Information Technology Glossary of Terms

Virus – a program written to cause damage or spread itself through e-mail with little or no help from users.

Worm – a virus that can spread through the internet and networks without the need for e-mail to send itself.

Phishing – fishing, by the bad guys, for your personal information; credit card, social security and bank account number, along with the usernames and passwords to use them.

Keystroke Logger – program used by the bad guys to record the keys you type on the computer. This information, your personal information; credit card, social security and bank account number, along with the usernames and passwords to use them is then sent back to the bad guys for later use.

Spyware – tiny programs loaded with software and downloaded, without your knowledge, designed to spy on what you do, where you go and how you get there with your computer.

Adware – spyware used by advertisers, to direct specific pop-ups and web ads to your screen.

Rootkit – malicious program that is loaded at the root of your computers hard disk or system directory. These programs open up ports on the affected computer to be used by individuals for malicious and unauthorized activities.