Hacker Alert Glossary

Anti-virus (AV) software: Used to prevent, detect, and remove computer viruses and malware, including botnets, worms, trojan horses, etc. These programs may also prevent and remove adware and spyware or may be combined with anti-spyware software to do remove these types of attacks.

Botnets: A collection of compromised computers that have been set up to forward spam, viruses and/or other attacks to other computers without the owner being aware of what is happening. The comprimised computer is called a zombie or robot or bot, hence the name, and is under the remote control of the master where the attack originates.

Computer Virus: A malicious computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without your permission or knowledge. Viruses can also spread to other computers by email or when you connect to the Internet. The term “computer virus” is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include computer viruses, worms, rootkits, and other exploits.

Cybercrime Threats: Criminal activity where a computer or network is involved in a crime. In many cases, your computer unknowingly becomes infected and then attempts to gain access to other computers over the Internet; launch a denial of service attack; send excessive email messages, called spam; and/or make your computer part of a botnet.

Firewall: Part of a home network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications. It is a device which is configured to permit or deny applications based upon a set of rules and other criteria. It can be implemented in either hardware or software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet. All messages entering or leaving the network pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

High Security Assessment: Hacker Alert gives you the risk level for your home network based on the threats detected. The high risk level, or red, means that an identity theft, cybercrime or computer virus threat has been detected, and one of the computers in your home is at risk. This threat must be removed immediately by following the steps in the Hacker Alert Wizard and before you do anything of a personal or financial nature online such as online banking.

Identity Theft Threats: Many online threats can lead to criminals stealing your identity or personal information online. The main threats that lead to identity theft include keyloggers, and Trojan horses.

Internet threats: Attacks launched by criminals over the Internet. Includes computer viruses, identity theft, cybercrime and other online threats.

Intrusion Detection System (IDS): A device that is embedded in the network to analyze the traffic for malicious activities. Intrusion detection is the process of analyzing the events occurring in a computer system or network and analyzing them for signs of possible attacks or threats and reporting on those incidents to users of the system.

Keyloggers: Programs designed to record the keys struck on the keyboard and to transmit the information back to the hacker. This could result in the hacker getting access to your passwords, usernames and credit card numbers that you use on your computer.

Low Security Assessment: Hacker Alert gives you the risk level for your home network based on the threats detected. The low risk level, or green, means that no known threats have been detected.

Malware: Malware, short for malicious software, is designed to infect a computer system without the owner’s consent. Malware includes computer viruses, spyware, worms, Trojan horses, botnets, crimeware, rootkits and many other online exploits.

Malware or virus signature: The pattern that characterizes a particular virus or malware. The signature is like a fingerprint in that it can be used to detect and identify specific malware. Security solutions, such as anti-virus software and Hacker Alert, use the signature to scan for the presence of malicious code.

Modem: A communications device that connects your computer or home network to the Internet. It allows data to be transmitted over a telephone or cable line.

Moderate Security Assessment: Hacker Alert gives you the risk level for your home network based on the threats detected. The moderate risk level, or yellow, means that a spyware threat has been detected. This means the computers in your home network may be at risk and you should find out more details at the Hacker Alert portal and decide if you need to remove the threat.

Rootkits: Technology used to hide the malware that helps hackers gain access to systems over an extended period of time while evading detection. They have the capacity to siphon and transmit sensitive data, for example: PINs, account passwords, credit card particulars, etc. Rootkits have been discovered that can operate successfully upon a variety of operating systems.

Router: A device used to forward, or route, data from one network to another. For example, a router would be used to forward data from your home network over the Internet.

SMS Messages: Stands for Short Message Service used with cellular communication, aka Text Messaging. Hacker Alert can send SMS alerts to your mobile device when a threat is detected. For added security, it is recommended that you enable SMS alerts so we send notifications to both email and SMS to make you aware of potential issues.

Spam: Abuse of an email messaging system to send unsolicited bulk messages. While generally spam refers to email spam, it can also apply to instant messaging, text messaging, newsgroups, blogs and other electronic messaging systems and digital media.

Spyware: Software that you may have knowingly or unknowingly installed on your computer that performs additional activities for which you did not consent or for which you may not be aware. These unwanted activities may include: collecting information about a user; redirecting Web browsers to different web pages; changing your computer’s settings or installing additional software that can result in slower performance and/or loss of Internet.

TDS Hacker Alert: Detects threats in your Internet traffic, sends you alerts and shows you step-by-step how to remove these threats that put your personal information at risk. Hackers cannot disable Hacker Alert because it is embedded in the TDS network. Hacker Alert is an always-on, always-up-to-date service that works when your anti-virus does not. There is nothing to install so the service will not slow down your computer or Internet connection.

Trojan horse: Malicious program that appears to perform a desirable function for the user but instead gives the hacker unauthorized access to one of your computers.