Cyberspeak: A Glossary of Terms Related to Cyber Crime

You don’t need to be a computer authority to be able to understand how your business can be threatened with cyber breaches, extortion and data loss. We’ve outlined some of the terms that are commonly recognised in relation to cyber crime, both in the execution of, and the defence against.

glossary
The essential cyberspeak terms you need to know.

The Threats

Black Hat Hacker – Someone who uses their aptitude in computers to breach or bypass system security.

Bot – An abbreviation for “robot” a bot is an automated program that runs over the internet, either automatically or on command. In cyber crime terms, bots are a type of malware.

Botnet – This is when private computers have become infected with malicious software, creating a network which is controlled by cyber criminals, often without the owner’s knowledge.

Zombie computer – One of the computers that has been “taken over” and is subsequently being controlled by malicious software

Malware – Software which has been created solely for the purpose of damaging or breaching a computer system.

Phishing – An email tactic used to either infect a computer by asking the user to click on a link or open an attachment, or to get personal information by pretending the email is from a reputable source, such as a bank.

Social Engineering – When deceit is used to gain personal or delicate information from users. For example a hacker might get a user to enter their password, then use this to gain access to other information.

Pretexting – A form of social engineering, pretexting is when a cyber criminal poses as a legitimate source, such as a user’s bank.

Denial of Service – A botnet is used to take a website offline by overloading it, much in the same way it would if any incredibly high volume of web users were trying to access one website at the same time causing it to crash.

Spam – Spam emails can not only be annoying newsletters and promotions that clog up your inbox, they can be used to transport virus to the account holder.

Quid Pro Quo – Hackers may pose as a legitimate site, asking for you details in exchange for a login, then use your details in fraudulent activity.

Tailgaiting – When someone who is authorised passes through an online portal, cyber criminals may take the opportunity to access this portal without authorisation, by staying close to the legitimate user.

Spyware – This malicious software allows hackers to take information from another computer’s activities by transmitting data from its hard drive.

The defence

Anti-virus software – Anti-virus software is designed to prevent, detect and remove malicious software and viruses.

Firewall – Used in the protection of both hardware and software, a firewall is used to prevent unauthorised access to and from a private network, such as an intranet.

Secure wifi network – As cyber criminal activity takes advantage of online access, wifi networks that are not publicly visible or secured by wireless security such as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), are better protected.

The remedy
Cyber Liability Insurance – The above defences are no guarantee that cyber criminals won’t create new ways of breaching them. When or if this happens, Cyber Liability Insurance can take care of your business in the aftermath, with PR management and legal costs to handle data breach, and IT systems and lost revenue cover if your business has been temporarily stopped in its tracks by a cyber attack. Call us on 0113 2500377 for more information.