CYBER SAFE WOMEN

Glossary

Antivirus Software 

Computer software that attempts to block malicious programs/codes/software often known as viruses or malware from entering into and causing harm to a computer.  Anti-virus software can help protect your computer from viruses encountered on the Web. 

New computer viruses are “created” by cyber criminals every day, so it’s important to update your anti-virus software regularly.

Attachment
A document, a picture, a video clip, program or any other kind of file that can be attached and sent with an e-mail or instant message. Malicious programs, viruses or spyware are commonly spread through attachments.

Authentication 

Procedures that attempt to verify that a network user is who he or she claims to be.  A simple authentication procedure is a password, but software can be used to discover passwords (such as through key stroke loggers).  “Two-factor” authentication is the use of a password and a second form  of verification such as a fingerprint or series of digits generated through a “security token” or “security fob” provided by a network security provider.

Backdoor
In a computer system, a backdoor refers to an overlooked or hidden entry into a computer system. A backdoor allows a hacker or other unauthorized user to bypass a password requirement and to gain access to a computer.

Botnet

A network of computers that have been forced to operate on the commands of an unauthorized remote user, usually without the knowledge of their owners or operators.  This network of “remotely accessed” computers is then utilized to commit attacks on other systems.  The computers on botnets are at times referred to as “zombies”.   

Botnets are used broadly by cybercriminals internationally.

Cloud Computing

A model for enabling on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing capabilities or resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

Critical Infrastructure

The systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to society that the incapacity or destruction of such may have a debilitating impact on the security, economy, public health or safety, environment, or any combination of these matters.

Cybercrime

Cybercrime is one of the most significant risks facing companies and governments today.  Criminals and other malicious actors around the world, and sometimes even trusted insiders, are increasingly working to gain access to sensitive financial and customer information, disrupt business operations, and steal valuable intellectual property.  Individual community members and professionals throughout all industries have a critical role to play in preventing cyber risk.

Cybercrime can cover a very wide range of attacks. Understanding this wide variation in types of cybercrime is important as different types of cybercrime require different approaches to improving your personal and  network safety.

Symantec draws from the many definitions of cybercrime and defines it concisely as any crime that is committed using a computer or network, or hardware device. The computer or device may be the agent of the crime, the facilitator of the crime, or the target of the crime. The crime may take place on the computer alone or in addition to other locations. The broad range of cybercrime can be better understood by dividing it into two overall categories, defined for this purpose as Type I and Type II cybercrime.

Type I cybercrime has the following characteristics:

• It is generally a single event from the perspective of the victim. For example, the victim unknowingly downloads a Trojan horse which installs a keystroke logger on his or her machine. Alternatively, the victim might receive an e-mail containing what claims to be a link to known entity, but in reality is a link to a hostile website.

• It is often facilitated by crime ware programs such as keystroke loggers, viruses, rootkits or Trojan horses.

• Software flaws or vulnerabilities often provide the foothold for the attacker. For example, criminals controlling a website may take advantage of vulnerability in a Web browser to place a Trojan horse on the victim's computer.

Examples of this type of cybercrime include but are not limited to phishing, theft or manipulation of data or services via hacking or viruses, identity theft, and bank or e-commerce fraud.

Type II cybercrime, at the other end of the spectrum, includes, but is not limited to activities such as cyber stalking and harassment, child predation, extortion, blackmail, stock market manipulation, complex corporate espionage, and planning or carrying out terrorist activities.

The characteristics of Type II cybercrime are:

• It is generally an on-going series of events, involving repeated interactions with the target. For example, the target is contacted in a chat room by someone who, over time, attempts to establish a relationship. Eventually, the criminal exploits the relationship to commit a crime. Or, members of a terrorist cell or criminal organization may use hidden messages to communicate in a public forum to plan activities or discuss money laundering locations, for example.

• It is generally facilitated by programs that do not fit into under the classification crime ware. For example, conversations may take place using IM (instant messaging) clients or files may be transferred using FTP.

Cyber stalking

Cyber stalking is a group of behaviors in which an individual or group of individuals uses information technology (IT) or communication technology to harass another individual, group of individuals or an organization.

Cyber stalking may include computer key-stroke logging, physical monitoring through GPS tracking, video and audio taping and monitoring individuals through their computer web cams; use of hidden “nanny cams” placed in a victim’s home and phone monitoring,. 

These behaviors may be accompanied by threats, extortion, solicitation and escalating forms of aggression  or* identity theft.

* In this definition, it is important to recognize that the term identity theft includes impersonating an individual, a member of an organization or an entire business.

Cyber stalking is often seen in patterns of physical forms of stalking, with electronic mediums and technology such the internet and  telephone systems used to pursue, harass or contact another in an unsolicited fashion.

Deep Packet Inspection

A procedure that scans the packets of data that make up an e-mail, webpage, or other Internet traffic.

Delusional Stalker

The Delusional Stalker Fantasizes about his relationship with the victim. As described by Wright, (1996) this fantasy is commonly expressed in such forms as “fusion”, where the stalker blends his personality into the target’s, or Erotomania, where a fantasy is based on idealized romantic love or spiritual union of a person rather than sexual attraction.  A Delusional Stalker may create a relationship with the victim in their mind and activities of their life, when there is no relationship.

Domestic Stalker

Domestic Stalking involves a prior relationship between the stalker and the victim.  As emphasized by Wright (1996) domestic stalking often ends in a violent attack upon the victim.  Such attacks may occur in various locations

Download
The transfer of data from one computer (or server) to another computer. Downloading can refer to documents, software programs, photo, music or movie files. Often downloads can mask unwanted malicious programs

Edge

The region of the internet where local traffic connects to a larger, nationally connected fiber-optic cable.  An edge router directs locally originated traffic on the national network.

Encryption

The scrambling of information so that the data is unreadable to those who do not have the code to unscramble it.

Femtocells

Femtocells, also referred to as “network extenders”, are tiny wireless base stations that are often legitimately used by mobile network operators to extend wireless service to low-coverage zones.  The compact boxes, are essentially small cell phone towers that are as small as a standard cable modem.  Femtocells (a.k.a. network extenders) can be deployed in hard-to-reach spots like the top of an apartment building or a building in remote area. 

Femtocells can now be inexpensively purchased and in the hands of cybercriminals, stalkers and other predators, Femtocells are effortlessly used to hack into the cellphones of vulnerable and unsuspecting children and adults.

Widely used in this manner by modern predators and cybercriminals, Femtocells effortlessly enable predators direct access to a victim’s cell phone, creating silent, in time access to all of a victim’s cell phone conversations, texts, photos, video and GPS data.

GHB, which is short for gamma hydroxybutyric (GAM-muh heye-DROX-ee-BYOO-tur-ihk) acid

 One of the three most common date rape drugs. 

GHB has a few forms: a liquid with no odor or color, white powder, and pill. It might give your drink a slightly salty taste. Mixing it with a sweet drink, such as fruit juice, can mask the salty taste

Global Positioning (GPS)Tracking

The monitoring of location and movement using a GPS system.. Women and Children must remain aware that the GPS in technology may be trackable by a predator.

Grooming

The systematic way that sexual predators manipulate their victims into trusting them, depending on them emotionally and ultimately meeting them.  This usually involves sympathy, the calculated use of flattery and deliberate and sometimes subtle ways to alienate the victim from others. 

Predators are very skilled is pre-assessing victims and determining which tactics and methods will be most effective on a specific woman or child.  Predators are very skilled at evaluating and determining a woman or child’s vulnerabilities and adapt their strategies accordingly.  This process may occur over only a few days, or it may happen over an extended period of time, lasting from months to years.  Often women and older children are so emotionally and mentally manipulated that they actually come to believe it is a “love” relationship or a true friendship and initially unknowingly participate in their own abuse. 

Grooming for Corporate Cybercrime

Grooming used with the primary or secondary intent to commit corporate cybercrime is the systematic way that cybercrime predators manipulate their victims into trusting them emotionally, psychologically and professionally  

Professional trust or an “illusion” of credibility must be established if the predator is attempting to enter the workplace (hospital setting, law firm, corporation or retail business) through the computer network or physically. This usually involves an orchestrated and calculated use of flattery, sympathy, a strategic use of fraudulent or stolen credentials and identities, and a well-orchestrated “supporting network of participating cyber-criminals”.

Hacker

A hacker is someone who has the technical knowledge or support to intentionally breach or "hack" into computer systems to steal or alter critical or confidential information; to cause damage to a computer , utility system or  corporate IT network. Hackers are often looking to find Intellectual Property (IP), financial or personal information; or data to facilitate extortion and social engineering.  Used as a verb,  the word “hack” means to break into a system (such as a telephone or computer system).

Instant Messaging (IM)

Instant messaging rivals e-mail as the most popular form of online communication. IM allows users to relay messages to each other in real time for a "conversation" between two or more people. IM is also becoming the quickest new threat to network security. Because many IM systems have been slow to add security features, hackers have found IM a useful means of spreading viruses, spyware, phishing scams, and a wide variety of worms. Typically, these threats have infiltrated systems through attachments or contaminated messages.

Ketamine (KEET-uh-meen)  

One of the three most common date rape drugs. Ketamine comes as a liquid and a white powder.

Keystroke Logger

A form of spyware that enables a predator to pre-assess and monitor potential victims.  Keystroke Loggers can be quietly downloaded without a woman or child’s awareness, enabling a malicious party to have direct information about a woman or child’s online activities including passwords; online social and business calendar appointments; personal interests, personal correspondences; and private banking and investment information.

Lock Picking

A common tactic used by cybercriminals to gain illegal access to the personal residences and some less secured sites of business of targeted victims.

Logic Bombs

A software application or series of instructions that cause a system of network to shut down and/or to erase all data or software on the network.

Malware

Malicious software that causes computers or networks to do things that owners or users would not want done and are not in the user’s best interest. This term refers to any "malicious software" created to damage or illegally access a computer or network. Computer viruses, key stroke loggers, worms, logic bombs, spyware, and adware are all examples of malware. 

Organized Stalker

A stalker who targets and communicates with the victim through hang-up telephone calls, obscene or harassing telephone calls; e-mails through alias or stolen e-mail accounts, and other anonymous communication. 

The stalker may present a false identity or alias to cover their true identity if any identity is presented to the victim.  Some stalkers may make their presence known to their victim through continuous physical appearances near the victim’s place of employment, near her residence or other locations.  Increasing use of GPS tracking by predators makes women more vulnerable as stalkers literally track each movement and can localize victims in locations and at points of time when she is vulnerable to intimidation or assault.

Phishing 

Typically refers to an urgent instant message or e-mail message meant to lure recipients into responding. Often these messages will appear to be from a friend, a bank or other legitimate source asking for personal information such as names, passwords, Social Security numbers or credit card information. These messages might also direct users to phony Web sites to trick users into providing personal information. Users falling for the "bait," often have their money or identities stolen.

Phone Hacking or Phone Tapping

Cellular phone hacking is a practice whereby a third party gains unauthorized access to an individual’s cellular phone through a variety of methods.

This term is also known as cell phone hacking, cell phone spying, phone hacking, or phreaking.  Simply put, cell phone hacking occurs when someone else gets into your phone. Depending on their motives, the hacker may simply view data stored on the phone, broadcast your location or send messages to your contacts under your name.

However, more serious instances of cell phone hacking involve hackers:

•Deleting data
•Adding malicious programs
•Gaining access to sensitive information like bank accounts
•Transcribing private conversations
•Storing copies of texts and emails

Common ways that a hacker gains access to your cellular phone include:

•Bluehacking - gaining access to your phone when it is a discoverable device on an unprotected Bluetooth network
•Unnoticed access to an unlocked phone left unattended in a public space
•Mimicry of a trusted network or cell phone tower
•Phone cloning by copying the SIM card of the target phone
•Malware apps that install malicious software or make changes to firmware
•Phishing via mobile optimized sites
•Fraudulent account resets using known information about the user (phone number, birth date, address and so on)

With so many methods available and more sensitive data being stored on smartphones and mobile devices, cellular phone security has become a major concern.

Rohypnol (roh-HIP-nol)

Rohypnol is the trade name for flunitrazepam (FLOO-neye-TRAZ-uh-pam).  One of the three most common date rape drugs .  Abuse of two similar drugs appears to have replaced Rohypnol abuse in some parts of the United States.   These are: clonazepam (marketed as Klonopin in the U.S.and Rivotril in Mexico) and alprazolam (marketed as Xanax).

 
Rohypnol comes as a pill that dissolves in liquids. Some are small, round, and white. Newer pills are oval and green-gray in color. When slipped into a drink, a dye in these new pills makes clear liquids turn bright blue and dark drinks turn cloudy. But this color change might be hard to see in a dark drink, like cola or dark beer, or in a dark room. Also, the pills with no dye are still available. The pills may be ground up into a powder.

Root Kit

A rootkit is similar to a hack tool. An intruder uses a rootkit to gain administrator-level access to a computer. These tools are generally very difficult to detect and are installed by cracking a password or through a known vulnerability. 

Social Engineering

Direct communication by a cybercriminal, either in person, by phone or over the Internet, designed to begin grooming a target, with the primary or secondary intent to commit corporate cybercrime; or trick a target into providing personal information; or information that may enable them assess to the medical network or another individual..

Spyware
Spyware refers to a software program that slips into your computer without your consent to track your personal and online activity.  The spyware is generally installed without the user's knowledge and often undetected by anti-virus software.  There are increasingly advanced and diverse forms of spyware that are capable of recording and track different types of activity.

Thermal Imaging

Thermal Imaging is an extreme misuse

of technology by predators with escalating and pathologic needs for control over their victims.

The infrared heat that a stalking victim emits from her body can be "viewed" and recorded  with an infrared camera. The heat patterns that can be seen show how the blood flows and changes (increases or decreases) in response to fear, stimulation, or other emotional and physiologic states. 

This is an extreme misuse of technology by predators with escalating and pathologic needs for control over their victims.

Trapdoor

Unauthorized software maliciously added to a program to allow unauthorized entry into an IT network or into the software program.  In cybercrime, after a cyber-criminal has made initial illegal entry, they may leave behind a trap door to able easy future and ongoing access.  

Virus
A program that attaches itself to an executable file or vulnerable application and delivers a payload that can ranges from annoying to extremely destructive. A file virus executes when an infected file is accessed. 

Worm
Similar to how a worm burrows through an orchard apple making it inedible, a computer worm is a program built to reproduce itself and spread across a network, rendering it ineffective. A worm may be designed to complete several different malicious activities. However, one common denominator is that a worm can harm a network by consuming large amounts of bandwidth, potentially shutting the network down.

References  
 

Anonymous (1987). Report on Costs of Domestic Violence.  Victims Services of New York.

Anonymous (2002). Abuse in Pregnancy: Information and Strategies for the Prenatal Educator.  Perinatal Partnership Program of Eastern and Southeastern Ontario (PPPESO). Retrieved from http://work.webcanvas.ca/documents/beststart_prenatal_educators_resource.pdf

Anonymous (2004).  Abuse in the Perinatal Period: Guidelines for Care Providers. Perinatal Partnership Program of Eastern and Southeastern Ontario (PPPESO).  Retrieved from http://work.webcanvas.ca/documents/pppeso_woman_abuse_guideline.pdf

Anonymous (2007). Who's Spying on Your Computer? Spyware, Surveillance, and Safety for Survivors. National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV). Retrieved from http://nnedv.org/docs/SafetyNet/NNEDV_SpyWareAndSafety_English.pdf

Anonymous (2013). Department of Homeland Security: Stop. Think. Connect.  U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect-cyber-tips

Bocij, P. (2004). Cyber-stalking: Harassment in the Internet Age and How To Protect Your Family.. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Bocij, P. (2006). The Dark Side of the Internet: Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Online Criminals. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Clarke, R. ( 2010). Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to do About It. New York, NY: Harper-Collins.

Criddle, L. (2006). Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press.

Fink,E. & Segall, L. (2013). Femtocell hack reveals mobile phones' calls, texts and photos. CNNMoney. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/15/technology/security/femtocell-phone-hack/index.html

Mullen P., Pathe’, M., Purcell, R. and Stuart,G. (1999). A Study of Stalkers. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1244-49.

Mullen P., Pathe’, M. and Purcell, R. (2000). Stalkers and Their Victims. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.  

Rosenblatt, K.(1996).  High-Technology Crime: Investigating Cases Involving Computers. San Jose, CA: KSK Publications.

Tucker, S., Cremer, T., Fraser, C., & Southworth, C. (2005). A High-Tech Twist on Abuse. Family Violence Prevention and Health Practice, 3, 1-5.