Data Protection Act
The Data Protection Act 1984 sets out the legal basis for handling and protecting private information and data in the UK
Decryption
The process of converting encrypted data back into its original form.
Denial of service
Flooding a
network with unwanted
packets to slow it down.
Denial of Service Attack
By overloading a service
hackers seek to make it unavailable to legitimate users. For example, by sending millions of
spam emails simultaneously to a mail
server, ordinary
traffic will get clogged up.
Desktop firewall
A
firewall that operates on a user's computer (as opposed to a
gateway firewall)
Dialler
A piece of software that uses a
modem to connect to the internet
Dial-up Connection
A dial-up connection uses a
modem (or sometimes an ISDN terminal adaptor) to connect to an
ISP. Usually these connections are quite slow and only open while the user is actually online.
Digital Audio Tape
A tape format used to store and
backup data.
Digital signature
Data that is bundled with a message or transmitted separately and is used to identify and authenticate the sender and message data. A valid digital
signature also confirms that the message has not been tampered with.
Discoverable
A
Bluetooth device that has been set up to broadcast its existence to other
Bluetooth devices
Domain Name Server
A
server that converts recognisable domain names (e.g. Microsoft.com) into their unique
IP address (e.g. 207.46.245.222).
Download
To transfer a copy of a file from a remote computer to a requesting computer by means of a
modem or
network.
Dumpster diving
A method of
social engineering in which criminals
raid rubbish bins to gather telling personal information
DVD writer
A device for creating DVDs
DVD-ROM
A version of the DVD format designed to store data rather than video