Ethical Hacking - Terminologies

• Adware: Adware is software designed to force pre-chosen ads to display on your system.

• Attack: An attack is an action that is done on a system to get its access and extract sensitive data.

• Backdoor: A back door, or trap door, is a hidden entry to a computing device or software that bypasses security measures, such as logins and password protections.

• Bot: A bot is a program that automates an action so that it can be done repeatedly at a much higher rate for a more sustained period than a human operator could do it.

• Botnet: A botnet, also known as a zombie army, is a group of computers controlled without their owner's knowledge. Botnets are used to send spam or make a Denial of Service(DoS) attack.

• Brute force attack: A brute force attack is an automated and the simplest kind of method to gain access to a system or website. It tries different combinations of usernames and passwords, over and over again, until it gets in.

• Clone Phishing: It is the modification of an existing, legitimate e-mail with a false link to trick the recipient into providing personal information.

• Denial of Service attack (DoS): This attack is a malicious attempt to make a server or a network resource unavailable to users, usually by temporarily interrupting or suspending the services of a host connected to the Internet.

• Exploit Kit: It is a software system designed to run on web servers, with the purpose of identifying software vulnerabilities in client machines communicating with it and exploiting discovered vulnerabilities to upload and execute malicious code on the client.

• Firewall: A firewall is a filter designed to keep unwanted intruders outside a computer system or network while allowing safe communications between systems and users on the inside of the firewall.

• Keystroke Logging: It is the process of tracking the keys which are pressed on a computer. It is simply the map of a computer/human interface. It is used by grey and black hat hackers to record login IDs and passwords.

• Malware: It is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, and other malicious programs.

• Phreaker: Phreakers are considered the original computer hackers and they are those who break into the telephone network illegally, typically to make free long-distance phone calls or to tap phone lines.

• Rootkit: It is a stealthy type of software, typically malicious, designed to hide the existence of certain processes or programs from normal methods of detection and enable continued privileged access to a computer.

• Shrink Wrap Code: A shrink wrap code attack is an act of exploiting holes in unpatched or poorly configured software.

• Social Engineering: It implies deceiving someone with the purpose of acquiring sensitive and personal information, like credit card details or usernames and passwords.

• Spam: A spam is simply an unsolicited email, also known as junk email, sent to a large number of recipients without their consent.

• Spoofing: It is a technique used to get unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a computer with an IP address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted host.

• Spyware: Spyware is software that aims to gather information about a person or organization without their knowledge and that may send such information to another entity without the consumer's consent, or that asserts control over a computer without the consumer's knowledge.

• SQL injection: It is an SQL code injection technique, used to attack data-driven applications, in which malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field of execution.