Web Application and Security

Computer Accessibility refers to the user friendliness of a computer system.

When a combination of hardware and software enables a person with a disability or impairment to use a computer. It
is known as Assistive Technology.

Types of impairment that impact computer usage are:

 Visual impairment such as low-vision, complete or partial blindness, and color blindness.

 Hearing impairment including deafness. Difficulty in using audio content

 Mobility impairment such as paralysis, cerebral palsy, or carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injury.

 Speech impairment includes difficulty in adding audio input

 Specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism.

Accessibility Options in Control Panel are used to customize the way your keyboard, display, or mouse function.

Steps to launch Accessibility Options: Click Settings> Ease of Access> Other options

Accessibility feature for vision-

 Narrator- is a screen reading which reads out aloud the text on the computer screen
 Magnifier- is a feature that makes part or the entire computer screen bigger so that the use can see words
and images better
Settings> Ease Of Access> Narrator/Magnifier> On/Off

Accessibility feature for hearing-

 Adjusting sound from speakers or headphones

 Adjusting sound through command- Settings> System> Sound
 Using text alternative- Settings> Ease of Access> Narrator> Sounds you hear
 Enabling closed captioning- textual representation of audio in a TV program
Settings> Ease of Access> Closed Captioning

Accessibility feature for mobility-

 Sticky Keys is an accessibility feature, it allows the user to press and release a modifier key, such as Shift, Ctrl,
Alt, or the Windows key, and have it remained active until any other key is pressed.
 Filter Keys is an accessibility function that tells the keyboard to ignore brief or repeated keystrokes.
 ToggleKeys is when the computer emits sound cues when the locking keys (Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll
Lock) are pressed.
Settings> Ease of Access> Keyboard
 Easier to use Mouse- Settings> Ease of Access> Mouse
~Change color and size of pointer
~Turn on Mouse keys- which is a feature that lets you control movement of mouse through numeric keypad

Accessibility feature for Speech-

 Text-to-speech is a feature which converts typed text into audio

Settings> Time & Language> Speech

Accessibility feature for Learning and Literacy-

 Turn off animation and background images- Settings> Ease of Access> Other options
 Turn off Live Tiles
 Maximise windows- F11

A computer network is a collection of computers and other hardware components interconnected by

communication channels (cables or satellites) that allow sharing of resources and information.
Networks in which all computers have an equal status are called peer to peer (P2P) networks.

Networks in which certain computers have special dedicated tasks, providing services to other computers (in the
network) are called client server networks.

The computer(s) which provide services are called servers and the ones that use these services are called clients.

There are three major types of network:

 A local area network (LAN) is one which connects computers and devices in a limited geographical area.
Usually local area networks offer very high speeds and are used for connecting computers and peripherals
such as printers, scanners, etc.

 A metropolitan area network (MAN) is one which is spread over a city such as cable TV

 A wide area network (WAN) is one which are spread across countries The Internet is the most popular WAN,
and is used by businesses, governments, non-profit organizations, individual consumers, artists, entertainers,
and many others.

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to
serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic,
business, and government networks.

It is used for education, to gather information for research and general information, access complex databases,
maintain contact with friends and relatives, and entertainment.

World Wide Web (abbreviated as WWW or W3, commonly known as the Web), is a system of interlinked hypertext
documents accessed via the Internet. It allows us to view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other
multimedia, and navigate between them via hyperlinks

Information is stored on web servers referred to as web pages are retrieved by using a web browser. A Web Browser
is a software used to view Web sites and acts as an interface between the user and the World Wide Web. A Web
server is a computer that stores web sites and their related files for viewing on the Internet.

Advantages of networking:

 Data Sharing; allows sharing of data

 Files Transfer; users can send text files, spread sheets, documents, presentations, audio files, video files, etc.
to other users.

 Hardware Sharing; printers, scanners, and other hardware components can be shared.

 Internet Access Sharing; a single internet connection can be shared across many computers on a network

 Usage of network-based applications; web browsers, email clients, chat application, audio & video calling,
etc.

Internet connections are provided by Internet Service Providers. An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization
which provides you with access to the Internet via a dial-up (using modem) or direct (hard wired) or wireless
connection.
A modem is a device that converts digital computer signals into a form (analog signals) that can travel over phone
lines. It also re-converts the analog signals back into digital signals. The word modem is derived from its function
MOdulator/DEModulator.

There are different types of Internet Connectivity available today; it can be widely categorized into wired and wireless
access.

Some of the commonly used Internet connectivity are:

 Dial-up; uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an
Internet service provider

(ISP) via telephone lines using a device called MODEM.

Dial-up connections; extremely slow and in most cases, it is replaced by a high speed connection such as DSL or
Cable Modem

 Digital subscriber line(DSL); provide Internet access by transmitting digital data over wires of a local
telephone network.

 Cable Internet Access; a form of broadband Internet access that uses the cable television infrastructure.

 3G; short for 3rd Generation is a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunication
services and networks. High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is 3G mobile telephony communications
protocol that allows higher data transfer speeds and capacity.

 WiMAX; WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communications standard
designed to provide mobile broadband connectivity across cities and countries through a variety of devices.
It is a long range system.

 WI-Fi; a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly over a network,
including high-speed Internet connections.

Steps of transfer of a piece of data:

1. Each packet is sent from computer to computer until it finds its destination.

2. At the destination, the packets are examined. If any packets are missing or damaged, a message is sent asking
for them to be re-sent.

3. The packets are now reassembled into their original form.

Instant messaging (IM) is a form of communication over the Internet that offers an instantaneous transmission of
text-based messages from sender to receiver, these include file transfers, audio chat, video calling and conferencing,
sharing desktops, etc. apart from standard text chat.

Key Features of an instant messaging are as follows:

 Text Messages can be sent to one or more person (Similar to SMS)

 Audio calling and conferencing.

 Video calling and conferencing.

 File transfers (Not limited to documents, spread sheets, audio files, video files, etc.)

 Message history (Save messages for future reference).

There are two kinds of instant messaging software – Application based and Web based.

 Application based instant messaging software is downloaded and installed on user’s computer. Eg. Google
Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype

 Web based instant messaging software is accessed using browsers. Eg. Meebo, Yahoo! Messenger from Web,
IMO

A blog is a discussion style site used by non-technical (or technical users) users for creating personal web pages. Blogs
are similar to an online personal diary and simple to use. It usually managed using a web browser and this requires
active internet connection. Eg. www.WordPress.com, www.blogger.com

There are several free offline blog editors available that can be downloaded and installed on the local computer such
as:

 Qumana

 Windows Live Writer

 Blogdesk

Online transactions deals with transfer of money over the internet. Many protocols and security measures have
been adopted to ensure the safe and secure OLTP ( Online Transaction process ). NEFT/ RTGS are some other
examples of online funds transfer.

Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce where customers can buy or sell goods over the Internet.

Online shopping could be useful in situations when:

 A customer does not have sufficient time to visit stores.

 Visiting a store is more expensive than purchasing a product online.

 A product or service that is not available in the local market is available online.

Some of the popular online transaction websites are:

 IRCTC, an online portal for booking flight and train tickets.

 Flipkart, an online shopping portal for buying consumer products.

 EBay, an online portal for buying and selling goods.

  Redbus, an online portal for booking bus tickets.

Flipkart is an online store where you can purchase a variety of electronic goods, books, accessories, digital cameras,
mobile phones and peripherals such as printers, etc. Flipkart offers multiple payment methods like credit card, debit
card, net banking, e-gift voucher, and Cash on Delivery.

IRCTC. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is an online portal that can be used for booking
travel tickets.

Internet security is a branch of computer security specifically related to the Internet, often involving browser security
but also network security. Its objective is to establish rules and measures to use against attacks over the Internet.

Online threats such as Phishing, email spoofing, chat spoofing, etc. can increase the chances of users getting
compromised. You can reduce the risks by using best practices such as using Antivirus Software, Antispyware.

Use strong passwords, a combination of alphanumeric and special characters could be used for creating a password.

Using strong passwords can lower the risk of a security breach; effectiveness of a password depends on the security
mechanism of the software and users involvement in generating a strong password.

Use encryption software: (Usually available within the operating system) to protect your data from unauthorized
users.

Keeping your username and password private: Never save your username or password on computers that are used
in shared environments.

Registering with websites: Read the privacy statement or policy whenever you register with a website.

Do not share personal information: Websites require you to fill out forms containing fields such as name, gender,
age, email address, school, etc. Be cautious when filling out such forms; research and verify if it’s a trustable website.

Secure transactions: If you are using online shopping or transactions, websites even store your credit card or online
banking personal information.

Use antivirus and antispyware software: Computers are prone to attacks from software known as Malware that
could harm your computer. Malware track browsing behavior or transmit personal data from your computer. Keep
your Antivirus and Antispyware software always up to date, this can help in protecting your computer from recent
threats.

Do not immediately respond to mails from unknown users: It may be a fake mail trying to gather personal
information.

Clear browser cookies frequently: Cookies are programs that are created on your local computer when you visit
websites.

Install firewalls: Firewalls could be software or hardware and can assist in keeping a computer and a network secure.
Firewalls analyze the network traffic and determine if the traffic should be allowed or not.

Never install software from unknown sources: As they might not be trustworthy.

Remove unwanted or unknown software applications: These might have got installed without your knowledge
when you have visited some websites. Unwanted software could get installed as they might have been bundled along
with necessary software.

Steps to clear personal data from a web browser:

Launch the browser > Tools Menu > Options > Security Tab > Privacy Tab > History section > Use custom settings for
history from the drop down list > Clear Now > OK

Basic safety rules to follow at workplace – Fire safety, Falls and slips, Electrical safety, Use of first aid.

Accident: an accident is an unplanned event that may happen all of a sudden and may lead to unwanted or
unprecedented results/outcomes. OR It can be defined as an unfortunate incident that occurs unintentionally causing
hazardous result or injury or unwanted results.

Accidents may be of following types :

 Accidents at workplace : Slips and fall accidents, fire

 Industrial disease/illness

 Road traffic accidents

 Clinical Accidents

 Sports related accidents

Any unexpected situation that needs immediate attention and action, is emergency.

A hazard is anything that is the source of any potential harm, damage or any kind of potential loss of health or life.
Hazards can be of different types depending on the industry and the environment in which the employees work. The
different types of hazards include:

 Physical

 Chemical

 Biological

 Mechanical