This glossary is an alphabetical list of terms commonly used in the fields of computer science, data recovery, telecommunications and reverse engineering. For even more information follow the link attached to each term.
A
Algorithm -Basically a formula for solving a problem, an algorithm’s finite sequence of instructions solves a particular issue or problem. In math or computing it is a computer code that tells the computer what to do.
Alternating Current/AC – Electric currents around the world are transmitted in the form of alternating current, an electric current in which the flow of electric charge periodically reverses direction.
Ampere/amp – One of seven International System of Base Unit Measurements(SI), it relates to electrical quantity. The ampere unit is based on the force of a maintained constant current.
Amplifier – An electronic device used to increase a power of a voltage, current, trans conductance or trans resistance signal. It achieves this by taking energy from a power supply then matching input and output at a larger amplitude.
Amplitude – the strength of an electronic signal.
ASCII – The American Standard Code for Information or ASCII are standard binary codes that represent text in electronic communication devices such as computers.
Ad hoc retrieval /PDF – A networking system that allows devices to establish communication with ease and speed in deployment with minimal dependence on infrastructure.
Address Resolution Protocol/ARP – Is an internet standard accepted through peer review and issued by an RFC in 1982, establishing a telecommunications protocol used to map IP network addresses to hardware devices.
Asymmetric Cryptography – Or public key cryptography, is an algorithm requiring two different encryption keys to encrypt and decrypt data.
B
Bagbiter – Hacker slang for failing of programs in devices such as a computer that consistently shuts down or stops working. A bug that hinders the intended application of a program.
Bandwidth – a measurement, typically expressed as bits per second used in computing to determine the bit-rate of capacity used or remaining.
Binary – a series of 1 and 0 numbers that cause a computer to function.
Bit – Also known as a binary digit. It is the smallest unit of data in a computer. The 1 or 0 used in binary code to quantify a piece of information in computing.
Bus – A type of network topology whereby all devices are connected to a central cable, called the bus or backbone. This creates a path used between two different machines that allows them to work together.
Byte – In most computer systems, a unit of data that is eight binary digits long or 8 bits to a byte.
BIND – Berkeley Internet Name Domain is a Domain Name System(DNS) software developed at Berkeley University in the 1980s. Since 2012 the system has been maintained by Internet Systems Consortium.
Bayes Belief network – A type of statistical model that represents a set of random variables and their conditional dependencies as a probabilistic graphical representation that captures the relationships between the model’s variables.
Blue Screen of Death/BSoDs – also known as a Stop Error, it occurs when a serious problem causes Microsoft Windows to shut down or restart unexpectedly. These errors can be hardware or software issues appearing after a system crash when the operating will no longer operate safely.
C
Coaxial cable – type of cable used as a transmission line for radio frequency signals consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield.
Coding – Act of substituting text symbols with numeric codes that encrypt or compress text. While often confused with programming which is the process of using
Conversion – Changing of one format to a separate format.
Com mode – specific way hackers speak to each other over the computer, using abbreviations and characters instead of writing.
Connector conspiracy – perceived conspiracy of companies based on the COPS Computer Oracle and Password System is a system designed to check a computer system an for security holes, but will not prevent attacks or protect against needing hard drive recovery.
Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) – a protocol that uses varying challenges and responses to prevent attacks.
creation of new products that don’t work with existing ones.
Crash – large failure of a computer system.
Crock – feature of a program that should look or work better.
Crufty – something that’s built badly and usually too involved.
D
Data recovery – system of recovering lost data from a computer.
Data recovery service – service provided by a company to find missing or deleted data.
Decibel – unit of measurement relating to loudness; listed as dB.
Direct current/DC – consistent current that moves in one direction.
Daemon – a program that starts up with the system and continues running without interference from users on the system.
Defacement – refers to the vandalism of a website, changes that are made to the way the website looks without the owner’s knowledge.
Demon – portion of a program that experiences problems when other conditions occur.
Data mining – Process of extracting new data or information from any other type of data.
Digital library – Collection of digital objects. It refers to a system that preserves catalogue and archive information, allowing for browsing and retrieval by users.
Directory – Hierarchical categorization of similar concepts in a certain domain of knowledge.
Document – Specific unit of retrieval. It can be a Web page, article, book, section or chapter.
E
Exact match – Mechanism where only objects matching specific criteria are returned as an answer.
Extended Boolean model – Model of document recovery based on extensions of a classic Boolean model.
Encryption – changing the way data appears so it cannot be viewed or used.
Electronic – any product that uses a power source and types of electronic components to function.
Earth – a source that grounds the rest of the electronics.
Electromagnetic interference – a signal that breaks up the current.
Escrow Passwords – passwords that are kept in a safe and away from users, for use in the event that the people who are aware of the passwords are unavailable and the passwords are needed.
F
Feature – something found within a program, usually something unexpected.
Farad – a unit of measurement used with capacitance.
Filter – a circuit that depends on a frequency to function.
Filtering – a system that eliminates or increases a certain frequency.
Frequency – a cycle that runs from positive to negative and then to positive.
Flooding – an attack that causes a computer system to fail.
Flash Translation Layer – NAND flash data manager which makes NAND flash memory device appear to the system like a disk drive.
Fuzzy model – Theoretical model of document retrieval that’s based on a so-called “fuzzy-theory.”
Fork Bomb – uses the fork() to make copies of a process until all available system processes are taken.
G
Global analysis – Reference technique of identifying term or document relationships through an analysis of all the other documents in the collection.
Guided tour – Sequence of navigation choices that present the nodes in a specific order for some goal.
GNU – a project that allows for the source code to be copied, altered and distributed freely.
Gnutella – a server and file sharing peer-to-peer program.
H
Hacker – a person capable of doing a hack and likes doing it.
Hard drive data recovery – Process of extracting data from damaged hard drive, failed hard drive, corrupted hard drive, or inaccessible hard drive storage media.
Human – Computer Interfaces (HCI): Study of certain interfaces that assist a user with their information-seeking tasks like tracking of a retrieval disk or query formulation.
Hard drive recovery – a process that recovers all files from a damaged hard drive.
Hertz – used to measure frequency.
Hypertext model – System of (info retrieval) based on the representation of certain document relationships as edges on a generic graph.
Honeymonkey – a completely automated system that is designed to mimic a user browsing the web.
I
Inetd (xinetd) – an Internet Daemon that controls small applications
Insulator – material used to protect the transfer of data.
Intermodulation distortion – process that mixes two types of frequencies.
Information Warfare – a competition for information resources.
Inference network – Model of document retrieval that uses document interpretation, index terms, and user queries as nodes of a Bayesian network.
Information retrieval – A part of computer science that studies methods of information retrieval from a collection of documents.
Informative feedback – Information given to the user about any relationship between a query and the document retrieved.
Inverted file index – Text index composed of a list of occurrence and a vocabulary.
Image Data Recovery – Image recovery is needed when a logical error has occurred.
J
Jitter – the modification of database fields while continuing to preserve the facts about the database that make it important.
JTAG – The Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) is an electronics industry association for developing a method of verifying designs and testing printed circuit boards.
Jump Bag – contains the tools that are needed to make repairs.
K
Kerberos – a system that relies on passwords and cryptography to employ peer entity authentication service.
Kernel – the center of the operating system that provides support to the entire network.
KWIC (KeyWords In Context) – Technique that displays any occurrences of query terms within the context of documents being retrieved.
L
Legion – software that used to detect unprotected areas of a network.
Local analysis – A reference to techniques of identifying document and term relationships through the analysis of the documents retrieved by a given user query.
Laptop Data Recovery – Method to recover data from laptop computers.
Loopback Address – a “pseudo” IP address that is never sent to the network.
M
MAC Address – a numeric value assigned to all hardware so as to be able to identify them on the network.
Malware – is a collective term that identifies all malicious computer code—viruses, adware, spyware, etc
Metasearch – Technique used on the web where a point of entry is given to multiple heterogeneous back-end search engines.
Memory Card Data Recovery – data retrieval from memory cards.
Mobile Device Data Recovery – recovery of data for mobile devices.
My Data Rescue Plan – a new preemptive tool to help you protect of your valuable data.
Multimedia data – Data that combines different media sources like text, images video or sound.
N
NAND Flash memory – Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.
Netmask – a number used to indicate the range of IP address on a network.
Neural networks – Model of document retrieval that uses index terms, documents on a neutral network, and a representing query.
Null Session – “Anonymous Logon” that allows access to usernames and accounts without authenticating that particular user.
O
OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) – System of library management software that grants access to a library collection to interested users.
Occurrence list – Data structure that assigns a list of positions to each text word within a document.
OSI – Open Systems Interconnection. It serves as a reference for how messages should be sent and received across the network.
Overload – happens when too much is placed on a system component and it can no longer perform as it should.
P
Patch – quick code that fixes an existing problem on a computer program.
Phase – amount of time a hacker spends sleeping in relation to working during a 24-hour period.
Phreaking – term used describe those who are extremely interested in studying and tampering with phone systems. The term comes from the word “phone” and the word “freak.”
Phishing – a technique that involves creating emails or other messages that appear to be trustworthy and are not so for the purpose of obtaining information.
Passive – electronic that doesn’t have a power source.
Power amp – amplifies a low frequency sound.
Q
QAZ – a network worm.
Query – The expression of asking for the retrieval of desired information.
Quiescent – an electronic that’s inactive or resting.
R
Resistor – device that stops the transformation flow.
RMS – acronym meaning Root Mean Squared.
Registry – where the central information required to run the application is.
Retrieval Task – Occurs when an information system executes a task in response to a specific user request.
Raid Data Recovery – Process of extracting data from damaged raid, failed raid, corrupted raid, or inaccessible raid storage media when it cannot be accessed normally.
Request for Comment (RFC) – a collection of notes about the Internet beginning with ARPANet in the ’60s.
S
SPAM – unsolicited junk mail.
Secure Shell (SSH) – a program used to logon to another computer to move files around and execute programs across a network.
SISD – Sequential computer architecture that consists of an instruction stream and data stream.
Spoken in articulations – the using of an actual word instead of the action, example saying groan instead of groaning.
Search history – Method of tracking a user’s session history
Stemming – Technique that reduces words to their roots.
T
Tag – String used to mark the end or beginning of elements in a text.
Threat Vector – the chosen tactic that one machine uses to attack another.
Thermal resistance – the ability of different materials to resist heat.
Token Ring – refers to a local area network where all computers are connected in a star.
U
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) – a user data protocol like TCP running on top of IP networks.
V
Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a restricted use computer network.
Velocity – speed at which information or data moves.
Volt – unit measuring electromotive force.
Vulnerability – a flaw in the network system design that may leave it susceptible to attack.
W
War Chalking – marking areas where wireless access can be reached.
War Dialer – a program that automatically dials telephone numbers to see what is connected where.
Watt – unit measuring power.
Wavelength – measures the length of an AC cycle.
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a protocol for the security of wireless networks.
Worm – harmful bit of programming that causes problems to a computer or computer system.
Thank you for using My Data Recovery Lab Glossary made with help of Data Solutions Labs.
