The IT Christmas Crossword

12345678910111213141516171819
Across
  1. 4. Where you might store the entire nice/naughty list.
  2. 6. Where your data spends Christmas… not just snow.
  3. 8. Removing errors… like sweeping up fallen pine needles from code.
  4. 10. The hardworking machine delivering more than Christmas dinner.
  5. 12. Unwanted messages—not the Christmas ham variety.
  6. 13. Running many “elves” on one big machine.
  7. 15. The digital chimney that lets applications talk to each other.
  8. 18. Proving it’s really you and not the Grinch logging in.
  9. 19. Step‑by‑step rules—like Santa’s process for checking his list twice.
Down
  1. 1. The thing you wish you did before the holiday outage.
  2. 2. A software fix you hope arrives more often than Christmas gifts.
  3. 3. Turning it off and on again—the IT equivalent of festive magic.
  4. 5. Digital mischief-makers worse than any Christmas prank.
  5. 7. When cyber‑Grinches go fishing for your credentials.
  6. 9. Scrambling data so only Santa with the right key can read it.
  7. 11. A security barrier that keeps the naughty list out of your network.
  8. 14. The reason video calls freeze during family catch‑ups.
  9. 16. A small file websites store—less tasty than Santa’s prefered kind.
  10. 17. The delay that feels like waiting for Christmas morning.