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shredding The physical destruction of the platters of a hard disk to ensure that the contents can never be recovered.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) A network protocol used when sending e-mail.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) An application layer protocol that facilitates the set or read management information in the Management Information Base (MIB) of a network device.

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) A protocol for exchanging XML-based messages using HTTP or SMTP as the transport.

smart card A device with an embedded microprocessor and storage space, often used with an access code to permit certificate-based authentication.

social engineering The art of exploiting weaknesses common in human nature to trick a person into revealing useful information such as a user ID, password, or other confidential information.

spyware Malicious software intended to intervene in or monitor the use of a computer without the user's permission. Spyware doesn't self-replicate like worms and Trojans.

steganography The practice of hiding a message within an image, audio, or video file. It's a form of a covert channel.

System Integrity Verifier (SIV) A program that monitors system file hashes to determine whether a file has been changed, such as if an intruder altered or overwrote a system file. Tripwire is one of the most popular SIVs.

TCP/IP The protocol suite of definitions for communications at layers 3 and 4 of the OSI model. TCP/IP is the standard communication method that computers use to communicate over the Internet.

Telnet An application used to create a remote session with a computer.

Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) An encryption standard defined in IEEE 802.11i and WPA for Wi-Fi networks designed to replace WEP. TKIP was structured to replace WEP with a more secure solution without replacing legacy hardware.

third party A person, group, or business indirectly involved in a transaction or other relationship between principals.

threat An intentional or unintentional action that has the capability of causing harm to an information system.

time bomb A type of logic bomb, with a delayed payload that is triggered by reaching some preset time, either once or periodically.

time to live (TTL) A field in the IP header that indicates the amount of time a transmitted packet will be valid. The TTL defines how many router hops a packet can make before it must be discarded. If a packet is discarded by a router, an ICMP error message is generated to the sender.

timestamp A number that represents the date and time. Recording timestamps is important for tracking events as they occur on a computer.

Token Ring A LAN protocol that resides at the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model. It uses a token passing access method and connects up to 255 nodes in a star topology at 4, 16, or 100 Mbps.

traceroute A tool to trace a path to a destination system.

traffic The data being transferred across the network media.

Trojan horse A program that seems to be useful or harmless but in fact contains hidden code embedded to take advantage of or damage the computer on which it's run.

tunneling Encapsulating one protocol or session inside the data structure of another protocol.

tunneling virus A virus that attempts to tunnel underneath antivirus software so that it's not detected.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) The address that defines the route to a file on a web server (HTTP server).

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) The connectionless, unreliable Internet protocol that functions at layer 4 of the OSI model.

virus Malicious code written with an intention to damage the user's computer. Viruses are parasitic and attach to other files or boot sectors. They need the movement of a file to infect other computers.

virus hoax A bluff in the name of a virus. Creators attempt to arouse fear, and sometimes encourage the removal of system files.

virus signature A unique string of bits that forms a recognizable binary pattern. This pattern is a fingerprint that can be used to detect and eradicate