10 Security Terms Everyone Should Know

The topic of cyber security continues to take the world by storm on a daily basis with some of the largest and most advanced companies in the world falling victim to various attacks in recent years. As long as digital devices are around, businesses and individuals alike are all at risk of having our data compromised and manipulated. But! It doesn’t have to be that scary – especially if you familiarize yourself with the security terms everyone should know in order to stay safe online.

Here at WoT, we’re going to provide you with the top10 security terms everyone should know and what they mean, in order to make sure that even the average reader, knows what’s what on the world wide web.

Cyber Security Terms and Terminology

IP Address

An IP Address stands for Internet Protocol Address and is the internet version of a home address for your computer. It is identified when it communicates over a network; For example, when you connect to the internet. An IP address serves two principal functions. It identifies the host and it provides the location of the host in the network.

Cloud

The ‘Cloud’ term is derived from a technology that allows us to access our files and/or services through the internet from anywhere in the world. Technically speaking, it’s a collection of computers with large storage capabilities that remotely serve requests.

Firewall

A Firewall is a defensive based technology designed to protect your computer. Firewalls can be hardware or software based and are often installed on computers for protection purposes.

Malware

Malware is the ‘umbrella’ term that is used to describe all forms of malicious software that is designed to infiltrate computers. Common forms of malware include viruses, trojans and ransomware.

Phishing

Phishing is a technique used by hackers to get a hold of your private information. Often, phishing comes in the form of emails containing various links and downloads that appear to be from a reliable source. They are designed to trick us into divulging personal or confidential information such as bank account numbers and passwords to various accounts.

Domain

A domain is a group of computers, printers and other devices that are interconnected and governed as a while. For example while at work your computer will usually be part of a domain within the workplace.

Software

Software is a set of programs that tell a computer to perform a task. These instructions are compiled into a package that users can install and use. A great example of this would be Microsoft Office that many of us use on a daily basis to complete tasks and is considered an application software.

Breach

A breach refers to the moment a hacker successfully exploits a vulnerability in a computer or device and gains access to its wanted files or networks.

Ransomware

As explained earlier, ransomware is a form of malware that deliberately prevents a user from accessing files on their computer – holding data hostage. It will encrypt files and request a ransom payment in order for the data to be recovered.

Trojan Horse

This is a piece of malware that allows hackers to gain remote access to a device through a ‘back door’

Web Security Terminology

Above, we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of web security terminology and cyber security terms. If you want to keep your digital devices safe, it is important to understand this terminology in order to understand the causes and effects of hacks and how they can be prevented. Software vulnerabilities and access control issues are two of the main causes of website infections today and in order to make a start in your online security, we recommend having a browse on WoT.

Our global community take an active role in ensuring safety online by rating and reviewing websites. And while we’re sure lots of you are already familiar with WoT, however for those that aren’t in order to further understand web security terminology and the world of online security, feel free to read through our blog posts on things like, How Important is Online Security, How Can I Tell if a Website is Safe, Internet Security Trends in the Workplace and much, much more in order to further understand the online security world.

List of Cyber Terms

Whilst many of you reading this will be very familiar with these terms, for people who aren’t as tech savvy (maybe your family and friends) one of the challenges they face when reading about online security or hacking is that it’s a world full of jargon and technical terms that are all very new to them. We hope that in this blog we have been able to translate this lingo and make it easier even for the average reader to understand. If you think we have, feel free to share this post with those you think it will help. After all, we’re all trying to make the internet a safer place, right? 🙂