Across
- 3. Pronounced "fishing," phishing is a scam to steal valuable information such as credit card and social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. Also known as "brand spoofing," an official-looking email is sent to potential victims pretending to be from their bank or retail establishment. Emails can be sent to people on any list, expecting that some percentage of recipients will actually have an account with the organization.
- 5. USB is a hardware interface for up to 127 peripherals that is governed by the USB Implementers Forum (see USB-IF). USB is used to attach keyboards, mice, printers, external storage and mobile devices to the computer. It is also used for charging a wide variety of portable products (see USB power). After debuting in 1997, USB soon replaced the earlier serial port, parallel port and Apple Desktop Bus.
- 7. (Uniform Resource Locator) The address that defines the route to a file on an Internet server (Web server, mail server, etc.). URLs are typed into a Web browser to access Web pages and files, and URLs are embedded within the pages themselves as links (see hypertext).
- 9. An inhouse website that serves employees only, and most medium-sized and large companies have one. Although intranet pages may have links to websites on the Internet, the intranet is not exposed to, or is accessed by, the general public. It provides a standard way to publish company policy, news, schedules, medical and insurance forms and training manuals. The intranet is also a venue for publishing blogs, wikis and social activities such as sports and exercise schedules.
- 11. The primary method for keeping a computer secure from intruders. A firewall allows or blocks traffic into and out of a private network or the user's computer. Firewalls are widely used to give users secure access to the Internet as well as to separate a company's public Web server from its internal network. Firewalls are also used to keep internal network segments secure; for example, the accounting network might be vulnerable to snooping from within the enterprise.
- 13. Instructions for the computer. A series of instructions that performs a particular task is called a "program." The two major software categories are "system software" and "application software."
- 15. The fundamental display element of an electronic screen or bitmapped image. Screen resolution is rated by the number of horizontal and vertical pixels; for example, 1024x768 means 1,024 pixels are displayed in each row, and there are 768 rows (lines). Likewise, bitmapped images are sized in pixels: a 350x250 image has 350 pixels across and 250 down.
Down
- 1. To store data locally in order to speed up subsequent retrievals. Pronounced "cash." See Web cache and browser cache.
- 2. See in-system programmable.
- 4. The term internet, spelled with a lower case "i," has always meant a large network made up of smaller networks. Today, the term mostly refers to the global Internet, properly spelled with an upper case "I" but increasingly written as lower case.
- 6. Computer people may use the term for capability and time. For example, "not enough bandwidth to get the job done" means not enough staff or time to do it. Its true meaning follows.
- 8. Machinery and equipment (CPUs, drives, keyboards, printers, scanners, cables, etc.). In operation, a computer is both hardware and software, and one is useless without the other. The hardware design specifies the command format it can follow, and the software instructions in that format tell it what to do. See instruction set and computer.
- 10. To write and post an entry in a Weblog.
- 12. A small text file (up to 4KB) created by a website that is stored in the user's computer either temporarily for that session only or permanently on the hard disk (persistent cookie). Cookies provide a way for the website to recognize you and keep track of your preferences.
- 14. The computing part of the computer. Also called the "processor," the CPU is made up of the control unit, which executes the instructions, and the ALU, which performs the calculations and logical operations. Today, the CPUs of almost all computers are contained on a single microprocessor chip, and multiple processing units on one chip are commonplace (see multicore). See microprocessor, control unit and ALU.