If there are any terms which we have not yet covered, please feel free to get in touch with us and we will be happy to help.
This week, we are continuing with:
Real time scanner
A real-time scanner is an automatic anti-virus software application that operates as a background task, allowing the computer to continue working at normal speed while it works. It monitors the system for suspicious activity such as viruses in ‘real-time’ i.e. when inserting a CD, opening an email, or browsing the web. See On-access scanner.
Redirect
A redirect is an action used by some viruses to point a command to a different location, which is usually the address of the virus and not the original file or application.
Replication
Replication is the process by which a virus copies itself to carry out subsequent infections and is one of major criteria separating viruses from other computer programs.
Resident virus
A resident virus loads into the system memory and remains inactive until the operating system is called to perform a certain operation. Each time the operation is performed, the virus activates, either infecting a file, disk, or causing other consequences.
Rogue anti virus
A rogue program is a term used for any program intended to damage programs or data, or to breach a system’s security. It includes Trojan horse programs, logic bombs, and viruses.
Scanner
A scanner is a virus detection program that searches for viruses. See on-access scanner, on-demand scanner.
Self-extracting
A self-extracting file decompresses part of itself when executed. It is used to transmit files and software via the Internet as a compressed file conserves disk space and reduces download time. Some anti-virus products may not search self-extracting file components, so it best practice to extract the files first and then scan them.
Shared drive
A shared drive is a disk drive available to other computers on a network. They use the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) to differentiate themselves from other drives.
Shareware
Shareware is software distributed for evaluation without cost, but requires payment to the author for the full rights. If, after trying the software, you do not intend to use it, you simply delete it however note that using unregistered shareware beyond the stated evaluation period is classified as pirating. It is particularly dangerous to upload shareware to P2P networking.
SMTP
Simple Mail Transport Protocol is the Internet email delivery format for transmitting email messages between servers.
Sniffer
A sniffer is a software program that monitors network traffic. Hackers use sniffers to capture data transmitted over a network. See Password Sniffing.
Spam
Spam is unsolicited or undesired bulk electronic messages, including email, instant messaging, Usenet newsgroup, web search-engine, blogs and SMS spam. Spam includes both legitimate and misleading advertisements plus phishing messages designed to trick recipients into giving up personal and financial information.
Spoofed sites
A spoofed web site is one that imitates a real company’s site with the purpose of attempting to steal private information from visitors. Phishing emails contain links to the imitation site, which looks exactly like the real company’s site, even down to the logo, graphics, and detailed information. See phishing.
Spyware
Spyware covers a wide range of unwanted programs that exploit infected computers for commercial gain. They can deliver unsolicited pop-up advertisements, steal personal information, monitor web-browsing activity for marketing purposes, or route HTTP requests to advertising sites.
Stealth Viruses
Stealth viruses attempt to conceal their presence from anti-virus software. Many intercept disk-access requests, so when an anti-virus application tries to read files or boot sectors to find the virus, the virus feeds the program a “clean” image of the requested item. Other viruses hide the actual size of an infected file and display the size of the file before infection. Stealth viruses must be running to exhibit their stealth qualities. They are also called interrupt interceptors.
The Glossary will continue next week. In the meantime, should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!
Tags: IT Security, linkedin, phishing, Real time scanner, Replication, Resident virus, Rogue anti virus, scanner, Self-extracting, Shared drive, Shareware, Sniffer, Spam, Spoofed sites, spyware, Stealth Viruses, virus
