In order to keep pace with the malicious or susceptive activities of spammers, scammers and malware designers, an assortment of new words & terms are constantly coming into existence. A few general security-inspired neologisms the users will not be able to discover in the normal grimy dictionary are: adware, spyware and malware. But, there is the existence of a lot more obscure ones too. Let’s find out them.
Vishing: short for voice phishing. In this scam, consumers get an e-mail or phone call asking them to call a phone number about a trouble on a bank or credit card account. While victims call, they listen to an automated message directing them to confirm account info and other confidential data. Keystrokes have recorded as victims go into in their account information. By making use of Voice over Internet Protocol phones, hackers are enabled to choose the area code and prefix of the telephone numbers used so that they very much bear a resemblance to the real company’s phone numbers.
Bot: short for robot. A computer program that does automated tasks. Could be utilized perniciously to scan for passwords, search browsing history, capture keystrokes, relay spam and transfer info to a third party across the Internet.
Smishing: phishing via SMS messages on cell phones. The message makes an attempt to bait smart phone users to a Web site, where malware is downloaded but for their informed consent.
Web 2.0: a term utilized to explain Web sites that enable users to bring about content, such as blogs, YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Virus: a pernicious program able to copy itself and attach to other programs. To function, someone must sprint the program to which the virus is attached.
Back-door Trojan: a program that opens up a user’s PC to remote access across the Web but for the user’s knowledge.
Trojan (horse): a pernicious program developed to appear legal or risk-free to unsuspecting computer users so that they could sprint the program.
Malware: a common term for pernicious software, such as viruses, Trojan horses, spyware and worms.
Image spam: a spam e-mail whose content has text integrated inside an image.
Botnet: a network of compromised robot PCs operated distantly by a third party.
Spit: spam over Internet telephony, or VoIP spam.
Spim: spam over instant messaging.
