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13 Hacking Terminologies Every User Should Know To Safeguard Your Online Business from Hackers
We’re here to make this learning curve easier by providing a list of the 13 most important cyber security terminology that everyone should know:
1. Vulnerability
A vulnerability is a loophole in a system, whether a website or an entire network. It’s said that every software has vulnerabilities, and it’s a matter of time that a hacker finds out the vulnerability and exploits it. Hackers can exploit a vulnerability to upload and run malicious code on the server and even gain complete access.
Examples:
- Lack of input validation on user input
- Not closing the database connection properly
- Using a weak encryption algorithm
2. Exploit
An exploit is a way or process to take advantage of a bug or vulnerability in a computer or application.
3. Payload
Payload is referred to the malicious program / Block of Code that the attacker will send to the server / victim system. A few payloads are considered extremely dangerous. Using payloads, Attacker can transfer data to a victim system.
Examples:
- By opening an infected file.
- By booting the computer using an infected removable medium
- By using an unprotected computer (computer without an anti-virus installed) connected to a network
4. Zero-Day Vulnerability
A Zero-Day vulnerability is a vulnerability that exists in a system, hackers know about it, and the developers have not released any patch yet to fix it.
5. Hack Value
Hack value is often used to refer to the motivation that induces a hacker to invest a lot of time in something without this necessarily making sense to an observer, but representing a hack to the hacker.
6. Breach
The moment a hacker successfully exploits a vulnerability in a computer or device, and gains access to its files and network.
7. Daisy Chaining
Daisy Chaining is a sequential process of attacking attempts to gain access to network or system, one after another, using the same information and the information obtained from the previous attempt.
8. Doxing
The term 'Doxing' is short for "dropping dox" 'dox' being slang for documents. Typically, doxing is a malicious act, used against people with whom the hacker disagrees or dislikes.
Doxing (sometimes written as Doxxing) is the act of revealing identifying information about someone online, such as their real name, home address, workplace, phone, financial, and other personal information. That information is then circulated to the public — without the victim's permission.
9. Bot / Botnet
A type of software application or script that performs tasks on command, allowing an attacker to take complete control remotely of an affected computer. A collection of these infected computers is known as a “botnet” and is controlled by the hacker or “bot-herder”.
10. Encryption / Decryption
Encryption is a process of encoding a message or information to make it unreadable and secretive. This ensures that the concerned information is concealed only to the authorized parties.
11. Virus
A virus is a malicious executable code attached to another executable file that can be harmless or can modify or delete data. When the computer program runs attached with a virus it performs some action such as deleting a file from the computer system. Viruses can’t be controlled by remote.
12. Worms
Worms are similar to a virus but it does not modify the program. It replicates itself more and more to cause slow down the computer system. Worms can be controlled by remote. The main objective of worms is to eat the system resources.
13. Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse does not replicate itself like virus and worms. It is a hidden piece of code which steal the important information of user. For example, Trojan horse software observe the e-mail ID and password while entering in web browser for logging.