Over the last year, the majority of our lives have moved to existing mainly online. Going from house parties to zoom calls, window shopping to online orders and even working and studying.
But, with so much of our day to day now taking place solely on the internet, how much have we managed to protect ourselves from cybercriminals?
A lot of the cyberworld is written in what looks like a completely different language, making it feel impossible to understand.
So, in order to help you wrap your head around some of these slightly strange terms, VPNOverview have put together a comprehensive glossary of acronyms, abbreviations and phrases that are commonly used in the cybersecurity world.
Some phrases are quite straightforward, such as ‘Ad Blocker’, a program or browser-extension which blocks advertisements or obtrusive pop-ups.
However, others sound a lot more complicated. Here are some of the more interesting phrases explained:
You can see all 50+ glossary definitions here.
Acronyms are a huge part of the cybersecurity language, and some are a lot more in depth than just WWW.
For example, TOFU does not have anything to do with a soybean curd used in cooking. In the computing world it stands for ‘Trust On First Use’. This is an authentication scheme that requires new users to establish trust to access a file (usually used on by client software when sharing sensitive info).
There’s even acronyms that are used to describe software that isn’t even used anymore!
PPTP stands for ‘Point to Point Tunneling Protocol’ and refers to A VPN Protocol that is currently outdated, and is rarely used as it is perceived as unsafe.
One we’ve all heard of before is HTTPS. This acronym usually appears in the search bar, just before the website’s name that you’re browsing.
It stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, and it actually refers to a protocol that is used for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the internet.
VPNOverview’s David Janssen said: “We decided to put this in depth glossary together because we know so many people are browsing the internet unprotected from nasty viruses, cybercriminals and malicious software.
“We wanted to offer a helping hand, giving people a better insight into the complex terminology used in the cybersecurity industry. This way, we can all navigate the internet feeling more clued up, and ready to put up our virtual castle walls.”