Glossary
Building your knowledge, one term at a time.
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Backdoor
A backdoor is a hidden point of entry that allows someone to bypass normal security controls and gain access to a computer system or network. It may be deliberately added by software developers for maintenance…
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Baiting
Baiting is a social engineering trick that uses a tempting lure to make someone take an action that helps the attacker. The attacker does not push with a long story. They place or present an…
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Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the measure of how much data can pass through a network connection in a given time, typically expressed in bits per second. It represents the capacity of a link, much like the width…
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Basic Service Set (BSS)
A Basic Service Set (BSS) is the basic building block of a Wi-Fi network. It is the group of stations that can talk to each other at Layer 2 on the same channel. In normal…
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Bastion Host
A bastion host is a hardened server that acts as a controlled gateway into a private network. Administrators connect to the bastion first, then reach internal systems from there, so it becomes the single place…
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Beacon
In Wi-Fi, a beacon is a small broadcast message that an access point sends at regular intervals to announce its wireless cell. It tells nearby devices the network name (SSID), the radio MAC (BSSID), the…
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Binary
Binary is a number system that uses two symbols, 0 and 1, and it is the foundation of all digital computing. Computers store and process information as patterns of these two values because electronic and…
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BIOS
BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is the firmware on a PC motherboard that starts the hardware and boots the operating system. When you power on, it runs a Power-On Self Test, initialises the CPU, memory, buses,…
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Bit
A bit, short for binary digit, is the smallest unit of data in computing and can have one of two values: zero or one. Physically, each bit may be stored or sent as two distinct…
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BitLocker
BitLocker is Microsoft’s built-in full volume encryption for Windows that protects data by converting entire drives into unreadable form unless the correct keys are present. It works with a computer’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip to…
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Blind Spoofing
Blind spoofing is forging a network identity without being able to see the replies. The attacker sends packets that pretend to come from a chosen source address, but they do not receive the responses. This…
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Blocklist
A blocklist is a list of items that are not allowed. It is used to stop known bad things such as specific email addresses, IPs, domains, files, apps or behaviours. When something is checked, the system compares…
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Bluejacking
Bluejacking is the practice of sending unsolicited messages to nearby devices over Bluetooth. It became popular on older phones that accepted contact cards via the Object Push Profile. The sender would create a vCard and…
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Bluesnarfing
Bluesnarfing is the unauthorised grabbing of data from a Bluetooth device by abusing weak pairing, old protocols or misconfigured services. The attacker connects over short range and pulls items such as contacts, messages, call logs,…
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Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data between devices over short range using radio waves. It creates personal area networks that allow several devices to communicate directly without cables. Devices such as phones,…
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Botnet
A botnet is a collection of internet connected computers or devices that have been infected with malware and are controlled remotely by a malicious actor. Each compromised machine, or bot, follows commands from a central…
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Broadband
Broadband is a term for high-speed internet access that is always on and much faster than traditional dial-up connections. Instead of tying up a telephone line, broadband services maintain a continuous link to the internet,…
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Broadcast Domain
A broadcast domain is the portion of a network in which any broadcast frame sent by one device is received by all other devices on the same segment. In Ethernet LANs, a broadcast frame uses…
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Broadcast Transmission
A Broadcast Transmission is the method of sending a single packet or frame to every device on a local network segment. At the data-link layer, Ethernet frames use the special MAC address FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF so that…
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Browser
A browser is a software application on a computer or mobile device that retrieves information from the internet and presents it on screen in a readable form. When you enter a web address or click…