Jargon Buster & FAQ’s

What is...

Spyware?

Spyware is a term used to describe a broad set of applications that send information from a computer to a third party without the user's permission or knowledge. Spyware Trojans and spyware worms are Trojans and Win32 worms that also exhibit behaviour attributed to spyware.

Trojan?

A seemingly legitimate computer program that has been intentionally designed to disrupt and damage computer activity. Trojans are sometimes used in conjunction with viruses. A backdoor Trojan is a program that allows other computer users to gain access to your computer across the internet.

Rootkit?

A rootkit is a set of software tools designed to be invisible and placed on a computer by a third party. It is used to conceal running processes, files or system data.

Keystroke Logger?

A program that records users keystrokes with the intention of capturing sensitive information such as credit card details.

HIPS?

A Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) guards against unknown threats. Sophos's HIPS technology uses our anti-virus engine to stop unknown threats by analyzing behaviour before code executes.

Malware – malicious software

Generic term for ‘rogue’ computer program code introduced to a computer or computer network by an outside agency to inflict damage to existing software, operating systems or information or to gain illegal access to information. For example such code can be self generating and pass from computer to computer via e-mail or other electronic communication.

Denial of Service

These are attacks designed to deny a particular service that you could rely on to conduct your business. For example designed to overtax a web server with multiple requests which are intended to slow it down and possibly cause it to crash.

Digital (or cyber) Crime

Terms commonly used to describe the growing threat to computers and the information stored on, and processed by, them.

Ethical Hacker

Term used to describe qualified and vetted IT professionals who are employed normally by reputable and established business organisations, to test the security of their clients’ IT infrastructures by attempting to hack into them and show how sensitive information might be accessed or corrupted.

Firewall

A Firewall is a gateway into the computer or network from the outside world. A firewall can be installed on an individual computer as part of the operating system or as part of separate Security software (e.g. McAfee), or can be a separate piece of hardware with suitably configured software providing a gateway into a network. The key to an effective firewall is ensuring that it is configured properly and kept up to date otherwise its’ effectiveness is compromised.

Hacker

Most common term used to describe the perpetrators of Digital crime. In the early days of the internet it was headlines like ‘Student hacks into Defence Department computer’ which grabbed the attention, now the Hacker is more often a professional criminal intent on gaining financial reward from ‘hacking’.

ISMS

Information Security Management System – is the collection of Standards, Procedures and Policies specifically targeted at maintaining the security and integrity of all company information (electronic or hard copy). The objectives and scope of the ISMS are defined by the ISMS Policy.

ISMS Policy

See above.

ISO27001

The international standard against which an ISMS can be accredited.

Password Crackers

Used by hackers to identify passwords, these can be run in the background for considerable time without a users knowledge to automatically generate passwords and attempt login to identified user profiles on the computer system. Because they can go undetected and run for significant time the number of different password combinations they can try is almost unlimited. They are proven to be very effective.

Vulnerability Assessment

Generally refers to the first level of test conducted by an Ethical Hacker during which the IT infrastructure will be tested for vulnerabilities which a hacker could exploit.

Penetration Test

Takes the Vulnerability Assessment a step further to show exactly how a hacker can exploit identified vulnerabilities.

Pharming

The purpose of this is similar to Phishing (i.e. to persuade a user to part with secure information), but instead of using e-mail the criminal manages to replicate a genuine website and lure the user into using this instead of the genuine site it is mirroring. The lock you see on a genuine secure site (indication that the site is protected with a digital certificate) is one way in which this can be combated.

Phishing

These are e-mails sent by someone with criminal intent purporting to be a legitimate service provider asking for confidential user details (e.g. user accounts, passwords, personal identification numbers, credit card details etc.).