The cybersecurity world is filled with technical lingo and jargon. At TechCrunch, now we have been writing about cybersecurity for years, and even we typically want a refresher on what precisely a selected phrase or expression means. That’s why now we have created this glossary, which incorporates among the commonest — and never so widespread — phrases and expressions that we use in our articles, and explanations of how, and why, we use them.
This can be a growing compendium, and we’ll replace it commonly.
A complicated persistent menace (APT) is commonly categorized as a hacker, or group of hackers, which positive aspects and maintains unauthorized entry to a focused system. The principle purpose of an APT intruder is to stay undetected for lengthy intervals of time, usually to conduct espionage and surveillance, to steal information, or sabotage crucial methods.
APTs are historically well-resourced hackers, together with the funding to pay for his or her malicious campaigns, and entry to hacking instruments usually reserved by governments. As such, most of the long-running APT teams are related to nation states, like China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Lately, we’ve seen examples of non-nation state cybercriminal teams which can be financially motivated (corresponding to theft and cash laundering) finishing up cyberattacks related by way of persistence and capabilities as some conventional government-backed APT teams.
(See: Hacker)
The power to run instructions or malicious code on an affected system, usually due to a safety vulnerability within the system’s software program. Arbitrary code execution may be achieved both remotely or with bodily entry to an affected system (corresponding to somebody’s gadget). Within the instances the place arbitrary code execution may be achieved over the web, safety researchers usually name this distant code execution.
Typically, code execution is used as a solution to plant a again door for sustaining long-term and chronic entry to that system, or for working malware that can be utilized to entry deeper components of the system or different gadgets on the identical community.
(See additionally: Distant code execution)
Hackers traditionally have been categorized as both “black hat” or “white hat,” normally relying on the motivations of the hacking exercise carried out. A “black hat” hacker could also be somebody who may break the legislation and hack for cash or private acquire, corresponding to a cybercriminal. “White hat” hackers usually hack inside authorized bounds, like as a part of a penetration take a look at sanctioned by the goal firm, or to gather bug bounties discovering flaws in numerous software program and disclosing them to the affected vendor. For many who hack with much less clearcut motivations, they might be thought to be a “grey hat.” Famously, the hacking group the L0pht used the time period grey hat in an interview with The New York Instances Journal in 1999. Whereas nonetheless generally utilized in fashionable safety parlance, many have moved away from the “hat” terminology.
(Additionally see: Hacker, Hacktivist)
Botnets are networks of hijacked internet-connected gadgets, corresponding to webcams and residential routers, which were compromised by malware (or typically weak or default passwords) for the needs of being utilized in cyberattacks. Botnets may be made up of tons of or hundreds of gadgets and are usually managed by a command-and-control server that sends out instructions to ensnared gadgets. Botnets can be utilized for a variety of malicious causes, like utilizing the distributed community of gadgets to masks and protect the web visitors of cybercriminals, ship malware, or harness their collective bandwidth to maliciously crash web sites and on-line companies with large quantities of junk web visitors.
(See additionally: Command-and-control server; Distributed denial-of-service)
A bug is basically the reason for a software program glitch, corresponding to an error or an issue that causes the software program to crash or behave in an surprising method. In some instances, a bug can be a safety vulnerability.
The time period “bug” originated in 1947, at a time when early computer systems have been the scale of rooms and made up of heavy mechanical and transferring tools. The primary identified incident of a bug present in a pc was when a moth disrupted the electronics of one among these room-sized computer systems.
(See additionally: Vulnerability)
Command-and-control servers (also called C2 servers) are utilized by cybercriminals to remotely handle and management their fleets of compromised gadgets and launch cyberattacks, corresponding to delivering malware over the web and launching distributed denial-of-service assaults.
(See additionally: Botnet; Distributed denial-of-service)
Cryptojacking is when a tool’s computational energy is used, with or with out the proprietor’s permission, to generate cryptocurrency. Builders typically bundle code in apps and on web sites, which then makes use of the gadget’s processors to finish complicated mathematical calculations wanted to create new cryptocurrency. The generated cryptocurrency is then deposited in digital wallets owned by the developer.
Some malicious hackers use malware to intentionally compromise giant numbers of unwitting computer systems to generate cryptocurrency on a big and distributed scale.
After we speak about information breaches, we in the end imply the improper elimination of knowledge from the place it ought to have been. However the circumstances matter and might alter the terminology we use to explain a specific incident.
A knowledge breach is when protected information was confirmed to have improperly left a system from the place it was initially saved and normally confirmed when somebody discovers the compromised information. As a rule, we’re referring to the exfiltration of knowledge by a malicious cyberattacker or in any other case detected because of an inadvertent publicity. Relying on what is understood in regards to the incident, we could describe it in additional particular phrases the place particulars are identified.
(See additionally: Knowledge publicity; Knowledge leak)
A knowledge publicity (a kind of knowledge breach) is when protected information is saved on a system that has no entry controls, corresponding to due to human error or a misconfiguration. This may embody instances the place a system or database is linked to the web however with no password. Simply because information was uncovered doesn’t imply the information was actively found, however however might nonetheless be thought of a knowledge breach.
A knowledge leak (a kind of knowledge breach) is the place protected information is saved on a system in a method that it was allowed to flee, corresponding to on account of a beforehand unknown vulnerability within the system or by the use of insider entry (corresponding to an worker). A knowledge leak can imply that information might have been exfiltrated or in any other case collected, however there could not all the time be the technical means, corresponding to logs, to know for positive.
A distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, is a type of cyberattack that includes flooding targets on the web with junk net visitors in an effort to overload and crash the servers and trigger the service, corresponding to an internet site, on-line retailer, or gaming platform to go down.
DDoS assaults are launched by botnets, that are made up of networks of hacked internet-connected gadgets (corresponding to dwelling routers and webcams) that may be remotely managed by a malicious operator, normally from a command-and-control server. Botnets may be made up of tons of or hundreds of hijacked gadgets.
Whereas a DDoS is a type of cyberattack, these data-flooding assaults should not “hacks” in themselves, as they don’t contain the breach and exfiltration of knowledge from their targets, however as an alternative trigger a “denial of service” occasion to the affected service.
(See additionally: Botnet; Command-and-control server)
Encryption is the best way and means by which data, corresponding to information, paperwork, and personal messages, are scrambled to make the information unreadable to anybody aside from to its supposed proprietor or recipient. Encrypted information is usually scrambled utilizing an encryption algorithm — basically a set of mathematical formulation that determines how the information ought to be encrypted — together with a personal key, corresponding to a password, which can be utilized to unscramble (or “decrypt”) the protected information.
Practically all fashionable encryption algorithms in use at this time are open supply, permitting anybody (together with safety professionals and cryptographers) to overview and examine the algorithm to ensure it’s freed from faults or flaws. Some encryption algorithms are stronger than others, that means information protected by some weaker algorithms may be decrypted by harnessing giant quantities of computational energy.
Encryption is completely different from encoding, which merely converts information into a distinct and standardized format, normally for the good thing about permitting computer systems to learn the information.
(See additionally: Finish-to-end encryption)
Finish-to-end encryption (or E2EE) is a safety function constructed into many messaging and file-sharing apps, and is broadly thought of one of many strongest methods of securing digital communications as they traverse the web.
E2EE scrambles the file or message on the sender’s gadget earlier than it’s despatched in a method that permits solely the supposed recipient to decrypt its contents, making it near-impossible for anybody — together with a malicious hacker, and even the app maker — to snoop inside on somebody’s non-public communications. Lately, E2EE has grow to be the default safety normal for a lot of messaging apps, together with Apple’s iMessage, Fb Messenger, Sign, and WhatsApp.
E2EE has additionally grow to be the topic of governmental frustration in recent times, as encryption makes it not possible for tech firms or app suppliers to offer over data that they themselves wouldn’t have entry to.
(See additionally: Encryption)
Most fashionable methods are protected with a number of layers of safety, together with the power to set consumer accounts with extra restricted entry to the underlying system’s configurations and settings. This prevents these customers — or anybody with improper entry to one among these consumer accounts — from tampering with the core underlying system. Nonetheless, an “escalation of privileges” occasion can contain exploiting a bug or tricking the system into granting the consumer extra entry rights than they need to have.
Malware can even benefit from bugs or flaws attributable to escalation of privileges by gaining deeper entry to a tool or a linked community, doubtlessly permitting the malware to unfold.
An exploit is the best way and means by which a vulnerability is abused or taken benefit of, normally in an effort to break right into a system.
(See additionally: Bug; Vulnerability)
Normally phrases, extortion is the act of acquiring one thing, normally cash, via using pressure and intimidation. Cyber extortion is not any completely different, because it usually refers to a class of cybercrime whereby attackers demand cost from victims by threatening to break, disrupt, or expose their delicate data.
Extortion is commonly utilized in ransomware assaults, the place hackers usually exfiltrate firm information earlier than demanding a ransom cost from the hacked sufferer. However extortion has shortly grow to be its personal class of cybercrime, with many, usually youthful, financially motivated hackers, opting to hold out extortion-only assaults, which snub using encryption in favor of easy information theft.
(Additionally see: Ransomware)
Forensic investigations contain analyzing information and knowledge contained in a pc, server, or cell gadget, in search of proof of a hack, crime, or some form of malfeasance. Generally, in an effort to entry the information, company or legislation enforcement investigators depend on specialised gadgets and instruments, like these made by Cellebrite and Grayshift, that are designed to unlock and break the safety of computer systems and cellphones to entry the information inside.
There isn’t any one single definition of “hacker.” The time period has its personal wealthy historical past, tradition, and that means inside the safety group. Some incorrectly conflate hackers, or hacking, with wrongdoing.
By our definition and use, we broadly seek advice from a “hacker” as somebody who’s a “breaker of issues,” normally by altering how one thing works to make it carry out otherwise in an effort to meet their targets. In follow, that may be one thing so simple as repairing a machine with non-official components to make it operate otherwise as supposed, or work even higher.
Within the cybersecurity sense, a hacker is usually somebody who breaks a system or breaks the safety of a system. That could possibly be something from an internet-connected laptop system to a easy door lock. However the particular person’s intentions and motivations (if identified) matter in our reporting, and guides how we precisely describe the particular person, or their exercise.
There are moral and authorized variations between a hacker who works as a safety researcher, who’s professionally tasked with breaking into an organization’s methods with their permission to determine safety weaknesses that may be mounted earlier than a malicious particular person has an opportunity to take advantage of them; and a malicious hacker who positive aspects unauthorized entry to a system and steals information with out acquiring anybody’s permission.
As a result of the time period “hacker” is inherently impartial, we usually apply descriptors in our reporting to supply context about who we’re speaking about. If we all know that a person works for a authorities and is contracted to maliciously steal information from a rival authorities, we’re prone to describe them as a nation-state or authorities hacker (or, if applicable, an superior persistent menace), for instance. If a gang is understood to make use of malware to steal funds from people’ financial institution accounts, we could describe them as financially motivated hackers, or if there’s proof of criminality or illegality (corresponding to an indictment), we could describe them merely as cybercriminals.
And, if we don’t know motivations or intentions, or an individual describes themselves as such, we could merely seek advice from a topic neutrally as a “hacker,” the place applicable.
(Additionally see: Superior persistent menace; Hacktivist; Unauthorized)
Generally, hacking and stealing information is barely step one. In some instances, hackers then leak the stolen information to journalists, or straight publish the information on-line for anybody to see. The objective may be both to embarrass the hacking sufferer, or to show alleged malfeasance.
The origins of contemporary hack-and-leak operations date again to the early- and mid-2000s, when teams like el8, pHC (“Phrack Excessive Council”) and zf0 have been concentrating on folks within the cybersecurity trade who, in line with these teams, had foregone the hacker ethos and had offered out. Later, there are the examples of hackers related to Nameless and leaking information from U.S. authorities contractor HBGary, and North Korean hackers leaking emails stolen from Sony as retribution for the Hollywood comedy, The Interview.
Among the most up-to-date and well-known examples are the hack in opposition to the now-defunct authorities spyware and adware pioneer Hacking Staff in 2015, and the notorious Russian government-led hack-and-leak of Democratic Nationwide Committee emails forward of the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Iranian authorities hackers tried to emulate the 2016 playbook through the 2024 elections.
A specific type of hacker who hacks for what they — and maybe the general public — understand as a superb trigger, therefore the portmanteau of the phrases “hacker” and “activist.” Hacktivism has been round for greater than 20 years, beginning maybe with teams just like the Cult of the Useless Cow within the late Nineteen Nineties. Since then, there have been a number of excessive profile examples of hacktivist hackers and teams, corresponding to Nameless, LulzSec, and Phineas Fisher.
(Additionally see: Hacker)
Quick for “data safety,” an alternate time period used to explain defensive cybersecurity targeted on the safety of knowledge and knowledge. “Infosec” could also be the popular time period for trade veterans, whereas the time period “cybersecurity” has grow to be broadly accepted. In fashionable instances, the 2 phrases have grow to be largely interchangeable.
Infostealers are malware able to stealing data from an individual’s laptop or gadget. Infostealers are sometimes bundled in pirated software program, like Redline, which when put in will primarily search out passwords and different credentials saved within the particular person’s browser or password supervisor, then surreptitiously add the sufferer’s passwords to the attacker’s methods. This lets the attacker check in utilizing these stolen passwords. Some infostealers are additionally able to stealing session tokens from a consumer’s browser, which permit the attacker to check in to an individual’s on-line account as in the event that they have been that consumer however while not having their password or multifactor authentication code.
(See additionally: Malware)
Jailbreaking is utilized in a number of contexts to imply using exploits and different hacking strategies to bypass the safety of a tool, or eradicating the restrictions a producer places on {hardware} or software program. Within the context of iPhones, for instance, a jailbreak is a way to take away Apple’s restrictions on putting in apps outdoors of its “walled backyard” or to realize the power to conduct safety analysis on Apple gadgets, which is often extremely restricted. Within the context of AI, jailbreaking means determining a solution to get a chatbot to give out data that it’s not presupposed to.
The kernel, as its title suggests, is the core a part of an working system that connects and controls just about all {hardware} and software program. As such, the kernel has the best degree of privileges, that means it has entry to just about any information on the gadget. That’s why, for instance, apps corresponding to antivirus and anti-cheat software program run on the kernel degree, as they require broad entry to the gadget. Having kernel entry permits these apps to observe for malicious code.
Malware is a broad umbrella time period that describes malicious software program. Malware can land in lots of types and be used to take advantage of methods in numerous methods. As such, malware that’s used for particular functions can usually be known as its personal subcategory. For instance, the kind of malware used for conducting surveillance on folks’s gadgets can be referred to as “spyware and adware,” whereas malware that encrypts information and calls for cash from its victims is known as “ransomware.”
(See additionally: Infostealers; Ransomware; Adware)
Metadata is data about one thing digital, fairly than its contents. That may embody particulars in regards to the dimension of a file or doc, who created it, and when, or within the case of digital images, the place the picture was taken and details about the gadget that took the picture. Metadata could not determine the contents of a file, however it may be helpful in figuring out the place a doc got here from or who authored it. Metadata can even seek advice from details about an trade, corresponding to who made a name or despatched a textual content message, however not the contents of the decision or the message.
Ransomware is a kind of malicious software program (or malware) that stops gadget homeowners from accessing its information, usually by encrypting the particular person’s information. Ransomware is normally deployed by cybercriminal gangs who demand a ransom cost — normally cryptocurrency — in return for offering the non-public key to decrypt the particular person’s information.
In some instances, ransomware gangs will steal the sufferer’s information earlier than encrypting it, permitting the criminals to extort the sufferer additional by threatening to publish the information on-line. Paying a ransomware gang is not any assure that the sufferer will get their stolen information again, or that the gang will delete the stolen information.
One of many first-ever ransomware assaults was documented in 1989, by which malware was distributed through floppy disk (an early type of detachable storage) to attendees of the World Well being Group’s AIDS convention. Since then, ransomware has advanced into a multi-billion greenback prison trade as attackers refine their ways and hone in on big-name company victims.
(See additionally: Malware; Sanctions)
Distant code execution refers back to the capacity to run instructions or malicious code (corresponding to malware) on a system from over a community, usually the web, with out requiring any human interplay from the goal. Distant code execution assaults can vary in complexity however may be extremely damaging when vulnerabilities are exploited.
(See additionally: Arbitrary code execution)
Cybersecurity-related sanctions work equally to conventional sanctions in that they make it unlawful for companies or people to transact with a sanctioned entity. Within the case of cyber sanctions, these entities are suspected of finishing up malicious cyber-enabled actions, corresponding to ransomware assaults or the laundering of ransom funds made to hackers.
The U.S. Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) administers sanctions. The Treasury’s Cyber-Associated Sanctions Program was established in 2015 as a part of the Obama administration’s response to cyberattacks concentrating on U.S. authorities businesses and personal sector U.S. entities.
Whereas a comparatively new addition to the U.S. authorities’s bureaucratic armory in opposition to ransomware teams, sanctions are more and more used to hamper and deter malicious state actors from conducting cyberattacks. Sanctions are sometimes used in opposition to hackers who’re out of attain of U.S. indictments or arrest warrants, corresponding to ransomware crews based mostly in Russia.
A broad time period, like malware, that covers a variety of surveillance monitoring software program. Adware is usually used to seek advice from malware made by non-public firms, corresponding to NSO Group’s Pegasus, Intellexa’s Predator, and Hacking Staff’s Distant Management System, amongst others, which the businesses promote to authorities businesses. In additional generic phrases, these kind of malware are like distant entry instruments, which permits their operators — normally authorities brokers — to spy and monitor their targets, giving them the power to entry a tool’s digicam and microphone or exfiltrate information. Adware can be known as business or authorities spyware and adware, or mercenary spyware and adware.
(See additionally: Stalkerware)
Stalkerware is a type of surveillance malware (and a type of spyware and adware) that’s normally offered to unusual shoppers beneath the guise of kid or worker monitoring software program however is commonly used for the needs of spying on the telephones of unwitting people, oftentimes spouses and home companions. The spyware and adware grants entry to the goal’s messages, location, and extra. Stalkerware usually requires bodily entry to a goal’s gadget, which provides the attacker the power to put in it straight on the goal’s gadget, actually because the attacker is aware of the goal’s passcode.
(See additionally: Adware)
What are you attempting to guard? Who’re you apprehensive about that might go after you or your information? How might these attackers get to the information? The solutions to those sorts of questions are what’s going to lead you to create a menace mannequin. In different phrases, menace modeling is a course of that a company or a person has to undergo to design software program that’s safe, and devise strategies to safe it. A menace mannequin may be targeted and particular relying on the scenario. A human rights activist in an authoritarian nation has a distinct set of adversaries, and information, to guard than a big company in a democratic nation that’s apprehensive about ransomware, for instance.
After we describe “unauthorized” entry, we’re referring to the accessing of a pc system by breaking any of its safety features, corresponding to a login immediate or a password, which might be thought of unlawful beneath the U.S. Pc Fraud and Abuse Act, or the CFAA. The Supreme Courtroom in 2021 clarified the CFAA, discovering that accessing a system missing any technique of authorization — for instance, a database with no password — isn’t unlawful, as you can’t break a safety function that isn’t there.
It’s price noting that “unauthorized” is a broadly used time period and infrequently utilized by firms subjectively, and as such has been used to explain malicious hackers who steal somebody’s password to interrupt in via to incidents of insider entry or abuse by staff.
A digital non-public community, or VPN, is a networking expertise that permits somebody to “just about” entry a personal community, corresponding to their office or dwelling, from wherever else on the earth. Many use a VPN supplier to browse the online, considering that this will help to keep away from on-line surveillance.
TechCrunch has a skeptics’ information to VPNs that may aid you resolve if a VPN is smart for you. If it does, we’ll present you the best way to arrange your individual non-public and encrypted VPN server that solely you management. And if it doesn’t, we discover among the privateness instruments and different measures you possibly can take to meaningfully enhance your privateness on-line.
A vulnerability (additionally known as a safety flaw) is a kind of bug that causes software program to crash or behave in an surprising method that impacts the safety of the system or its information. Generally, two or extra vulnerabilities can be utilized along with one another — referred to as “vulnerability chaining” — to realize deeper entry to a focused system.
(See additionally: Bug; Exploit)
A zero-day is a selected kind of safety vulnerability that has been publicly disclosed or exploited however the vendor who makes the affected {hardware} or software program has not been given time (or “zero days”) to repair the issue. As such, there could also be no quick repair or mitigation to stop an affected system from being compromised. This may be significantly problematic for internet-connected gadgets.
(See additionally: Vulnerability)
First revealed on September 20, 2024. Final up to date on December 23, 2024.