Know Your Hacker Lingo
                               12-24-2004 10:51 AM
                               By RACHEL KONRAD

                               SAN JOSE, Calif. --  Phreaks, spoofers and
                               spammers want to invade your home computer,
                               and the tricks of their trade include
airsnarfs,
                               wabbits and fork bombs.

                               Few consumers know hacker lingo, and, even
if
                               they did, the most vigilant expert can't
make a
                               computer 100 percent safe against attacks.
But
                               technology executives say they are
undertaking
                               unprecedented educational campaigns to teach
                               consumers about emerging cyberthreats.

                               Most major computer brands, including IBM,
                               Hewlett-Packard and Dell, publish holiday
                               guidelines for employees so they can help
                               consumers protect their machines.

                               IBM's security gurus also update a
dictionary
                               that describes various "cyber villains" and
                               other dangers in nontechnical terms.

                               Here are some entries from Big Blue's
"Version
                               1.0 Online Security Dictionary," an employee
                               reference guide that's currently published
only
                               on IBM's internal Web site:

                               _ Airsnarf (noun): A rogue wireless device
added
                               to a network that steals usernames and
passwords
                               from people using public wireless hotspots.

                               _ Backdoor (noun): A way to bypass
                               authentication and obtain remote access to a
                               computer. A spammer might install a backdoor
to
                               send junk mail from that computer.

                               _ Bot (noun): A software program designed to
act
                               like a person and infiltrate computers. For
                               example, a bot may be programmed to
                               automatically delete e-mails containing
certain
                               words or to sweep up and collect certain
                               information from a PC.

                               _ List bomb (verb): Forging messages that
cause
                               the victim to unknowingly subscribe to mass
                               mailing lists (such as a subscription to an
                               online newsletter) in volumes that may crash
                               their systems.

                               _ Phreaking (verb): Cracking into the
telephone
                               network, which has now evolved to include
                               cracking into cell phones and computer
                               communications networks.

                               _ Spit (noun): Spam sent over an Internet
                               telephone connection.

                               _ Spim (noun): Spam sent over an instant
message
                               connection.

                               _ Spoofing (verb): Impersonating another
host on
                               a network; pretending to be a trusted host.

                               _ Wabbit (noun): Any hack that repeatedly
                               replicates itself on a local computer

                               _ Fork bomb (noun): A species of "wabbit"
that
                               performs a denial of service on a computer
                               system by creating a large number of
processes
                               very quickly and overloading the computer.
                               ___
                               On the Net:
                               IBM's holiday security tips:

http://www-03.ibm.com/security/news/ten-tips.html