CyberGlossaryThe complete cybersecurity glossary

The Cybersecurity Glossary

Clear, accurate definitions for every cybersecurity term — from APT to Zero-Day.

501 terms

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Featured terms

Phishing
A social-engineering attack in which an attacker impersonates a trusted party to trick a victim into revealing credentials, transferring money, or running malware.
Spear Phishing
A targeted phishing attack tailored to a specific individual or organization using personal or professional details collected in advance.
Whaling
A spear-phishing attack aimed at senior executives or other high-value targets, typically seeking large fraudulent payments or access to strategic information.
Smishing
Phishing delivered via SMS or other mobile-messaging channels to trick victims into clicking malicious links, calling fraudulent numbers, or revealing data.
Vishing
Phishing conducted over voice channels — phone calls or VoIP — to manipulate victims into revealing credentials, payments, or remote access.
Pharming
An attack that silently redirects users from a legitimate site to a malicious one by tampering with DNS, hosts files, or local routing — without requiring the victim to click a link.
Man-in-the-Middle Attack
An attack in which an adversary secretly relays or alters communications between two parties who believe they are talking directly to each other.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack
A denial-of-service attack carried out from many distributed sources simultaneously — typically a botnet — to overwhelm a target's bandwidth, infrastructure, or application.

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