Computer Security Glossary

What are "easter eggs"?

Easter eggs in relation to the computer security glossary are a convention that was created by software developers, initially, where they would embed or hide little moments within their product. An easter egg might just be a little artistic touch. It might be a little sign. It might be little shout-out to someone. It might be a little animation. It might be a little video. It might be a special credit. It might be a credit screen that appears differently if you do things in a certain combination. You'll find easter eggs on websites, software, DVDs and CD-ROMs. A lot of people really pride themselves on finding easter eggs and there is a list of famous easter eggs. You can Google easter eggs, in fact, in Google itself, there are easter eggs. You can put certain things in to get certain results, but they're typically humorous little surprises that you stumble across.

What is a "crack"?

Within the computer security glossary, a "crack" is a small software application that will serialize a piece of commercial software. Software serialization is when you enter a serial number and that's what allows you to operate and use any software application that you've bought. Well, a crack is written to bypass the need to buy that piece of software, that's called software piracy. The hackers figure out this crack so that in someway it will make the software program think that you've entered a serial number so you can use it just as if you'd purchased it. Cracks that you use for serializing software obviously are not legal. The whole act of entering a serial number into a piece of software is that you've paid for it. You don't actually own software; you license it, and in licensing you get a serial number which is what allows you to use it. A crack bypasses your need to pay somebody for this copywritten material and this intellectual material that they've created. Therefore it's absolutely not legal whatsoever. In games, cracks are more often called "cheats", they're perfectly legal because you're not bypassing anything at all. You're simply learning information and picking up some tips and tricks that you didn't have before to get through certain levels. So with the two cracks, in video games they are certainly not a problem, but in software of course these cracks are absolutely against the law.

What is "bluejacking" and is it dangerous?

Within the computer security glossary, there's something called bluejacking. Bluejacking is when you take a Bluetooth device, most often a phone and it has something called a proximity sensor. A proximity sensor is something that sends a signal out and it picks up other Bluetooth signals that might be within that range, the 33-foot range. If it picks them up it identifies them on the screen of your device. Then, you can bluejack them. You can basically send them a message to their phone, send them a picture to their phone, and send them some kind of information to their phone that they're absolutely not expecting. This is not really dangerous though, bluejacking is actually kind of a popular thing in Europe, and in fact, there are bars in England where bluejacking is a very common practice, and people go there just to do that in a dating way. Bluetooth itself is a new technology that's a wireless technology that allows very short range connectivity between appliances without wires. It has a range of 33 feet, and this allows devices to talk to each other without wires, this could be a phone to a computer, another computer to a printer, or what have you.

What is "bluesnarfing"?

Bluetooth is a wireless technology that allows devices to communicate with each other within close proximity, up to 33 feet. These can be in very small devices, like a phone, or a very large device like a computer or a server. Bluesnarfing is a very malicious kind of connectivity. A Bluetooth device has two states, it's either discoverable or it's not discoverable. If it's discoverable, that means that the user has opted to allow other Bluetooth devices to find it and know that it's on and in proximity. If it's not discoverable, then that means that the user's opted to not be discovered, or not be found within the proximity of another device. Bluesnarfing overrides opting to be discoverable or not, and really, in an unauthorized manner, gains access to the other device via this Bluetooth technology. It can then actually access files or information that is stored on that other device.

What is "shill bidding"?

Shill bidding is a practice that has become popular with the popularity of on-line auctions. Essentially what shill bidding is is that if I have something that I am auctioning off and it has no bids, or has low bids; I might ask a friend to please go and bid on it for me. I'll tell them what to bid to generate some activity. This is really not a legitimate way of doing it; it's sort of a false market. I'm creating a false market for an item that I'm trying to sell, and that's what shill bidding is.