Glossary

Hacker

Hackers are technical wizards. Most are innocent geeks who enjoy working with computers. However, some use their skills for more sinister purposes: illegally breaking into systems or writing viruses and other malware.

Hard disk

A fixed magnetic disk drive used to store data on personal computers

Hardware firewall

A firewall that operates as a standalone device, such as a router, rather than running in software on a computer

Hoax email

An otherwise harmless email that is designed to cause alarm or get itself forwarded to other users (or both). For example a fake virus warning or a chain letter.

Honey pot

A system designed to look like a regular network but which, in fact, monitors and traces unauthorised access.

HTML Format Email

An email that uses HTML to make emails look like web pages.

Hypertext Mark up Language

The computer code that is used to describe the contents of web pages.