A - Z ( hacking & Computer related Terms ) Part 3 Easter Egg - A non-malicious surprise contained in a program or on a circuit board installed by the developer. It could be as simple as a text greeting, a signature, or an image embedded on a circuit board, or comprise a more complex routine, like a video or a small program. The criteria that must be met to be considered an Easter Egg are that it be undocumented, non-malicious, reproducible to anyone with the same device or software, not be obvious, and above all – it should be entertaining! Firewall - A firewall is a security barrier designed to keep unwanted intruders “outside” a computer system or network while allowing safe communication between systems and users on the “inside” of the firewall. Firewalls can be physical devices or software-based, or a combination of the two. A well designed and implemented firewall is a must to ensure safe communications and network access and should be regularly checked and updated to ensure continued function. Black hats learn new tricks and exploit new techniques all the time, and what worked to keep them out yesterday may need to be adjusted or replaced over time. Gray Hat – A gray hat, as you would imagine, is a bit of a white hat/black hat hybrid. Thankfully, like white hats, their mission is not to do damage to a system or network, but to expose flaws in system security. The black hat part of the mix is that they may very well use illegal means to gain access to the targeted system or network, but not for the purpose of damaging or destroying data: they want to expose the security weaknesses of a particular system and then notify the “victim” of their success. Often this is done with the intent of then selling their services to help correct the security failure so black hats can not gain entry and/or access for more devious and harmful purposes. Hacker - This is the trickiest definition of the group and controversy has followed its use for decades. Originally, the term hacker had a positive connotation and it actually had nothing to do with computer systems. In 1946, the Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT coined the term to mean someone who applies ingenuity to achieve a clever result. Then, when computers came along, ”hacker” took on the meaning of someone who would “hack” away on a program through the night to make it better. But in the 80s everything changed, and Hollywood was the catalyst. When the personal computers onslaught started invading our daily lives, it didn’t take long for clever screen-writers to bring the black hat villains of the cyber world to the forefront of our collective consciousness, and they haven’t looked back since. They associated our deepest fears with the word hacker, making them the ones that unraveled our privacy, put our safety in jeopardy, and had the power to take everything from us, from our material possessions to our very identities. And they could do it all anonymously, by hacking away in a dark room by the dim light of a computer monitor’s glow. Needless to say, right or wrong, it stuck! Even many professionals in the computing field today have finally, albeit grudgingly, given in to the mainstream meaning of the word. “Hacker” has thus become the catch-all term used when in fact it should be “cracker.” Cyberloves Security
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:30:15 +0000
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