Acronym Soup
Malware
Type of Threats
Passwords
Social Engineering
100

CIA

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability

100

This is a computer program malware requires user interaction to activate or spread

Virus

100

This is a person who breaks into a computer system for politically or socially motivated purposes

Hacktivist

100

Four things complex passwords should include.

Upper case, lower case, number, special characters

100

Scouring the thrash for sensitive information

Dumpster diving

200

DDoS

Distributed Denial of Service

200

Denies access to your important data

Ransomware

200

They are people who hack for fun.

Thrill Seekers

200

A password attack that tries every possible combination of letters and numbers

Brute Force

200

Bad spelling and grammar, a link to click so that you can update your information, or a request for personal information are all examples of these.

Phishing email

300

SOC

Security Operations Center

300

This malware self replicates without user interaction

Worm

300

This is the risk presented to an organization by current or past employees who have knowledge of how the organization works and what and where the most valuable (damaging) information might reside

Insider threat

300

software installed on another person's computer to record that person's keystrokes.

Keylogger

300

An attacker puts a 2TB USB in the parking lot

Baiting

400

PII

Personally Identifiable Information

400

collects user activity data without their knowledge

Spyware

400

They are structured groups funded by other governments and dedicated to mapping out the internet addresses for the purpose of espionage and possible computer attacks.

 state sponsored hacking


400

To initiate this attack, the hacker tries a long list of common words, together with numbers before or after them like people often use.

Dictionary Attack

400

Targeted malicious email against the CEO

Whaling

500

SSO

Single Sign-On

500

This malware disguises itself as desirable code

Trojan

500

These are well run groups of crooks who methodically look for computer vulnerabilities to steal large numbers of financial or credit card accounts for financial profit.

Organized crime groups

500

After entering your username/password you're then asked to confirm your identity a second way.

Two-factor/Multifactor authentication

500

inventing a scenario to convince victims to divulge information they should not divulge.

Pretexting