Definitions
Here are definitions for terms you will come across when looking into antivirus and firewall software, as well as any security issues you will encounter.
- Feature Set outlines what an application does, In the case of a firewall its main tasks are to protect your pc from external threats and to keep your computer in stealth mode while online. Extra features which you may find in a firewall are blocking of adverts, cookie management (data stored on your pc which websites use to identify you or to save settings about your browsing) and also blocking of content which is of an inappropriate nature.
- Access Point is related to wireless technology, an Access Point is where the clients of the wireless network (e.g. pc, ipod etc) make a connection to the network (which is usually synonymous with the internet). The access point can An access point may services one room or a whole building depending on the strength of the signal and the intent.
- Acrobat is also known as Acrobat Reader Software, is developed and marketed by Adobe Systems it is a document reading system similar to Microsoft Word, the writing portion is not free. The format is called PDF. Acrobat Reader can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe website.
- ADSL(Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is the technology which delivers the internet over a non mobile telephone line technology. It is named asymmetric as it can support higher transfer rates downloading than uploading. This is different from cable which can support similar rates both downloading and uploading.
- Adware is software which is on your pc it will display ads to you, generally in the form of pop-up forms, but in principle it can infiltrate any app. Normally Adware software installs without you realising or may have been bundled with another application. Generally this will not damage your pc but it can be annoying having popups occur constantly and it can slow down your machine.
- Anti virus is software which is used to identify and remove viruses, antivirus software may also remove other malware. Generally the antivirus will place files in quarantine which then need to inspected by the user, this stop the possibility of the antivirus software deleting a file which is actually a false positive result (e.g. is not actually a virus it has just been identified as that)
- Backup in its simplest form this is making a copy of a file which can be used to restore data to in the case of data loss due to damage or theft. There are various forms of backup including local backup, to online backup, the ideal solution is one which occurs automatically and is diverse. For example keeping your backup disks in the same room as your pc is not ideal as a fire can wipe out all your data. Essential to any backup strategy is to test the recovery procedure.
- Bandwidth is the quantity of data that may be transferred over a connection whether it be wired or wireless, in any certain time period,. generally quoted in bits per second or bytes per second. This maximum value however is not necessarily reached as in practice the network capacity will limit the maximum download rate possible.
- Browser is used to look at pages on the Internet. The most commonly used browsers are; Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. These have various security features inbuilt. It is essential that they are kept up to date, on windows the easiest way to do this is to turn on Windows Update. Some antivirus software will intercept downloads and precheck them before allowing downloading.
- Cookie is a piece of text sent which is sent by a web server to your browser, it is then sent back unchanged by the client each time it accesses the server. This text is used for session tracking, authentication, and maintenance of specific information about users. A simple example would be saving your language preference, such that the next time you visit a site you are automatically redirected to the correct site. Browsers generally provide privacy options to disable cookie saving and to clean out your cookies
- CPU is short for the Central Processing Unit. This is the brain of a computer, it is also often called a chip. With malware installed on your machine the CPU can get overloaded as the malware can take up a serious amount of the capacity of the CPU (for example if the malware is busy sending emails from your computer).
- Firewall can either be in hardware form or purely software it is placed between a computer or network, and the Internet. It is a guard against traffic coming into and out of a computer. Some firewalls only stop incoming traffic
- Freeware Software is a program given to users for free of charge.
- IP Address is the unique identifier of a pc or other piece of hardware inside a network. To find your ip on Windows go to a command prompt and type ipconfig
- ISP Internet Service Provider is the organisation which provides the connection to the Internet.
- Key logger is a piece of spyware which resides on your pc if it has malware on it. These can track all your key presses that you do for the purpose of getting your passwords or important details for any site. Note also that this is not restricted to just key presses, mouse moves and screen shots can also be taken. Many antivirus programs will specifically look for keyloggers as these are one of the most malicious pieces of malware.
- LAN Local Area Network synonymous with Network, it is a computer network covering a small physical area, for example a house, or small group of buildings. Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the two most common technologies currently used to create this network.
- MAC Address (Media Access Control address). is the unique address that each piece of hardware on a network, this allows identification of the pieces of the network. This then allows access to a wireless network to be restricted to only a specific device. However note that it is possible to change the mac address easily so this should be used in conjunction with other methods for better security
- Malware is a catchall term for any type of unwanted software on a pc or attacking a pc. It includes virus, spyware, Trojans, and Adware. Any dangerous, damaging, intrusive or unwanted software on a computer can be classified as this. The term comes from the joining of 'malicious' and 'software'.
- Netsh is a command line script utility on windows which helps you to display and edit the network configuration of a pc which is active. Netsh also has useful scripting capability that allows you to execute a set of commands in against a computer. It can also configure external servers.
- Network is a group of 2+ machines which are connected to each other, either using cables or wirelessly. It is possible for a network to be either local with no connection to the internet or connected to the internet
- Phishing is a fraudulent process of trying to get information like passwords and credit card information by pretending to be a trustworthy company. An example of this would be if you receive an email pretending to be from your back but all the urls actually take you to another site that looks exactly like your banks website, then you enter in your details and the phisher now has access to your account. You can negate this always going to your bank via a bookmark you made or via Google or alternatively once you click on the link look in the address bar at the top and check it matches your banks.
- Router is a piece of hardware who's job it is to make a connection between computers and devices on a network, it routes the data from one to the other.
- Shareware Software is software which is offered to users free of charge or for a trial period, then a payment must be made
- Spam is also known as junk email is unwanted messages. To combat spam most web mail clients (e.g. gmail) have a spam folder where suspected spam messages are sent. You may received unwanted messages from legitimate companies, in which case they will generally have an unsubscribe link at the bottom, note though that some senders will take a while to register.
- Spyware is software installs itself without the knowledge of the user on a pc and it is used to take control of the pc or intercept the users interactions on the pc. There is no informed consent of the user. Key logging software comes under spyware
- TCP/IP. This is the way that computers communicate across the internet
- Trojan is software which is installed on your pc, without you realising. These are one of the most damaging variety of malware as they can potentially do anything on your computer, including downloading and installing other malware, tapping in on all your keyboard presses to get your bank details etc.
- URL Uniform Resource Locator uniquely identifies a page on a website. Can also be used to identify other resources such as file via ftp
- Virus is a program which replicates and copies itself to other computers, without the users consent. One example of a virus would be an email attachment which is sent pretending to have an interesting document attached but when opened looks through your outlook express email address list and sends itself to your list. In this way it is 'reproducing', as well as the method of reproduction the virus can also have a payload, this is the actual thing that the virus was intended, it can be as innocuous as changing your background image to installing spyware on your computer to get your bank details. Antivirus software is specifically built to deal with this threat.
- Web mail is an email service that is provided via a website, in your browser. Malware can be delivered by web mail either via an exploit found in your browser or via an attachment. When receiving attachment from anyone (even people you know as there computer may have been compromised) it is best to have it scanned before download.
- Zip format is a file which contains one or more files which have been compressed, it may be used to disguise malware.