AP Computer Science Principles - Unit 8 Vocabulary

Computing Innovation: includes a program as an integral part of its function. Can be physical (e.g. self-driving car), non-physical computing software (e.g. picture editing software), or non-physical computing concepts (e.g., e-commerce). 

Personally Identifiable Information (PII): information about an individual that identifies, links, relates, or describes them.

Phishing: a technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal information. That personal information can then be used to access sensitive online resources, such as bank accounts and emails

Keylogging: the use of a program to record every keystroke made by a computer user in order to gain fraudulent access to passwords and other confidential information

Malware: software intended to damage a computing system or to take partial control over its operation

Freeware: Untrustworthy (often free) downloads from freeware or shareware sites can contain malware.

Rogue Access Point: a wireless access point that gives unauthorized access to secure networks. 

Virus: a malicious program that can copy itself and gain access to a computer in an unauthorized way. Computer viruses often attach themselves to legitimate programs and start running independently on a computer.

Encryption: a process of encoding messages to keep them secret, so only "authorized" parties can read it.

Decryption: a process that reverses encryption, taking a secret message and reproducing the original plain text.

Symmetric Key Encryption: involves one key for both encryption and decryption.

Public Key Encryption: pairs a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. The sender does not need the receiver’s private key to encrypt a message, but the receiver’s private key is required to decrypt the message

Strong password: something that is easy for a user to remember but would be difficult for someone else to guess based on knowledge of that user. 

Multi-factor Authentication: a system that requires at least two steps to unlock protected information; each step adds a new layer of security that must be broken to gain unauthorized access