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Appendix B²⁵

Glossary

Disc: a medium for the storage of data. Most disks now in use are magnetically coated, and store the 1’s and 0’s of digital data by imprinting (or not imprinting) a tiny magnetic field on the disk. Optical disks work on a similar basis with a laser and a reflective (or non-reflective) coating.

Download: to transfer data from a remote (usually large) computer to a local (usually small) one.

Logic bomb: a nasty section of codes which is covertly inserted into a program or operating system. It triggers some activity whenever a specific condition is met. The activity is generally destructive.

Password: A sequence of characters which serves as a kind of text key in gaining access to computers. To maintain security, passwords should be known only to their owners and be hard to guess.

Packet: a way of organising data for communication. Instead of a steady stream of bits and bytes, most computer communications split data into discreet packets. As well as data, each packet typically contains the address to which the packet is being sent, a number which denotes that packet’s place in the sequence and information which helps to detect and correct errors. Some packets also contain information about what type of data is being sent. Others serve administrator functions in setting up routes and managing the flow of data. The advantage of packets is their flexibility and efficiency. Packets from different communications can easily be intermixed to maximise use of a line. Packets from the same communication can travel by different routes to speed passage over a crowded network. Given the speed of today’s computers, packets can easily carry time-sensitive data, like interactive video, or voice conversations. But the drawback of packet data is, nonetheless, the extra overhead of splitting data into packets at one end and recombining them at the other.

Trojan horse: a program used to capture unsuspecting people’s log-ons and passwords. Typically a Trojan horse looks like the screen ordinarily presented when first logging on to a computer. But, unlike the usual screen, it records the log-on and password - where the creator of the Trojan horse can later retrieve them - before allowing the user to go about his or her business.

Virus: a computer virus is actually a generic term for computer code which replicates, not only throughout the storage medium in which it incubates, but also across the network to which that computer is connected. Without anti-viral software a computer connected to the Internet poses a threat to all other computers also connected, and risks infection from those other computers. The ability to infect a home page with a virus, and even a word processing document, makes the Internet capable of spreading malicious code widely and rapidly.

Worm: a programme that propagates itself across a network, automatically transferring itself to distant machines and running itself there (from whence it transfers itself to more machines). In contrast to a virus which secretes itself inside another program and thus is only spread when the programme carrying it is spread worms take charge of their own reproduction. This reproduction and expansion can cause the computer storage system to run more slowly and can also cause the computer itself to slow down. It is important to note that is does not attach itself to the operating system of the computer it infects; it does not directly impair the workings of a computer.