Introduction to Cybersecurity - Lecture Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards detailing core concepts, historical milestones, and the CIA triad security goals presented in the Introduction to Cybersecurity lecture.

Cybersecurity

The protection of Internet-connected systems—including hardware, software, and data—from cyber attacks, encompassing the body of technologies, processes, and practices designed to safeguard networks, devices, programs, and data from theft, damage, modification, or unauthorized access.

Cyber

The component of the term 'cybersecurity' that relates to technology containing systems, networks, programs, and data.

Security

The component of the term 'cybersecurity' that relates to protection, including systems security, network security, application security, and information security.

Robert (Bob) Thomas

A researcher for BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who created the first computer worm (virus), named Creeper, in the 1970s.

Creeper

A program created in the 1970s by Bob Thomas designed to move between Tenex terminals on the early ARPANET, leaving a small trail and printing the message 'I'M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.'

Ray Tomlinson

An American computer programmer at BBN Technologies and the inventor of email who modified Creeper into a self-replicating worm and created the first antivirus software, Reaper.

Reaper

The first antivirus software, created by Ray Tomlinson, which searched for copies of the Creeper worm across networks and deleted them.

Marcus Hess

A German citizen who in 1986 hacked into 400 military computers, including processors at the Pentagon, intending to sell military secrets to the KGB.

Clifford Stoll

An American astronomer who caught German hacker Marcus Hess in 1986 before he could sell hacked military computer secrets to the KGB.

Robert Morris

An American computer scientist who wrote a program in 1988 to test the size of the internet, resulting in the Morris worm, and was subsequently charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris Worm

The first famous network virus (or internet worm), released in 1988, which invaded Unix terminals and copied itself multiple times, slowing infected machines down to the point of damage.

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

The legal act under which Robert Morris was charged for releasing the Morris worm, which subsequently led to the founding of the Computer Emergency Response Team.

Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)

A non-profit research centre established after the passage of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to handle issues capable of endangering the internet as a whole.

CIA Triad

A fundamental security model composed of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability that guides information security policies within an organization.

AIC Triad

An alternative name for the CIA (Availability, Integrity, and Confidentiality) triad, used to avoid confusion with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Confidentiality

A security goal roughly equivalent to privacy that prevents unauthorized disclosure by ensuring only authorized users can view data while disallowing others from learning its contents.

Data Encryption

A primary security method used to protect confidentiality by ensuring that sensitive information cannot be accessed or read by unauthorized individuals.

Integrity

The ability to ensure that a system, operating system, application, hardware, and data have not suffered unauthorized modification, alteration, or tampering.

Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

An error-checking technique used in automotive systems to protect integrity against accidental or non-malicious errors, but ineffective against intentional data alteration.

Cryptographic Checksum

A verification mechanism attached to sensitive data to detect unauthorized tampering and verify integrity against intentional alteration.

Availability

The security goal guaranteeing that computing resources, systems, applications, and data remain accessible to authorized users whenever they need them.

Denial-of-Service (DoS)

The most common security attack impacting availability, wherein an attacker interrupts or blocks user access to information, systems, devices, or network resources.

Electronic Control Unit (ECU)

An internal automotive network component that can become non-operational or drive the vehicle into an unsafe state if its access to necessary data is cut off by a denial-of-service attack.

Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)

A security system designed to safeguard availability by continuously monitoring network traffic patterns, identifying anomalies, and blocking traffic when required.