Cybersecurity Explained & Summarized

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering common cybersecurity threats including internal risks, various password-related attacks, and social engineering methods based on the lecture notes.

Insider Threats

People within an organization, such as employees, contractors, or trusted partners, who have legitimate access to systems and data but misuse that access either intentionally or accidentally.

Password Attacks

Attempts to obtain or guess a user's password to gain unauthorized access, often targeting weak or reused passwords using automated methods.

Brute-Force Attack

A method of repeatedly trying different password combinations until the correct password is discovered; it is often automated and targets short or simple passwords.

Dictionary Attack

A type of attack that uses a list of commonly used words and passwords instead of trying every possible combination, taking advantage of predictable password choices.

Credential Stuffing

The practice of using username and password combinations stolen from one service to attempt accessing other accounts, relying on password reuse across multiple websites.

Social Engineering Attacks

Methods used to manipulate people into revealing information, performing actions, or granting access by exploiting human behaviors such as trust, fear, urgency, or curiosity.

Eavesdropping

Unauthorized listening to or monitoring of communications to obtain sensitive information, typically occurring when communications are not properly protected.

Least-privilege access

A security solution for insider threats that involves restricting user access to only the specific data and systems necessary for their role.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

A protection method recommended for password and social engineering attacks to reduce the risk of unauthorized access even if a password is compromised.

Phishing

A specific example of a social engineering attack mentioned in the text alongside spear phishing, pretexting, baiting, and tailgating.

Rate limiting

A security implementation used to make repeated login attempts harder, specifically as a solution for brute-force attacks.