Concepts & Terminology
This term describes the physical parts of a computer you can touch.
What is hardware?
This component performs calculations and instructions and is often called the brain of the computer.
What is the CPU?
This type of software controls the hardware and allows other programs to run.
What is an operating system?
An organized collection of structured data stored electronically is called what?
What is a database?
An email pretending to be from a bank asks you to click a link and enter your password. This attack is called what?
What is phishing?
A student plugs in a keyboard to type information into a computer. The keyboard is what type of device?
What is an input device?
This component connects all the other components of a computer and allows them to communicate.
What is the motherboard?
A student wants to run multiple operating systems on one computer using software like VMware. This technology is called what?
What is virtualization?
A librarian searches the database to find all books written by “Jeff Kinney.” What type of database operation is this?
What is a Read / Query?
A school computer requires both a password and a code sent to your phone to log in. This security method is called what?
What is multi-factor authentication (MFA)?
A technician follows steps like identifying the problem, testing solutions, and verifying the fix. This structured process is called what?
What is the troubleshooting process?
A student wants to save files permanently even after shutting down the computer. Which type of storage should they use?
What is a hard drive or SSD?
When a developer releases a fix for a bug or security problem in software, it is called this.
What is a patch or update?
Creating duplicate copies of important data so it can be restored if lost is called this.
What is a backup?
The three core goals of cybersecurity are confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This model is known as what?
What is the CIA Triad?
Eight bits grouped together form this common unit of data.
What is a byte?
This networking device allows multiple computers in a building to communicate on the same network.
What is a switch?
A student uses Google Docs directly in a browser without installing anything on their computer. This is an example of what type of cloud software model?
What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?
This unique identifier ensures that every record in a database table can be distinguished from others.
What is a primary key?
A student installs software from an unknown website and it secretly records everything they type, including passwords. This type of malware is called what?
What is spyware or a keylogger?
Computers follow a cycle where data is entered, processed, and results are produced. This cycle is called what?
What is the Input → Process → Output cycle?
This component converts digital signals from the CPU into images displayed on a monitor.
What is the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)?
Instead of storing files on their own computer, a company stores them on remote servers accessed through the internet. This is called what?
What is cloud computing?
Columns in a database table describe a type of information such as name, age, or ID. These are called what?
What are fields?
A hacker uses hundreds of infected computers to flood a school website with traffic, causing it to crash and be unavailable to students. What type of attack is this?
What is a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack?