Demystifying Cybersecurity: A Glossary of Terms
In a never-ending effort to make the field less complicated I thought I’d put together a quick glossary of commonly used terms used when talking about cybersecurity.
Whether you’re a cyber nerd or total technophobe, I hope the following helps to demystify one or two terms for you.
Antivirus software: This is a program or set of programs designed to prevent, search for, detect, and remove software viruses, and other malicious software like worms, trojans, adware, and more.
Authentication: A security measure designed to protect the access to programs, networks, and systems by verifying the user's identity who is trying to gain access.
Backdoor: This is a method of bypassing regular authentication, securing remote access to a computer, while remaining undetected. It's often used for targeted attacks.
Botnet: A group of computers connected in a coordinated manner for malicious purposes. Each computer in a botnet is called a bot. These bots are usually infected with malware and are remotely controlled by the attacker.
Brute Force Attack: This is a trial and error method used by application programs to crack encrypted data such as passwords or Data Encryption Standard (DES) keys, by trying out every possible combination of characters until the correct one is found.
Bug: In the context of cybersecurity, a bug refers to an error or flaw in software that creates a security vulnerability.
Data Breach: This is an incident where confidential and sensitive data has been accessed and shared without permission. It could involve the loss or theft of your Social Security number, bank account or debit card number, personal health information, passwords or email.
DDoS Attack (Distributed Denial of Service): This is a type of cyber attack where multiple compromised computers are used to attack a single system, causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Victims of a DDoS attack consist of both the end-targeted system and all systems maliciously used and controlled by the hacker in the distributed attack.
Encryption: The method by which plain text or any other type of data is converted from a readable form to an encoded version that can only be decoded by another entity if they have access to a decryption key.
Firewall: A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented as both hardware and software, or a combination of both.
Hacker: A skilled computer expert that uses their technical knowledge to overcome a problem. In cybersecurity, a hacker is someone who uses bugs or exploits to break into computer systems.
IP Address: A unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. It's the internet version of a home address for your computer, which allows the internet to deliver content to your computer, specifically.
Malware: Short for malicious software, malware is a type of software designed to harm or exploit any computing device or network that it infects. Types of malware include viruses, worms, trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, and scareware, among others.
Phishing: A type of social engineering attack often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. This occurs when an attacker, masquerading as a trusted entity, tricks a victim into opening an email, instant message, or text message.
Ransomware: A type of malicious software that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.
Spam: Irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the internet, typically to large numbers of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, and more.
Spyware: Malware that secretly observes the computer user's activities without permission and reports it to the software's author.
Trojan Horse: A type of malicious software that disguises itself as a normal file or program to trick users into downloading and installing malware.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): A method of confirming a user's claimed identity by utilizing something they know (password) and a second factor other than something they have or something they are (biometric data).
Virus: A type of malicious software that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code.
Worm: A type of malware that spreads copies of itself from computer to computer. A worm can replicate itself without any human interaction, and it does not need to attach itself to a software program in order to cause damage.
Zero-Day Attack: An attack that exploits a potentially serious software security weakness that the vendor or developer may be unaware of, or a vulnerability that they haven’t had time to address with a patch. This could be a vulnerability in a network, software, or an application that can be exploited to cause serious damage like stealing sensitive data or causing system disruptions.
I hope that’s given some clarification and will aim to keep it updated in the future! Let me know on instagram (@elodiecybersecurity) if I’ve missed anything.