Adware and spyware are perhaps the most common type of computer infections. Both of these infections are usually picked up by browsing malicious websites or downloading software from an untrusted source. Adware’s purpose is to show advertisements to you at all times, even when you aren’t online. This can be very annoying, and it will slow down your [..]

The new software paradigm is apps. Apps are applications that run on cell phones, tablets, and computers, such as the Chromebook. There’s an app for everything. Many are free. Some free ones give you the capability to purchase add-ons through in-app dialogs. Apps are what we used to call programs or applications. These days they’re just apps.

Backdoors are much like Trojans, in that they are seemingly normal programs at first. When a computer user runs it, a “door” is opened to the user’s computer. Then, the backdoor creator can use this door to take control of the computer in any desired way. Backdoor users have full control of the system, so they can delete entire drives or steal pers [..]

Data drives everything that we do. If you think about it, data has always been big. We’ve always fretted about data storage, since the beginning of the computer age. As far back as I can remember, data has always been a problem, but not always a popular buzzword. It simply means huge amounts of data flowing into and out of a computing environment. [..]

Our computer systems and networks used to be the targets of bot, now they are a resource for bot armies or botnets

Browser hijacking is a type of online fraud. Scammers use malicious software to take control of your computer’s Internet browser and change how and what it displays when you’re surfing the web.

What buzzword dictionary or analysis would be complete without including the term, Cloud? The answer is none. Cloud is one of those terms tossed around by everyone and unfortunately few really understand what it is. Cloud is a generic term for commoditized services, such as storage or workload computing power. Under the layers of other related buzz [..]

Since the NSA’s alledged spying was brought to light by overpaid, underqualified, trained-as-a-spy Edward Snowden, much has been said and written about data privacy. Here, in a nutshell, is what data privacy is: Nonexistent. You know what’s private? Only the thoughts in your head. And that’s only if aliens aren’t tapping into your brainwaves (cue t [..]

Dialer programs are programs using the system to connect to the Internet by calling a 900 number or by calling to an FTP site

Denial-of-service or a DoS attack is an attack on a network that is designed to bring the network to its knees by flooding it with useless traffic. Many DoS attacks, such as the Ping of Death and Teardrop attacks, exploit limitations in the TCP/IP protocols. For all known DoS attacks, there are software fixes that system administrators can install [..]