Data, Information,

Knowledge and Processing

Chapter 1
1.4 Coding, Encoding
and Encrypting Data
Coding and
Encoding
Data
Learning Objectives
describe the coding of data (including: M for male, F for female)
Describe and more intricate codes (including: clothing type, sizes and
colour of garment)

Discuss discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the coding of data

 When you are designing a database system to
hold data, one of the first decisions that you will
need to make is about how the data will be
collected and stored.

Introduction You already know the term GIGO (Garbage In

to coding of
Garbage Out). If you collect data and enter it
into the system without careful consideration at
the planning stage then the output from your

data system will be of little use.

One of the things that you can consider is

to code some or all of your data in order to
improve the efficiency of your system.
 Any system will need to have data collected, entered and
stored.

One method of storing data is to assign codes to it.

What is
coding of This usually means shortening the original data in an agreed
manner.

data?
The agreement is between the users of the system.

This coding scheme could be part of the training of how to use

the system, and it could also be documented within the system
for new users.
 Original data: Monday; Tuesday;
Wednesday; Thursday; Friday

Example 1
Coded data: Mon; Tues; Wed;
Thurs; Fri
 Original data: Xtra Large; Large;
Medium; Small

Example 2
Coded data: XL; L; M; S
 • What do you think the following codes might
represent?
• RG935LR
• CV183TP
Example 3 • The above examples could be postcodes.
They represent a street name, a particular
part of the street and the town where the
street is located.
 • How about:
• SK12BN
• TR14GN
• Let's propose that these are codes for clothes in an online shop.
• These might be a little bit more difficult because the code is
made up from different representative parts. Let's have a closer
look.

Example 4 • The first part represents a piece of clothing, so 'SK' represented

'Skirt' and 'TR' represented 'Trousers'
• The middle part of the code is the dress size.
• The final part of the code represented a colour, so 'BN'
represented 'Brown' and 'GN' represented 'Green'.
• You should be able to see from that information that the first
code is a size 12 brown skirt. What piece of clothing would the
second code represent?
Reasons to code
data
• It is common for much of the data
collected and entered into a
system to have some degree of
repetition and redundancy i.e.
extra information that does not
add anything.
• And this pattern or repetition is
why it is efficient to code the data
in some way.
 • Let's take the example of collecting
data about a person's gender. People
can be either 'Male' or 'Female'.
• Whilst these two options are easily
understood by all, imagine having
Speeding up to enter the word 'Male' and
'Female' into a system many
data entry hundreds of times. It is a waste of
time and effort because no extra
information is contained in the full
words compared to a single letter.
 The other issue is that no matter how accurate a person is at data
entry, at some stage they are likely to make a mistake and might
spell 'Male' as 'Mail' or 'Female' as 'Femal'. This type of mistake
will make any results from your database queries unreliable.

Increase
accuracy of Instead of entering 'Male' or 'Female' you could code the data and
instead enter it as 'M' or 'F'.
data entry

Simply having to enter one letter instead of a possible six will

speed up data entry. It will also cut down on the risk of mistakes
being made with spelling.
 • In our example, the words 'Male' or 'Female'
have been coded so that they become 'M' or 'F'.
• When data has been coded it makes it easier to
use validation to check if the data entered is
sensible. With the example above, the person
entering the data could still make a mistake
Use of and enter 'S' instead of 'M' or 'F'.
• But if you set up validation so that the field
validation will only accept the letters 'M' or 'F' and
absolutely nothing else then that should further
cut down on possible mistakes.
• Note that validation can only check if the data
is sensible and within reasonable limits, it
cannot check whether the data is accurate.
Somebody could still enter 'F' instead of 'M'.
 • Every letter that you store in your
database system will take at least one
byte of storage. If you store 'Female'
Less storage as 'F' then you will save five bytes of
storage space. If the system belongs to
space a large organisation, there might be
many thousands or millions of records
required stored - simply by coding one field, a
huge amount of hard disk storage can
be saved.
Faster
searching for
data IT STANDS TO REASON THAT THE SMALLER THE
SIZE OF YOUR DATABASE, THE FASTER IT WILL BE
THUS BY CODING DATA AND KEEPING THE SIZE
OF THE SYSTEM TO A MINIMUM THE MORE TIME
TO SEARCH AND PRODUCE RESULTS. YOU CAN SAVE IN THE LONG RUN WHEN
RUNNING QUERIES.
 Speeding up data entry

Increase accuracy of data entry

Summary:
Reasons for Use of validation
coding Less storage space required

Faster searching for data

Coding Examples
 • The name of a country can be represented by
two letters. For example:
• Great Britain - GB
• France - FR
Country • Canada - CA
names • What do you think these two country codes
represent?
• CN and US
 • When you fly you may have noticed that your
flight is given a code.
• This code consists of two letters to identify the
airline that you are flying with. The letters are
usually followed by numbers to represent a
particular route.
Airline flight • Examples:
codes • So for example, a British Airways flight from
Heathrow to Oslo might be coded as BA766.
• A flight operated by the airline company
Emirates which depart from Dubai and arrives at
Heathrow might be coded as EK029
 Problems
cause by
coding data
 Coarsening
• This means that during the coding process some of
of data
the subtle details in the data are lost.
• Look at the image below:
• The colours of the houses could be classed as:
• Light pink, pale blue, black and mid blue
Coarsening of data
• However, when these colours are coded they may become:
• PK (pink), B (blue), BK (black), BE (blue)
• In this case, no allowance has been made for shades of colour so the
results from the above coding would end up as this:
• The fine detail have been lost. This is what is meant by 'coarsening of
data'.
 • A reader seeing the 'gender' data as M/ F is
pretty likely to know that it means Male/
Female.
• But some codes are more obscure, for example
Coding can the country code for Switzerland is CHE. Many
people might not recognise what this code
obscure the represents.
meaning of • If you were given the code, 244/5838 would you
know what this represented? Have a search on
the data the Argos site to see if you can find this product.
• In order for the code to be useful, you need to be
given a complete list of possibilities.
Coding of Value
Judgments
• When you are collecting data about people's
opinions it might be difficult to code their
answers with accuracy.
• For example, you might you ask the question,
"was that curry too spicy?". Your plan is to give
their answers a code from 1-4 with 1 being
mild to 4 being 'blow your head off'. However,
what is spicy to one person will be mild to
another. The code they give will depend on
their individual opinion.
• Coding of value judgments will inevitably lead
to coarsening of the data since there will be a
wide range of opinions that could be held and
only a limited number of codes available.
Advantages of coding Disadvantages of coding
Data entry can be faster Coarsening of data

Data entry can be more accurate Meaning of data can be obscured Advantages and
Validation can further improve accuracy

Less storage space required

Value judgements are difficult to code

If people don't know the code it can slow

Disadvantages
Faster searching for data
down data entry

If codes are complicated they might be

of Coding Data
entered incorrectly

Coded data can be more secure if people Might run out of code combinations
don't know what it means
Encoding
Data
Learning • evaluate the need for encoding data and
analyse the different methods that can be
Objectives used to encode data (including: codecs)
 When data is encoded,
it is stored in a specific
format.

Computers do not
recognise text, sound One means on and
and images in the zero means of .
same way we do.
Encoding
Computers use binary A typical binary
digits which are 1s and number would look
0s. like this: 11011010.

Therefore, data needs

to be encoded into a
format which the
computer understands
CODECS

• Codecs are programs that are used to encode data

for images, audio and video. The codecs are also
needed to read the data.
Encoding Text

• Text is encoded as a number that is then

represented by a binary number.
• A common encoding method is ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information
Interchange).
• ASCII consists of 256 codes from 0 to 255.
Here is a subset of the ASCII code table:
Encoding Images

• Encoding is also used to store images.

• At the most basic level, images are encoded as bitmaps.
• A Microsoft Windows bitmap includes the following data when encoding an image (this is not the complete
list):
• width of bitmap
• height of bitmap
• bit count which represents number of colours
• compression type
• horizontal resolution in pixels per metre
• vertical resolution in pixels per metre
• raster data (the actual shape of the image in pixels).
Encoding Images
Width and
Height of
Bitmap
 1 = monochrome

4 = 16 colours

Bit Count 8 = 256 colours

16 = 65536 colours

24 = 16 million colours
Compression Type

NO COMPRESSION EIGHT-BIT RUN-LENGTH FOUR-BIT RUN-LENGTH

ENCODING ENCODING
Types of
Compression
Run Length
Encoding
Resolution

• horizontal resolution in pixels

per metre
• vertical resolution in pixels per
metre
Raster Data
Encoding Sound

• Sampling
 • Sample Rate: Number of audio samples
per second
• Higher sample rate, higher quality
Encoding Sound of sound
• More samples, more storage
required
• Measured in Hertz
Encoding Sound
Bit Depth: Number of bits used for each sound clip
• Higher bit depth, high quality of sound

Channel: passage or communication channel in which a sound signal is transported from

the player source to the speaker
• An audio file can contain one, two or even more Channels.

Bit Rate: Number of bits processed per second

• Measured in kbps(kilobits per second)
• Formula:
• Bit rate= sample rate x bit depth x number of channels
Example

• A CD sound file has a sample rate of 44.1 kHz, a bit depth of 16 bits and
two channels (left and right for stereo)
• Bit Rate= 44100 x 16 x 2 = 1411200 bps = 1.4Mbps
• 1.4 Megabits are required to store every second of audio.
• For a 3 minute 30 second audio file(210 seconds)
• File size= 1411200x 210 = 29635200 bits
• 296 Megabits
Compressing
Audio Files May Use lossless or lossy Lossy compression reduces
compression bit rate, decreasing quality
Example

• A CD file originally has a bit rate of 1.4 Mbps(1411200 bps). This is

reduced to 128 kbps(128000 bps)
• The original file size was 37 MB.
• To calculate the change in size of file, divide by the original bit rate and
multiply by the new bit rate
• Compressed file size= 37 ÷ 1411200 x 128000 = 3.36 MB
• File size reduced to approximately 10%
 • Chow uses sound editing software to vary the
Exam Style sampling rate in an audio file. Describe what is
meant by sampling and how the sampling rate
Question affects audio file sizes. [4 marks]
• Oct/Nov 2017 Q. 10
• An encoded video stores images as well as sound
• Images are stored as frames
• A standard quality video would have 24 frames per
second(fps)
• Higher frames per second, higher quality, more
storage
• Size of the image also matters
• Higher resolution of the image, higher quality of
video

Encoding Videos
 Bit Rate VS Frame Rate

Bit Rate: Number of Bits Frame Rate: Number of Higher frame rate
processed per second frames per second requires higher bit rate
 Compressing Videos

Decrease Decrease Decrease

resolution Image size bit rate
Advantages
and
Disadvantages
of Encoding
Advantages

• File sizes can be reduced

• Enabling real-time streaming of music and video over restricted bandwidth
• Reducing time taken to download files
• Faster downloading of websites with images, music or video
• Saving storage space
• Enabling more data to be stored
Disadvantages

• Large variety of coding methods, large variety of file formats

• Required CODECS may not be installed
• File may not be saved in the desired format
• File may not be opened without the codec
• Some hardware may play files in a certain format. e.g CD player may play
mp3 files but not AAC files
• Loss of quality during compression
• Text using ASCII or UNICODE must be opened using correct format. Cannor
use ASCII to OPEN a UNICODE file, it may result in errors
Encrypting
Data
Learning Objectives
define encryption and describe different methods of encryption (including: symmetric,
Define asymmetric, public key, private key)

evaluate the need for encryption and how it can be used to protect data such as on a hard
Evaluate disk, email or in HTTPS websites

discuss encryption protocols (including: the purpose of Secure Socket Layer (SSL)/Transport
Discuss Layer Security (TLS) and the use of SSL/TLS in client server communication)
 Encryption is the
process of scrambling
Encryption data in such a way that
only legitimate users
can read it.
Plaintext, Ciphertext

• This is what plaintext i.e. unencrypted

data looks like
• Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
• and this is what ciphertext i.e. the
encrypted version might look like
• jkd2f*hkdfh7$171kjfh7d1h4d
How it works?

• Encryption works by scrambling the original

data using an algorithm and a very large
digital number (key). These algorithms
involve advanced mathematics and make it
difficult or impossible to reconstruct the
original data without the correct key.
• Encryption can also be applied to 'real-time'
streaming data for copy protection purposes.
For example only paid-up subscribers are able
to access encrypted commercial entertainment
streams or satellite broadcast channels.
 Symmetric key encryption

Types of
Encryption
Assymetric key encryption
Symmetric Encryption
• The word 'symmetric' is used because the same key is used for both
encryption and decryption.
Symmetric Encryption

• The symmetric key must be kept secret by legitimate systems using it.
• A symmetric digital key must be long enough that it becomes infeasible for a
normal sized computer to crack the encrypted message in a reasonable
amount of time.
Symmetric Encryption

• The strength of the key is determined by its bit length. For example a 128 bit
symmetric key would take a maximum of 2128 brute force attempts to guess
it. At the moment 128 bits is a good balance between privacy for day-to-day
use and the processing overhead needed to do the encrypt and decrypt.

• An example of a digital symmetric key algorithm is AES-256 (short for

Advanced Encryption Standard - 256 bits), and is the standard algorithm used
by national governments and commercial organisations for really sensitive
information.
Examples of
Symmetric
Encryption
 • People have been using non-digital symmetric keys for at least
two thousand years. One of the earliest known ciphers is the
Caesar cipher, used by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar for his
correspondence. The cipher was very simple - take each letter in
the message and swap it for another letter an agreed number of
positions up the alphabet. For example if the rule is 3 shifts, A
becomes D, B becomes E and so on. It is trivial for a computer to
crack this code, but for centuries it was quite good.
Caesar
cipher
Book cipher

• You have probably seen this used in wartime spy movies. Agent A and Agent
B agree to use a certain book, the huge 'War and Peace' book maybe. Then the
message is created by referencing a letter or word in various pages within the
book.
• For example the code might be 434. Meaning use the 34th letter on page 4.
• The whole scheme relies on no-one knowing which book is being used.
Asymmetric Encryption

• Asymmetric Encryption, also known as Public-Key Cryptography, is an

example of one type.
• Unlike “normal” (symmetric) encryption, Asymmetric Encryption encrypts
and decrypts the data using two separate yet mathematically connected
cryptographic keys. These keys are known as a ‘Public Key’ and a ‘Private
Key.’ Together, they’re called a ‘Public and Private Key Pair.’
How does it work?
You’re using Asymmetric Encryption
without even realizing it

• When you visit any HTTPS website/webpage,

your browser establishes Asymmetrically
encrypted connection with that website. Your
browser automatically derives the public key of
the SSL/TLS certificate installed on the website
(that’s why it’s called ‘Public Key’). So, this key
encrypts any information you send to our website
during the initial handshake, and our Private Key
will decrypt it.
• Do you want to see what it looks like? Click the
green padlock you see in front of our URL, and go
to certificate details. This is how it’ll look like:
 • An encryption protocol is the set of rules
setting out how the algorithms should be
used to secure information.
• There are several encryption protocols.

Encryption • The most popular protocol used when

accessing web pages securely is transport
Protocols layer security (TLS).
• TLS is an improved version of the secure
sockets layer (SSL) protocol and has now,
more or less, taken over from it, although
the term SSL/TLS is still sometimes used to
bracket the two protocols together.
 • encrypt data to protect it
• check that the people/companies exchanging
data are who they say they are (authentication)
• check the integrity of the data to make sure it
hasn’t been corrupted or altered.
• ensure that a website meets PCI DSS rules. The
Purpose of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
(PCI DSS) was set up so that company websites

SSL/TLS
could process bank card payments securely and
to help reduce card fraud. This is achieved by
setting standards for the storage, transmission
and processing of bank card data that
businesses deal with.
• improve customer trust. If customers know that
a company is using the SSL/ TLS protocol to
protect their website, they are more inclined to
do business with that company.
 • As well as encrypting internet traffic, this protocol
verifies the identity of the server.
• Any website with an HTTPS address uses SSL/TLS.
In order to verify the identity of the server, the

SSL protocol makes use of digital certificates, which

contain such information as
• the domain name that the certificate is
Certificates issued for,
• which organization, individual or device it
was issued to,
• the certificate authority (CA) that issued it,
• the CA’s digital signature,
• the public key as well as other items.
 • Although SSL was replaced by TSL many years ago,
these certificates are still referred to as SSL
certificates today.
• As well as keeping the user’s data secure, a website
needs a digital certificate in order to verify
ownership of the website and also to prevent
fraudsters creating a fake version of the website.

SSL • Valid SSL certificates can only be obtained from a CA.

• CAs can be private companies or even governments.

Certificates • Before allowing someone to have an SSL certificate,

the CA will carry out a number of checks on an
applicant and following that, it is the responsibility of
the CA to make sure that the company or individual
receives a unique certificate.
• Unfortunately, if hackers are able to break through a
CA’s security, they can start issuing bogus certificates
to users and will then be in a strong position to crack
the user’s encryption
The use of • Transport Layer Security (TLS) is used for
SSL/TLS in applications that require data to be
securely exchanged over a client–server
client–server network, such as web browsing sessions
and file transfers.
communication
How • Consider the client to be a web user or a

SSL/TLS
web browser and the server to be the
website.

works
 In order to open an SSL/TLS connection,
a client needs to obtain the public key.

Step 1: The public key is found in the server’s

Authentication digital certificate.

From this we can see that the SSL/TLS

certificate proves that a client is
communicating with the actual server
that owns the domain, thereby proving
the authenticity of the server
 When a browser (client) wants to access a website
(server) that is secured by SSL/TLS, the client and
the server must carry out an SSL/TLS handshake.

Step 2:
A handshake, in IT terms, happens when two
devices want to start communicating.

Handshakin One device sends a message to another device

telling it that it wants to set up a communications

g
channel.

The two devices then send several messages to

each other so they can agree on the rules for
communicating; a communications protocol.

Handshaking occurs before the transfer of data can

take place
 With an SSL/TLS handshake, the client sends a message to
the server telling it what version of SSL/TLS it uses together
with a list of the different ciphersuites (types of encryption)
that the client can use.

Step 3: The list of ciphersuites has the client’s preferred type at the
top and its least favourite at the bottom.

Choosing
the type of
The server responds with a message which contains the
ciphersuite it has chosen from the client’s list.

Encryption The server also shows the client its SSL certificate.

The client then carries out a number of checks to make sure

that the certificate was issued by a trusted CA and that it is
in date and that the server is the legitimate owner of the
public and private keys.
 The client now sends a random string of bits
that is used by both the client and the server
to calculate the private key.
Step 4:
Indicating The string itself is encrypted using the
server’s public key.

completion
of Authentication of the client is optional in the
process.
handshake
The client sends the server another message,
encrypted using the secret key, telling the
server that the client part of the handshake
is complete.
Uses of encryption
 • When a file is written to the disk, it is
automatically encrypted by specialized
software.

Hard Disk • When a file is read from the disk, the software
automatically decrypts it while leaving all
other data on the disk encrypted.
• The encryption and decryption processes are
understood by the most frequently used
application software such as spreadsheets,
databases or word processors.
• The whole disk is encrypted including data
files, the OS and any other software on the
disk.
• Full (or whole) disk encryption is your
protection should the disk be stolen, or just
left unattended.
• So, even if the disk is still in the original
computer, or removed and put into another
computer, the disk remains encrypted and
only the keyholder can make use of its
contents.
 Another benefit of full disk encryption
is that it encrypts the data as soon as

Benefits of it is saved to the hard disk

automatically.

Hard Disk
Encryption You do not have to do anything, unlike
with the encryption of files and
folders, where you have to individually
encrypt them as you go.
 Drawbacks of Hard Disk Encryption

IF AN ENCRYPTED DISK CRASHES OR THE OS IMPORTANT TO STORE ENCRYPTION KEYS IN SAFE BOOTING UP COULD BE SLOWER
BECOMES CORRUPTED, YOU CAN LOSE ALL YOUR PLACE, BECAUSE AS SOON AS A DISK IS FULLY
DATA PERMANENTLY OR, AT THE VERY LEAST, ENCRYPTED, NO ONE CAN MAKE USE OF ANY OF
DISK DATA RECOVERY BECOMES PROBLEMATIC. THE DATA OR SOFTWARE WITHOUT THE KEY
 • Using only a username and password doesn’t
guarantee emails are encrypted
• The first is to encrypt the actual connection
from the email provider, because this
prevents hackers from intercepting and
acquiring login details and reading any
messages sent (or received) as they leave (or
arrive) at the email provider’s server.
Email • Then, messages should be encrypted before
sending them so that even if a hacker
intercepts the message, they will not be able
to understand it. They could still delete them
on interception, but this is unlikely.
• Finally, since hackers could bypass your
computer’s security settings, it is important
to encrypt all your saved or archived
messages.
 • Asymmetric method is used
• Sender uses public key to encrypt
• Receiver uses private key to decrypt
• It is considered good practice to encrypt
all email messages.
• If only the ones that are considered to be

Email important are encrypted, the hacker will

know which emails contain sensitive data
and will therefore spend more time and
energy trying to decode those particular
ones.
• Encryption only scrambles the message
contents, not the sender’s email address
making it very difficult to send messages
anonymously.
HTTP/HTTPS
 • HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the basic
protocol used by web browsers and web servers.
• Unfortunately, it is not encrypted and so can cause
internet traffic to be intercepted, read and
understood.
• Hackers could intercept any private information
including bank details and then use these to commit
fraud.

HTTPS • HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure),

however, enables users to browse the world wide
web securely.
• To do this, it uses the HTTP protocol but with SSL/TSL
encryption overlaid.
• HTTPS websites have a digital certificate issued by a
trusted CA, which means that users know that the
website is who it says it is; as we mentioned in the
section on SSL/TLS, it proves it is authentic.
 • It again ensures the integrity of the data
by showing that web pages have not
been changed by a hacker while being
transferred and by encrypting any
information transferred from the client
to the server, and vice-versa.
• As a result of the use of HTTPS, users can

HTTPS
transmit confidential information such as
credit card numbers, social security
numbers and login credentials over the
internet securely.
• If they used an ordinary HTTP website,
data is sent as plain text, which could
easily be intercepted by a hacker or
fraudster
 • Indicators that you are using a secure site
are the inclusion of the HTTPS:// prefix as
Indicators of the starting part of the URL.

using a secure • There should also be a padlock icon next to

the URL.

site • Depending on your browser and the type of

certificate the website has installed, the
padlock may be green.
 • The way HTTPS works is that the web browser on the client
computer performs a handshake with the web server.
• Then, what is sometimes called a session key is created
randomly by the web browser and is encrypted using the public
key, then sent to the server.
• The server then decrypts the session key using its private key.
• All data sent between the two from then on is encrypted using

How HTTPS this session key.

• So, the generation of the session key is done through

works asymmetric encryption, but symmetric encryption is used to

encrypt all further communications.
• Asymmetric encryption requires a lot of processing power and
time, so HTTPS uses a combination of asymmetric and
symmetric encryption.
• Once the session is finished, each client and the server discard
the symmetric key used for that session, so each separate
session requires a new session key to be created
 • Security of data, with information remaining
confidential because only the client browser and
the server can decrypt it.

Benefits of • Search engine results tend to rank HTTPS sites

higher than HTTP sites. However, the time

HTTPS
required to load an HTTPS website tends to be
greater.
• Websites have to ensure that their SSL certificate
has not expired and this creates extra work for
the host as it has to keep on top of certificate
management
 • Takes more time and additional processing
power to load encrypted data.
• When browsing, the client and server must
send messages to each other several times
before any data is transmitted.

Disadvantages • This increases the time it takes to load a

web page by several milliseconds.

of Encryption • It also uses up valuable memory for both

the client and the server.
• Encryption involves the use of keys and,
while the larger the key size, the more
effective the encryption, it also increases the
computational power required to perform
the encryption.
 • Ransomware can be used against individual
computer users; hackers can encrypt computers
and servers and the hackers then demand a
ransom. If the ransom is paid, they (sometimes)
provide a key to decrypt the encrypted data.
• Another problem with encryption is that if the
private key is lost, it is extremely difficult to
Disadvantages recover the data and, in certain circumstances,
the data may well be lost permanently. It is

of Encryption
possible for the data to be recovered by the
reissuing of the digital certificate, but this can
take time and, in the meantime, if a hacker has
managed to get hold of the key, they will have
full access to the encrypted data.
• In addition, users can get careless and forget
that decrypted data should not be left in the
decrypted state for too long, as it then becomes
susceptible to further attack from hackers.
Disadvantages of Encryption

• Regarding the different forms of encryption, asymmetric is much slower

compared to symmetric due to its mathematical complexity, and it’s
therefore not suitable for computing vast amounts of data. It also requires
greater computational power
 • Encoding of data can be thought of as applying
a code such as letters, symbols and numbers to
data for conversion into a cipher. It can also be
thought of as a form of analogue to digital
Exam Style conversion such as used by codec software. At
Question times it is the term applied to the coding of
data. Evaluate the need for encoding data and
analyse the different methods that can be used
to encode data. [8 marks]
• Oct/Nov 2018 Paper 11 Q. No 12
Marking Scheme
Marking Scheme
Marking Scheme
Marking Scheme
Marking Scheme