IT Vocabulary
A program you use to view web pages, like Chrome or Firefox.
What is a browser?
An extra login step, such as a code sent to your phone.
What is two-factor authentication (2FA)?
Using the same password for all your accounts.
What is password reuse?
A fake email that pretends to be from a trusted company so it can steal your data.
What is phishing?
Unwanted bulk email.
What is spam?
The physical parts of a computer that you can touch.
What is hardware?
You should do this to your software regularly to fix security holes.
What is updating?
Sticking your password on a note on your monitor.
What is writing down your password?
Malware that encrypts your files and demands a payment.
What is ransomware?
A system that filters incoming and outgoing network traffic.
What is a firewall?
A copy of your files stored in another place in case the originals are lost.
What is a backup?
A tool that encrypts your connection when you use public Wi-Fi.
What is a VPN?
Walking away from your computer without doing this.
What is locking the screen?
Flooding a server with traffic from many machines until it stops working.
What is a DDoS attack?
Converting data into a code so only authorised people can read it.
What is encryption?
The software that manages a computer’s hardware and runs other programs, like Linux or Windows.
What is an operating system?
Before you click a link in an email, hover over it to check this.
What is the real URL (destination)?
Plugging in an unknown device you found in the car park.
What is a USB stick?
Manipulating people psychologically so they reveal confidential information.
What is social engineering?
A small software update that fixes a bug or vulnerability.
What is a patch?
Software whose source code anyone can view, modify and share.
What is open source?
The principle of giving users only the permissions they need to do their job.
What is least privilege?
Software or services employees use at work without IT approval.
What is shadow IT?
An attacker secretly intercepts the communication between two parties.
What is a man-in-the-middle attack?
An attack that exploits a vulnerability the vendor doesn’t know about yet.
What is a zero-day?