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| Spyware |
In the field of computing, the term spyware refers to a broad category of malicious software designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate user. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party. |
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| Firewall |
A firewall has the basic task of controlling traffic between different zones of trust. Typical zones of trust include the Internet (a zone with no trust) and an internal network (a zone with high trust). The ultimate goal is to provide controlled connectivity between zones of differing trust levels through the enforcement of a security policy and connectivity model based on the least privilege principle. |
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| Phishing |
In computing, phishing is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. The term phishing arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to "fish" for users' financial information and passwords. |
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| Virus |
In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating/self-reproducing-automation program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. A computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of a virus into the program is termed as an "infection", and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a "host". |
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| Trojan |
In the context of computer software, a Trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan horse. They may look useful or interesting (or at the very least harmless) to an unsuspecting user, but are actually harmful when executed. |
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| Desktop |
The desktop environments for the popular operating systems Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X are, in their intended use, relatively static. This assures a consistent user experience. However, there are alternative themes and third-party software that can completely change both the appearance of common interface elements such as windows, buttons and icons and the interface model itself (in Windows this is accomplished by replacing the default Explorer shell). |
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| Wallpaper |
The terms wallpaper and desktop picture refer to an image used as a background on a computer screen, usually for the desktop of a graphical user interface. 'Wallpaper' is the term used in Microsoft Windows, while the Mac OS avoids mixing metaphors by calling it a 'desktop picture' (prior to Mac OS X, the term desktop pattern was used to refer to a small pattern that was repeated to fill the screen). |
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| Screen Saver |
A screensaver is a computer program originally designed to conserve the image quality of computer displays by blanking the screen or filling them with moving images or patterns when the computers are not in use. Today, screensavers are primarily for entertainment or security purposes. |
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| Web Browser |
A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, and other information typically located on a web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. |
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| Icons |
A computer icon is a small pictogram which represents a file, folder, application or device on a computer operating system. |
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| Address Bar |
A URL bar, or location bar/address bar, is a widget in a web browser which indicates the URL of the webpage currently viewed. A new page can be viewed by typing its URL to the URL bar. |
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| Task Bar |
In computing, the taskbar is a term for the application desktop bar which is used to launch and monitor applications in Microsoft Windows 95 and later operating systems. Other desktop environments also feature similar interface elements. |
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| Router |
A router is a computer networking device that forwards data packets across one or more networks toward their destinations, through a process known as routing. Routing occurs at layer 3 (the Network layer e.g. IP) of the OSI seven-layer model. |
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| Recycle Bin |
In the Microsoft Windows operating systems, the recycle bin is a holding area for files that are to be deleted from a storage device. |
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| Cable Modem |
A cable modem is a special type of modem that is designed to modulate a data signal over cable television infrastructure. Cable modems are primarily used to deliver broadband Internet access, taking advantage of unused bandwidth on a cable television network |
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| LAN |
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small local area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings such as a home, office, or college. |
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| USB |
Universal Serial Bus (USB) provides a serial bus standard for connecting devices, usually to computers such as PCs and the Apple Macintosh. |
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| USB Hub |
A USB hub is a hub device that allows many USB devices to be connected to a single USB port. A standard USB hub includes a USB cable to connect it to the USB port on the computer, and a number of USB ports on the front. |
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| NIC |
A network card (also called network adapter, network interface card, NIC, etc.) is a piece of computer hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. It is an OSI model layer 2 item because it has a MAC address. |
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| Ethernet |
Ethernet is a frame-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). |
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| IP Address |
In computer networking, an IP address (internet protocol address) is a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard. (Sometimes this is shortened to just "IP" as in "My IP is A.B.C.D".) Any participating device — including routers, computers, time-servers, printers, internet fax machines, and some telephones — must have its own globally unique communicable address. |
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| Webmail |
Webmail is a class of web applications that allow users to read and write e-mail using a web browser, or in a more general sense, an e-mail account accessed through such an application. |
