Hacker

People who seek to exploit weaknesses in software and computer systems for their own gain.

Virus

Software that infects your computer. This action could be opening an email attachment, going to a webpage via a fake link.

Worm

Worms spread and propagate without user intervention. Once a victim computer has been infected, the worm will attempt to find and infect other computers.

Trojan horse

Software that claims to be one thing while in fact doing something different behind the scenes.

Ransomware

A form of Trojan that has been around since 1989. Infects the target computer by encrypting files. The victim is then contacted and offered a key to decrypt files in exchange for $$$$.

Key Logger

Monitors user activity such as keys typed on keyboard, records mouse movement and clicks, menus that are invoked and takes screenshots of the desktop every second.

Recorded data is then uploaded to the hacker.

Firewall

Mechanism for content regulation and data filtering. Firewalls block unwanted traffic from entering the Network (Inbound) and prevent users accessing unauthorized or malicious sites (Outbound). The monitoring of network traffic is based on a defined set of security rules.

A firewall can be hardware, software, or both.