| A | B |
|---|
| Security | The protection of assets from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or desruction. |
| Packet Sniffer | Software that can monitor and analyze the data packets and capture user names, passwords, and other personal information from unencrypted files as they travel on the Web; also called sniffer program. |
| Phishing | To try to obtain confidential information from people via email by pretending to be a familiar orgaization or institution, such as a bank. |
| Spoofed Sites | A Web site that looks like it belongs to one organization but actually belongs to someone else; also called phishing site. |
| Port | Permits traffic to enter and leave a computer. |
| Port Scan | Using a computer to test all or some of the ports of another computer to determine whether its ports are open, closed, or stealth. |
| Malware | Short for malicious software, a broad term that means any program that runs on your computer without your permission and usually performs undesired tasks. |
| Key Loggers | A program that runs in the background and sends your keystrokes to someone else so they can discover your user names and passwords. |
| Bot | Short for robot, a computer that sends malware to or communicates with other computers without the owner's knowledge to harm those computers or act with other bots to harm Web servers; also called zombie. |
| Brute Force Attack | The act of using a program to enter character combinations until the attacked computer system accepts a user name and password, which allows the attacker access to the system. |
| Countermeasures | A procedure, program, or hardware that detects and prevents a computer security threat. |
| Encryption | The process of scrambling and encoding data transmissions using a mathematically dased program. |
| Decrypt | To reverse the encryption of data. |
| Key | The mathematical code to decrypt encrypted data. |
| Bit | A single unit of data stored in a computer. |
| Strong Keys | An encryption key that is 128 bits or longer. |
| Digital Certificate | An encrypted and password-protected file that contains information to authenticate and prove a person's or organization's identity. |
| Certificate Authority (CA) | A trusted third party that verifies a digital certificate holder's identity and issues the digital certificate. |
| Server Certificate | A file that authenticates a Web site for its users so the user can be confident that the Web site is genuine and not an imposter and to ensure that the transfer of data between a user's computer and the server with the certificate is encrypted. |
| User Identification | The process of identifying a user to a computer, usually with a login. |
| Login | The combination of a user name and password that identifies a user to a computer. |
| User Authentication | The process of associating a person and his identification on a Web page with a very high level of assurance. |
| Anitvirus Software | Software that protects your computer from viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. |
| Firewall | A software program or hardware device that controls access between two networks and controls port scans and other incoming traffic by rejecting it unless you have configured the firewall to accept the traffic. |
| Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) | A security protocol for Wi-Fi networks that works by encrypting data sent over the network. |
| Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) | A new security protocol that provides better encryption than WEP by encrypting individual data packets with different keys. |
| Evil Twin Attack | An attack on a comuter using a hotspot in which the hacker gathers information about an access point, and then uses that information to set up his own computer to use the real access point's signal to impersonate the real access point; also called cafe latte attack. |
| Bluejacking | When a hacker sends an anonymous message in the form of a phone contact that is displayed on a device that uses Bluetooth in a attempt to surprise the owner, express a comment or opinion, or to make a social connection. |
| Undiscoverable Mode | The state of a device that uses Bluetooth when it is disabled from droadcasting its signal. |
| Bluesnarfing | When a hacker is able to detect the signal from a Bluetooth device and gain access to its data, listen in on phone calls, and send email messages from the victim's device. |
| Bluebugging | When a hacker gains access to a device that uses Bluetooth and all of its funtions without the owner's consent. |
| Java Applet | A program written in a Java programming language that Web pages can be downloaded to your computer and run; used by Web page designers to enrich and personalize a user's interaction with a Web page; however, can also be written with malicious intent, destabilizing programs and even risking data loss on a user's computer. |
| JavaScript Program | Instructions written in the JavaScipt programming language that can send information to another computer over the Internet. |
| Scripts | A programs written is JavaScript that Web pages can dowload to your computer and run; used by Web page designers to enrich and personalize a user's interaction with a Web page; can also be written with malicious intent, however, detabilizing programs and even risking data loss on a user's computer. |
| ActiveX Controls | Microsoft's technology for writing small applications that can download to your computer and run; used by Web page designers to enrich and personalize a user's interaction with a Web page; can also be written with malicious intent, however, destabilizing programs and even risking data loss on a user's comuter. |
| Protected Mode | In Windows Vista, the default secure mode in which files are dowloaded only to the Temporary Internet Files folder unless express content of the user is given. |
| Signed ActiveX Controls | An ActiveX control that Internet Explorer has identified as controls crated by software developers with a digital certificate. |
| Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) | A protocol for information traveling over the Internet that encrypts information in a secure channel on top of the TCP/IP Internet protocol; Web pages that use SSL are encrypted, the site has a server certificate that users can access to authenticate its validity, and the pages have URLs that beging with https://. |
| Transport Layer Security (TLS) | An improved version of SSL. |
| Cookie | A small text file that a Web site stores on you computer and that contains information that makes your Web-browsing experience simpler and more personalized by storing information about your clickstream. |
| Clickstream | The sequence of links you click while visiting a Web site. |
| Third-Party Cookies | A cookie placed on your computer by a Web site that stores content, usually an image, on the Web site you are visiting. |
| Web Bug | A small, hidden graphic - usually a GIF with a size of one pixel - on a Web page or in an email message designed to work in conjuction with a cookie to obtain information about the person viewing the page or email message and to send that information to a third party; also called clear GIF or transparent GIF. |
| Adware | A general category of software that includes advertisements to help pay for the product in which they appear. |
| Spyware | A category of adware that tracks your use of programs and the Internet or collects data about you with the user having control over or knowledge of the ads and other monitoring features it contains. |
| Ad Blockers | A program that searches for files written by known spyware and blocks them from your computer. |
| Antispyware Programs | A program that searches your computer for files written by known spyware. |
| Pop-Ups | A small window that appears in front of the current window and that usually obtains an advertisement. |
| Pop-Unders | A pop-up that appears behind the current window. |
| InPrivate Filtering | A feature of Internet Explorer 8 that analyzes the content on Web pages you visit, and if the same sontent is used on several Web sits that you visit, allows you to block that content. |
| InPrivate Browsing | A feature of Internet Explorer 8 that allows you to open a new browser window and surf the Web without recording anything in the History list, storing files in the Temporary Internet Files folder, or recording cookies. |
| Private Browsing | A feature of Firefox that allows you to open a new browser window and surf the Web without recording anything in the History list, storing files in the Temporary Internet Files folder, or recording cookies. |
