Glossary
Building your knowledge, one term at a time.
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Whaling
Whaling is a subtype of spear phishing that targets high-level executives or individuals with access to sensitive business systems or finances. For example, an attacker impersonates a company’s legal counsel and sends a forged legal…
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Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi, short for Wireless Fidelity, is a technology that lets devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets connect wirelessly to a local network or the internet by using radio signals. Based on the IEEE 802.11…
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Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a global non-profit industry group composed of companies that develop and use wireless networking technology. Founded in 1999, its sponsors include device manufacturers, software developers and network operators who collaborate to…
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Wildcard Mask
A wildcard mask is the inverse of a subnet mask, used by many network devices to match ranges of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in Access Control Lists (ACLs) and routing protocols such as Open Shortest…
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Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a built-in Windows framework that lets you read and control system information in a consistent way. It organises data into classes, for example details about hardware, services, processes, event logs and…
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Wireless Access Point (WAP)
A wireless access point (WAP), often just referred to as an access point (AP), is a device that provides Wi-Fi and connects wireless devices to the wired network. It advertises a network name called the…
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Wireless LAN (WLAN)
A Wireless LAN (WLAN) is a local network that uses radio instead of cables to connect devices. It is based on the IEEE 802.11 family, often called Wi-Fi. An access point creates the wireless cell…
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Worms
Worms are malicious software programmes that copy themselves and spread across networks or devices without needing to attach to other programmes or for anyone to run them. They exploit weaknesses in network services or applications…
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WPA
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a security system for wireless networks that requires devices to authenticate before they can send or receive data. It replaced an older, less secure method and now comes in three…
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WPS
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is a feature on many home and small office routers that makes joining a wireless network quicker without typing the full password. It is an onboarding method, not an encryption standard…
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XML Injection Attack
An XML injection attack is where untrusted input is placed into an XML document or query and changes what it means. The attacker’s text stops being plain data and turns into XML markup or logic.…
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XProtect
XProtect is Apple’s built-in malware protection for macOS. It checks apps and downloaded files against Apple’s malware signatures when they are first opened, working with File Quarantine and Gatekeeper to block known threats. Apple updates these…
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Zero Trust
Zero Trust is a security approach that treats every user, device and request as untrusted until proven otherwise, regardless of whether it comes from inside or outside the network. Instead of relying on a strong…
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Zero-Day
A zero-day describes a software flaw that is unknown to the vendor and for which no patch or fix is yet available. Because developers have had ‘zero days’ to address the issue, attackers can exploit…
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Zone-Based Policy Firewall
A zone-based policy firewall groups interfaces into zones (for example trusted, untrusted DMZ) and then applies policies that say what traffic is allowed from one zone to another. Instead of attaching rules to each interface, you define a zone pair…