Symantec 10521146 Administration Guide - Page 343

Glossary 343 daemon A program that runs continuously and exists for the purpose of handling periodic service requests that a computer system expects to receive. The daemon forwards the requests to other programs (or processes) as appropriate. A typical example of a daemon can be seen on Web servers. Each server has a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Daemon (HTTPD) that continually waits for requests to come in from Web clients and their users. data rate The speed at which information is moved from one location to another. Data rates are commonly measured in kilobits (thousand bits), megabits (million bits), and megabytes (million bytes) per second. Modems, for example, are generally measured in kilobits per second (Kbps). data transfer The movement of information from one location to another. The speed of transfer is called the data rate or data transfer rate. data transmission The electronic transfer of information from a sending device to a receiving device. data-driven attack A form of intrusion in which the attack is encoded in seemingly innocuous data. It is subsequently executed by a user or other software to actually implement the attack. decode To convert encoded text to plain text through the use of a code. decrypt To convert either encoded or enciphered text into plain text. dedicated device A special-purpose device. Although it is capable of performing other duties, it is assigned to only one. denial of service (DoS) attack A type of attack in which a user or program takes up all of the system resources by launching a multitude of requests, leaving no resources and thereby denying service to other users. Typically, denial of service attacks are aimed at bandwidth control. deployment The installation of a network of security products, such as Symantec Network Security (nodes and Network Security console), Symantec Network Security 7100 Series appliances, and Symantec Network Security Smart Agents to form an enterprise security environment. DES (Data Encryption Standard) A widely-used method of data encryption using a private (secret) key that was judged so difficult to break by the U.S. government that it was restricted for exportation to other countries. There are 72,000,000,000,000,000 (72 quadrillion) or more possible encryption keys that can be used. For each given message, the key is chosen at random from among this enormous number of keys. Like other private key cryptographic methods, both the sender and the receiver must know and use the same private key. dial To initiate a connection via LAN, modem, or direct connection, whether or not actual dialing is involved. dialer A program that uses your system, without your permission or knowledge, to dial out through the Internet to a 900 number or FTP site, typically to accrue charges. dialog box A secondary window containing command buttons and options available to users for carrying out a particular command or task.