Phishing - The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The email directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as
passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user's information.  

Spyware - Software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.

Malware - Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. The term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses.
Software is considered to be malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware, most rootkits, and other malicious and unwanted software.

Virus - A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are manmade. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An
even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.

Worm - A worm is a special type of virus that can replicate itself and use memory, but cannot attach itself to other programs.

Pop Up - A type of window that appears on top of (over) the browser window of a Web site that a user has visited. In contrast to a pop-under ad, which appears behind (in back of) the browser window, a pop-up is more obtrusive as it covers other windows, particularly the window that the user is trying to read. Pop-ups ads are used extensively in advertising on the Web, though advertising is not the only
application for pop-up windows.

SPAM - Electronic junk mail or junk news group postings. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. However, if a long-lost brother finds your e-mail address and sends you a message, this could hardly be called spam, even though it's unsolicited. Real spam is generally e-mail advertising for some product sent to a mailing list or news group. There is some debate about the source ofthe term, but the generally accepted version is that it comes from the Monty Python song, "Spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam... " Like the song, spam is an endless repetition of worthless text.

Web Browser Hijacking - When someone or some piece of software takes control of your web browser. i.e. default webpage, search page, etc. Usually one of the nastiest and hard to get rid of Spyware. Even though there are tools to assist you in gaining control back they requires a very high level of expertise and some manual steps to totally get rid of.

Firewall - A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the fIrewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specifIed security criteria. A fIrewall is considered a fIrst line of defense in protecting private information. For greater security, data can be encrypted.