Appendix C: Glossary of Technology and Terminology

This glossary includes terms and acronyms that you may encounter during your efforts to learn more about computer security.

A-D

ActiveX

ActiveX is a Microsoft creation designed to work in a manner similar to Sun Microsystems' Java. The main goal is to create platform-independent programs that can be used continually on different operating systems. ActiveX is a loose standards definition; not a specific language. An ActiveX component or control can be run on any ActiveX-compatible platform.

ActiveX defines the methods with which these COM objects and ActiveX controls interact with the system; however, it is not tied to a specific language. ActiveX controls and components can be created in various programming languages such as Visual C++, Visual Basic, or VBScript.

Active Scripting

Active scripting is the term used to define the various script programs that can run within and wor k with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in order to interact with users and create a dynamic Web page. By itself, HTML is static and only presents text and graphics. Using active scripting languages such as JavaScript or VBScript, developers can update the date and time displayed on the page, have information pop up in a separate window, or create scrolling text to go across the screen.

Adware

While not necessarily malware, adware is considered to go beyond the reasonable advertising one might expect from freeware or shareware. Typically, a separate program that is installed at the same time as a shareware or...