Vocab Drills Flashcards
Application
A type of software that allows users to perform specific tasks and activities.
Example: Web browsers, picture viewers and games are all applications
Utilities
Applications designed to help analyze, configure, optimize or maintain a computer. Unlike applications software (which focuses on benefiting the user) utilities are used to support the computer
Example: An application that allows you to customize how the button work on your mouse
Operating System
Software that manages the computer hardware and software. It is system between the application and hardware
Platform
The environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware, operating system, a web browser or other underlying software.
For example, Microsoft Windows is a platform for MS Word
feature
a distinctive characteristic of software or hardware
Example: facial recognition is a feature of the Iphone X
plugin
A component that adds a specific feature to software. Also referred to as an extension.
Example: you can add a plugin to your web browser that allows you to change the theme colors.
Software as a Service
Software licensed on a subscription basis. The software is stored centrally on a server. It’s sometimes referred to as “on-demand” software.
Example: Google apps are SaaS
API (Application Program Interface)
A set of clearly defined methods of communication between software.
Console
A user interface that manages and controls software and/or hardware.
Example: KnowBe4 customers access our products through a console
Dashboard
-At-a-glance, goal, grapical images
At-a-glance view of key info, relevant to a particular goal or business objective. They are often displayed as charts and/or other graphical images on a web page
Example: KnowBe4 uses dashboards to display sales data on monitors placed around the company.
Server
A computer or program that manages access to centralized resources.
Example: A file server would store and manage all the user files for a group of computers and users.
Domain
Short for “domain name” a unique name that identifies a website
Example: KnowBe4.com is the domain for KB4
Directory
- Like physical folders a directory organizes files or data on a hard drive in a program. Directories can contain other directories, which are then called sub-directories.
Most operating systems display directories as folders. - Software that stores all resources on a network. Example resources are users , groups, permissions, devices and management policies. A directory is also reffered to as a directory service.
Example: When a directory is given a username, it will return the profile of the user which may include permissions for data access as well as employee information.
AD (Active Directory)
A directory service developed by Microsoft for use on Windows operating systems.
If you were in charge of all computers on a network that are using a Windows server you would use AD to set up the users, their passwords and what devices they could access.
Protocol
A specific set of communication rules between computers
Example: A web browser accessing a website will have a different protocol than an email server talking to an email application
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
One of the protocols used to transfer information over the Internet
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
The same as HTTP but secure. This protocol secures the data by changing it to a special code that requires special translation. If you were inputting credit card data on a website, you would want that data to transmit securely using HTTPS.
White paper
A report that describes how a technology or product solves a problem. It’s a marketing and technical document that doesn’t go too far in either direction.
Example: An organization creates a new solution for poor cell phone reception. That organization would release a white paper to advertise the technology’s effectiveness and describe how it works.
Whitelist
A list of trusted email adresses, domains and/or internet adresses that are permitted to pass through a system or filter.
Use: During a sales call with a prospect it’s often necessary to have the prospect add the rep’s email adress to their whitelist so the spam filter doesn’t block the test email.
Phishing
The process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and bulk credit card details. It’s done by masquerading as a trustworthy entity on bulk email which tries to evade spam filters. Email claiming to be from popular social websites, banks, auction sites or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public.
It’s a form of criminally fraudulent social engineering.
Example: cyber criminals put together and send an email that looks like it comes from Chase Bank saying you need to pay your credit card. This is phishing because it’s an attempt by the bad guys to get you to click on something or fill out something that gives them your information - in this case your banking information.
Phishing is the major tool used by the bad guys to get users to click on something and lead them to confidential information like usernames, passwords, social security numbers, names etc. It’s not the only way to get the information but it’s one of the main ways.
Spear phishing
A small focused targeted phishing attack on a specific person or organization with the goal to penetrate their defences. The attack is done after research has been done on the target and has a specific personalized component designed to make the target do something against his or her own interest.
Phishing attack surface
The quantity of emails exposed on the internet. The more email adresses exposed the bigger the attack footprint is and the higher the risk for phishing attacks.
Phish-prone percentage
A term coined by KnowBe4 that indicates the percentage of employees that are prone to click on phishing links
The customer starts with a baseline percentage which is the percentage of users who click on phishing links before being trained. Once trained the test is done again 12 months later to see the improvement.
Social engineering
The act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information.
The term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud or computer system access.
Phishing and spear phishing are forms of social engineering. The user is tricked into opening an email and clicking on links that open a way into the computer. This allows the bad guy to enter the user’s computer and computer network. The bad guys end up taking out valuable and confidential content like names, adresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, usernames and passwords.
CEO fraud
A spear phishing attack that targets high risk users - people in accounting, HR or exec assistants - in which the hacker claims to be the CEO (or another Exec) and urges an employee to do something that would not be authorized by the legitimate sender.
Vishing
A phishing attack conducted by phone, Vishing is the phone equivalent of a phishing attack.
There are two forms of this: human and automated. In the human example a scam artist uses the anonymity of a phone call and pretends to be a representative of their target’s bank or credit card company, etc.
They manipulate the victim to enter their PIN, credit card number or bank account with the phone keypad. This allows the scammer to get instant access to another person’s bank credentials.
Smishing
Phishing conducted via SMS. A Smishing text for example attempts to entice a victim into revealing personal information.
Email spoofing
Spoofing (tricking or deceiving) computer systems or computer users. Email spoofing involves sending messages from a bogus email adress or faking the email adress of another user. It’s a tactic used in phishing because people are likely to open an email when they think it has been sent by a legitimate source.
Spoofing is a common tactic in CEO fraud attacks.
Trojan
Malicious software that seems to perform a desirable function for the user but instead facilitates unauthorized access to the user’s computer system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.
Example: An email with a link to a news article about a disastrous storm or major political news that installs sortware to slow the computer down and any other computers it connects with
Worm
A self-replicating computer program. It sends copies of itself to other computers and may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus it doesn’t need to attach itself to an existing file. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network.
Example: An email that has a love letter attached which when opened changes files on a computer and sends itself to all the email addresses in the user’s contact list.
Virus
A malicious program that infects a file. A true virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host (infected file) is sent to the target computer. The word virus is incorrectly used as an umbrella term for many flavors of viruses, worms and trojans, etc.
Example: A virus gets installed on a laptop. It then inserts itself into several operating system files, causing the computer to restart automatically every 10 minutes.
Anti-Virus
Software that monitors a computer or network to identify all major types of malware and prevent or contain malware incidents. Sometimes referred to as AV, which is short for antivirus.
Example: Software that scans email attachments for viruses when they’re downloaded.
Malware
Short for the term “malicious software”. It’s an umbrella term used to refer the various types of viruses, worms and trojans, etc. Most malware is installed without the infected person ever realizing it.
