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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/798
30 MacDirectory DEPARTMENT AN APPLE A DAY > TECH TERMS MADE SIMPLE WORDS BY MARY ROSENTHOL 404 > This is a frequently seen status code that tells a Web user that a requested page is "Not found." 404 and other status codes are part of the Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP, written in 1992 by the Web's inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. Banker Trojan > A malicious program used in an attempt to obtain confidential information about customers and clients using online banking and payment systems. Blacklist > A generic name for a list of e-mail or IP addresses that originate with known spammers. Individuals and companies can use blacklists to filter out unwanted e-mails, as most e-mail applica- tions today have filtering capabilities. Hacktivism > The act of hacking into a Web site or computer system to communicate a politically or socially motivated message. Unlike a malicious hacker, who may disrupt a system for financial gain or out of a desire to cause harm, the hactivist performs the same kinds of disruptive actions in order to draw attention to a cause. It is an Internet- enabled way to practice civil disobedience and protest. Hypermedia > Hypermedia is an extension of hypertext that allows images, movies, and Flash animations to be linked to other content. The most common type of hypermedia is an image link. Photos or graphics on the Web are often linked to other pages. For example, clicking a small "thumbnail" image may open a larger version of the picture in a new window. If a cursor changes into a small hand, that means an image or video is linked to another page. Clicking the text, image, or video will open up a new location in your Web browser. Joe Job > A form of e-mail spoofing in which someone uses a personal e-mail server to send mass quantities of e-mail. The phrase Joe Job was coined by an attack on Joes.com in January 1997, when a former user sent the spam to anger users and cause harm to the Web site. Pierre Salinger Syndrome > The tendency for one to believe that everything he reads on the Internet is true. The syndrome is named for the former White House press secretary and longtime journalist who reportedly relayed a bogus report that he read on the Internet, stating that TWA Flight 800, which crashed in 1996, had been the victim of friendly missile fire. Salinger did not get his information from the Internet but from reputable security agents who were incorrect. Rootkit > A collection of tools or programs that enable administrator-level access to a computer or computer network. Typically, a hacker installs a rootkit on a computer after first obtaining user- level access, either by exploiting a person or cracking a password. Once the rootkit is installed, it allows the attacker to mask intrusion and gain root or privileged access to the computer and, possibly, other machines on the network. A rootkit may consist of spyware and other programs that monitor traffic and keystrokes, create a "backdoor" into the system for the hacker's use, alter log files, attack other machines on the network, and alter existing system tools to escape detection. Talking Trojan > A talking Trojan is a Trojan Horse virus that mocks the user of an infected PC with a repeating audio message while it deletes the contents of the hard drive. Security vendor Panda Software SA detected the first talking Trojan, BotVoice.A, in summer 2007. Warez > Illegally pirated commercial software made available to the public via the Internet. Typically, the pirate has figured out a way to de-activate the copy- protection or registration scheme used by the software. Web 2.0 > A term that was introduced in 2004, it refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web. The term "2.0" comes from the software industry, in which new versions of software programs are labeled with increasing number values. Like software, the new generation of the Web includes new features and functionality that was not available in the past. However, Web 2.0 does not refer to a specific version of the Web, but rather a series of technological improvements. Some improvements include social networks such as Facebook and sites such as Wikipedia in which information is constantly added and updated.