Threat Definitions

Password cracking applications are programs that are designed to crack into password-protected systems.

The pattern file is a database containing information that allows antivirus software to identify viruses.

A payload is the action that a threat performs, apart from its main behavior. Payloads can range from stealing personal information to deleting the contents of a hard drive.

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format that is commonly used for transferring documents online. PDF files are displayed the same way on any system, regardless of the system’s hardware, software, and operating system.

Pharming sets up a website that contains copies of pages from a legitimate website in order to capture confidential information from users, such as credit card, bank account, social security numbers and other sensitive personal information.

Phishing is a form of identity theft in which a scammer uses an authentic-looking email from a legitimate business to trick recipients into giving out sensitive personal information.

Polymorphic viruses are complex file infectors that can create modified versions of itself to change physical forms to avoid detection yet retain the same basic routines after every infection. To vary their physical file makeup during each infection,

This technique uses a script that opens a legitimate Web site in the background, while a spoofed pop-up window, usually identical to the legitimate Web site, is opened in the foreground.

A hardware location for passing data in and out of a computing device. Personal computers have various types of internal and external ports for connecting different devices and peripherals.

The Portable Executable format is the standard file format for executables, object code and Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) used in 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems.

Point of Sale (PoS) malware is malware that gets information gathered from the credit cards by the application running on the PoS system and steals it, similar to how an information stealer would from a browser.

Potentially risky software (also known as grayware) refers to applications that have annoying, undesirable, or undisclosed behavior but do not fall into any of the major threat (ie. Virus or Trojan horse) categories.

Potentially unwanted application or applications refer to programs installed in a mobile device that may pose high risk or have untoward impact on user security and/or privacy.

Privacy by design is a concept that integrates privacy into the creation and operation of new devices, IT systems, networked infrastructure, and even corporate policies.

A proof-of-concept threat is the earliest implementation of a threat and usually contains code that runs on new platforms and programs or takes advantage of newly discovered vulnerabilities.

A set of rules enabling computers or devices to exchange data with one another with as few errors as possible. The rules govern issues such as error checking and data compression .

Protocol gateways, also known as protocol translators, are small non-descript devices that function as translators for various protocols and physical layers. This allows devices that operate industrial facilities to communicate with one another.

A proxy server is a server that sits between a client and a web server and represents itself to each end as being the other.

Pseudonymization is a data management procedure that replaces the information that can point to a subject's identity with “pseudonyms” or identifiers.