we can best protect it!

Try making your own cipher code for extra security!

Similar to a shift cipher, you can make your own substitution cipher based on a code phrase where letters are substituted based on this code phrase instead of a certain number of letters away in the alphabet.

  • Make a 13-letter phrase with no repeated letters and write it out in a line.
  • Under this phrase, write the remaining unused letters in alphabetical order with one under each letter of your phrase. This is now your substitution scheme - letters that are above and below each other will be substituted for each other.

For example, if my code phrase was “public servant”, I would write it as shown below and each column shows the letters that get substituted for each other.

P U B L I C S E R V A N T
D F G H J K M O Q W X Y Z

Try making your own!

What's Happening?

Each type of encryption that you apply to your information makes it harder for someone else to figure it out. Keep in mind though that you’ll need a way to be able to decrypt (unscramble) your message if you are sending it to someone. This decryption process also introduces the possibility of mistakes if the information is not decrypted correctly. This added effort and possibility for error are the main reasons why multiple layers of encryption may not be the best solution for every type of information online. Some things may be secur

Why Does It Matter?

With our world becoming more and more dependent on technology, the amount of information that we put online grows every day. Any of this digital information can be at risk of being hacked, stolen, or even held for ransom. That’s why it’s more important than ever to critically think about the information that we put online and how we can best protect it!

Investigate Further!

Try making your own cipher code for extra security!

Similar to a shift cipher, you can make your own substitution cipher based on a code phrase where letters are substituted based on this code phrase instead of a certain number of letters away in the alphabet.

  • Make a 13-letter phrase with no repeated letters and write it out in a line.
  • Under this phrase, write the remaining unused letters in alphabetical order with one under each letter of your phrase. This is now your substitution scheme - letters that are above and below each other will be substituted for each other.

For example, if my code phrase was “public servant”, I would write it as shown below and each column shows the letters that get substituted for each other.

P U B L I C S E R V A N T
D F G H J K M O Q W X Y Z

Try making your own!

Related Topics

Creative Thinking
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Cryptography
Cybersecurity