21. Phishing and Whaling
'Phishing' is what modern-day con men do to defraud you of your personal accounts. Phishing is the use of convincing-looking emails and web pages to lure you into typing your account numbers and passwords/PINs. Often in the form of fake eBay web pages, fake PayPal warning messages, and fake bank login screens, phishing attacks can be very convincing to anyone who is not trained to watch for the subtle clues. As a rule, smart users distrust any email link that says "you should login and confirm this".
Read more about phishing and whaling here...
22. Addons and Plugins
Addons are custom software modifications. User optionally install addons to improve the power of their Web browsers or office software. Examples include: a custom eBay toolbar for your Firefox browser, a new search feature for your Outlook email. Most addons are free, and can be found and downloaded from the Web.
Plugins are a special kind of web browser addon. Plugins are essentially required addons, if you wish to view very specialized web pages. Examples include: Adobe Flash or Shockwave player, Microsoft Silverlight player, Adobe Acrobat pdf reader.
Read more about addons here...
Read more about plugins here...
23. Trojan
A trojan is a special kind of hacker program that relies on the user to welcome it and activate it. Named after the famous Trojan horse tale, a trojan program masquerades as a legitimate file or software program. Sometimes it will be an innocent-looking movie file, or an installer that pretends to be actual anti-hacker software. The power of the trojan attack comes from users naively downloading and running the trojan file.
24. Spamming and Filtering
'Spam' has two meanings. 1) Spam can mean 'the rapid reptition of a keyboard command'. But more commonly, 2) spam is the jargon name of 'unwanted/unsolicited email'. Spam email is usually comprised of two sub-categories: high-volume advertising, and hackers attempting to lure you into divulging your passwords.
Filtering is the popular-but-imperfect defense against spam. Filtering uses software that reads your incoming email for keyword combinations, andthen either deletes or quarantines messages that appear to be spam. Look for a 'spam' or 'junk' folder in your mailbox to see your quarantine of filtered email.
25. Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Cloud computing is a fancy term to describe that your software is online and 'borrowed', instead of purchased and actually installed on your computer. Web-based email is the most prevalent example of cloud computing: the users' email is all stored and accessed 'in the cloud' of the Internet, and not actually on their own computers. This is the modern version of the 1970's mainframe computing model. As part of the cloud computing model, 'Software as a Service' is the business model that claims people would rather rent software than actually own it. With their web browsers, users access the cloud of the Internet, and log into their online rented copies of their SaaS software.
26. Apps and Applets
Apps and applets are small software applications. They are designed to be much smaller than regular computer software, but still provide very useful functions. Lately, apps are very popular with cellphone and mobile platforms; specifically: with the Apple iPhone and the Google Android phone.
Examples of apps: rangefinder GPS for golfing, song identification software, restaurant reviews, pocket video games, language translators for traveling.
Read about popular apps here...
27. Encryption and Authentication
Encryption is the mathematical scrambling of data so that it is hidden from eavesdroppers. Encryption uses complex math formulas ('ciphers') to turn private data into meaningless gobbledygook that only trusted readers can unscramble. Encryption is the basis for how we use the public Internet as a pipeline to conduct trusted business, like online banking and online credit card purchasing. On the provision that reliable encryption is in place, your banking information and credit card numbers are kept private.
Authentication is directly related to encryption. Authentication is the complex way that computer systems verify that you are who you say you are.
28. Ports and Port Forwarding
'Network ports' are thousands of tiny electronic 'lanes' that comprise your network connection. Every computer has 65,536 tiny ports, through which Internetworking data travels in and out. By using port management tools like a hardware router, users can control port access to better safeguard themselves against hackers.
'Port forwarding' is the semi-complex technique of opening specific network ports. You would port-forward to speed up your downloading and speed up your online connections for gaming and teleconferencing.
29. Firewall
Firewall is a generic term to describe 'a barrier against destruction'. It comes from the building term of a protective wall to prevent the spreading of housefires or engine compartment fires. In the case of computing, 'firewall' means to have software and/or hardware protecting you from hackers and viruses.
Computing firewalls range from small antivirus software packages, to very complex and expensive software + hardware solutions. All the many kinds of computer firewalls offer some kind of safeguard against hackers vandalizing or taking over your computer system.
30. Archives and Archiving
A computer 'archive' is one of two things: a compressed container of multiple smaller data files, or a purposeful long-term storage of files that are not going to be used often. In some cases, an archive can be both.
The act of 'archiving', similarly, is one of two things: to combine and squeeze multiple files into a larger single file (for easier emailing); or, archiving is when you will retire data and documents to be put into long-term storage (e.g. your thousands of old emails in your inbox).
