Tech Vocab 3

The process of verifying that a person or system is who or what it claims to be, usually with a password or other proof.

The website requires authentication before you can access your personal account, so you must enter your username and password.

A mathematical way of describing how the speed or memory usage of an algorithm changes as the size of the input grows larger.

The teacher explained that a simple search through a list has O(n) in Big O notation, meaning the time grows with the number of items.

A way of organizing and storing data in a computer so that it can be accessed and used efficiently.

An array is a simple data structure that stores a list of items in a specific order.

A piece of code or a method that takes advantage of a vulnerability in a system to cause unintended behavior or gain unauthorized access.

The hacker used an exploit to take advantage of a flaw in the old software and gain access to the company's servers.

A reusable block of code that performs a specific task and can be called multiple times in a program.

She wrote a function that calculates the total price of items in a shopping cart.

A system that tracks and records changes made to files over time, allowing developers to go back to earlier versions and collaborate with others.

Thanks to version control, the team was able to undo the mistake and restore the previous working version of the code.

The process of converting data, such as a password, into a fixed-length string of characters that cannot easily be reversed.

The website stores your password using hashing, so even the company cannot see your actual password.

A software application that provides all the tools a programmer needs to write, test, and debug code in one place.

He used an IDE to write his Python program because it highlighted errors and suggested corrections automatically.

A programming instruction that repeats a block of code a certain number of times or until a condition is met.

The developer used a loop to print each student's name from a list of one hundred students.

A practice where security professionals intentionally try to attack a computer system to find weaknesses before real hackers can exploit them.

The company hired a security firm to carry out penetration testing on their website to discover and fix any security weaknesses.

A type of online scam where criminals send fake emails or messages that look real in order to trick people into giving their personal information.

She almost gave away her bank details because she received a phishing email that looked like it came from her bank.

A request made by a developer to merge their code changes into the main project, allowing others to review the changes before they are accepted.

After finishing the new feature, she submitted a pull request so her teammates could review her code before it was added to the project.

A type of malicious software that locks or encrypts a victim's files and demands a payment to restore access to them.

The hospital's computer system was attacked by ransomware, and the hackers demanded money before they would unlock the patient records.

A programming technique where a function calls itself repeatedly to solve a problem by breaking it into smaller, similar problems.

The programmer used recursion to calculate the factorial of a number by having the function call itself.

Security protocols that encrypt the connection between a user's browser and a website, keeping information private and safe during transmission.

You can see that a website uses SSL/TLS protection when there is a padlock icon next to the web address in your browser.

The set of rules that define how code must be written and structured in a programming language.

The program did not run because there was a syntax error — the programmer had forgotten to close a parenthesis.

A security process that requires a user to verify their identity in two different ways, such as a password and a code sent to their phone.

He enabled two-factor authentication on his email account, so now he needs both his password and a code from his phone to log in.

A named storage location in a program that holds a value which can change during the program's execution.

The programmer created a variable called 'score' to store the player's points in the game.

A weakness or flaw in a software system or network that could be used by attackers to cause harm or gain unauthorized access.

The security team discovered a vulnerability in the app that could allow hackers to steal user data, so they quickly released an update to fix it.

A software vulnerability that is unknown to the people responsible for fixing it, making it especially dangerous because there is no patch or defense available yet.

The cybersecurity experts warned that a zero-day vulnerability in the popular browser was being used by attackers before the developers even knew about it.