Chapter 5

Coaxial Cable

A cable that consists of a single copper wire that is surrounded by insulation and a wire mesh shield

Twisted-pair Cable

A cable that consists of four pairs of wires that are twisted around each other. Each copper wire is insulated in plastic, and all wires are collectively bound together in a layer of plastic

Data Warehouse

A central repository where records from multiple databases are stored

Router

A complex device that stores the routing information for networks. It looks at each packet's header to determine where the packet should go, then determines the best route for the packet to take toward its destination.

NIC

A computer component that translates and transmits network packets

Cyberterrorism

A dangerous form of hacking that seeks to create large-scale chaos and damage to a country's infrastructure

LAN

A data communication system consisting of multiple devices that are relatively near each other and are connected using cables or wireless media

Bridge

A device that connects two LANs or two segments of the same LAN; looks at the information in each packed header and forwards data traveling from one LAN to another

Social Engineering

A form of hacking that focuses on deceiving individuals into giving away the information that the thief needs.

Malware

A generic term to describe various kinds of malicious programs created to harm a computer or steal valuable information

Data Validation

A method for checking and improving the reliability of data

Distributed Denial-of-Server (DDoS)

A network attack that attempts to shut down or block access to websites or other network resources by overwhelming them with requests

Repeater

A network device used to prevent attenuation when packets are traveling long distances

Trojan Horse

A program that disguises itself as an interesting, useful, or desirable program in order to gain access to your system

Authentication

A security measure used to confirm an individual's identity

Authorization

A security measure used to give individuals a certain level of access based on who they are

Extranet

A service that allows organizations to share some of its intranet resources with people outside the organization

MIS

A set of software tools that enables managers to gather, organize, and evaluate information

Decision Support System (DSS)

A special application that collects and reports certain types of data, thus helping managers make better decisions

RAID

A storage system that links any number of disk drives (a disk array) so that they act as a single disk

VPN

A type of connection that increases the security of network communication by employing a method called "tunneling" whereby each packet from the sending computer is encapsulated within another packet

TPS

A type of information system that handles the processing and tracking of transactions.

Expert System

A type of information system that performs analytical tasks traditionally done by a human, using sequences of questions to ask and actions to take based on the responses to those questions

Virus

A type of malware that is attached to a host file and has the ability to replicate or copy, itself

Worm

A type of malware that self-replicates and spreads through computers and networks without the need to attach to a host file

Scareware

A type of scam whose goal is to scare the user into doing exactly what the thief wants.

Zombie

An infected and compromised computer that is under the external control of a hacker, usually without the knowledge of the computer's owner.

Countermeasure

Any step you take to ward off a threat

Pretexting

Gaining someone's trust by pretending you are someone else

Bandwidth

In networks, it refers to the amount of data that can be transmitted over a given amount of time

Phishing

Luring individuals into entering personal information into a website controlled by a hacker

Botnet

Massive networks of zombies that can be used by a hacker to spread malware, send spam, and conduct carefully orchestrated network attacks

Fault-tolerant

Systems that are able to continue their operation even when problems are present

Mission Critical

Systems that must run without failure or with nearly instant recover from failure

Interoperability

The ability of each organization's information system to work with the other, sharing data and services

Scalability

The capacity to provide increasing amounts of computing power, storage, and/or software

Data Mining

The discovery of new patterns or relationships between data

Attenuation

The loss of intensity and clarity of a transmitted data signal

Ethernet

The most common physical standard for local area networks

Cybercrime

The use of a computer and/or network to commit a variety of crimes, such as creating viruses or disrupting networks