Reference

Glossary of terms used in consumer device security

Thirty-six words that turn up on vendor pages, in renewal notices and in official guidance, defined without jargon and linked to the guides where they matter.

The terms

Adware

Software that displays advertising beyond what the user agreed to, often bundled with something else during installation. Usually classed as unwanted rather than malicious, which is why products offer a separate setting for it.

Australian Consumer Law

The national consumer protection law that provides the consumer guarantees and prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct in trade. Administered by the ACCC alongside state and territory agencies. See consumer rights.

Australian Privacy Principles

The thirteen principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) that govern how covered organisations handle personal information, including collection, use, disclosure overseas, security and access. Overseen by the OAIC.

Backup

A copy of files kept separately from the original, ideally in a location that a problem on the device cannot reach. The most useful single defence against ransomware, and the component of a security suite most often left switched off.

Behavioural detection

Identifying malicious software by what it does rather than by recognising its code. Catches things never seen before, at the cost of occasional false alarms.

Breach

An incident in which information held by an organisation is accessed or disclosed without authorisation. In Australia, breaches likely to result in serious harm must be notified under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

Browser extension

An add-on that runs inside the browser. Security suites use them for web filtering. Because an extension can see what happens in the browser, where it was installed from matters a great deal.

Consumer guarantee

An automatic right attaching to goods and services supplied to consumers in Australia — acceptable quality, fitness for purpose, matching the description. It cannot be excluded by a contract term.

Definition update

The regular download that keeps a scanner's catalogue of known threats current. A product that has not updated in weeks is doing noticeably less than one that has.

Encryption

Converting data so it can only be read with a key. Used legitimately for disk encryption and secure connections, and used against people by ransomware.

End of support

The point at which a vendor stops issuing updates for an operating system or product. A device past this point stays vulnerable to anything discovered afterwards, and no third-party product changes that.

False positive

A legitimate file flagged as malicious. A normal consequence of behavioural detection, and the reason products include an exclusion list — which should be used sparingly.

Firewall

A control on which programs and connections may send or receive network traffic. Built into Windows and macOS; security suites commonly add their own interface to similar rules.

Heuristics

Rules of thumb a scanner applies to decide whether something unfamiliar looks dangerous. Sits between signature matching and full behavioural analysis.

Identity monitoring

A service that watches for supplied details appearing in breach data and notifies you. It reports after the fact rather than preventing anything, and it requires handing over the details being monitored.

Keylogger

Software that records what is typed. Usually installed as part of something else, and one of the categories behavioural detection is specifically designed to notice.

Malware

The general term for software written to do something the owner of the device would not agree to. Covers ransomware, spyware, keyloggers, banking trojans and more.

Multi-factor authentication

Requiring a second element beyond a password — a code from an app, a hardware key, a prompt on a phone. Among the highest-value steps available to a household, and it costs nothing.

Notifiable Data Breaches scheme

The Australian scheme requiring covered organisations to notify affected individuals and the OAIC about eligible data breaches likely to cause serious harm.

Password manager

An application that generates and stores a distinct password for every service. Addresses password reuse, which causes more account compromises than malware does.

Patch

A fix issued by a vendor for a defect, often a security one. Applying patches promptly is the advice that appears at the top of nearly every official guidance document, including the ACSC's.

Phishing

A message crafted to obtain credentials, card details or a verification code by impersonating an organisation the recipient trusts. Filters help; the reliable defence is never using contact details supplied by the message itself.

Potentially unwanted program

Software that is not malicious but that most people would not knowingly install — toolbars, bundled optimisers, aggressive trial software. Handled by a separate setting in most products.

Ransomware

Malicious software that encrypts files and demands payment. A current, separate backup is what turns this from a disaster into an afternoon.

Real-time protection

Checking files and processes as they are used rather than only during a scheduled scan. The component doing most of the day-to-day work. See what antivirus software does.

Reputation lookup

Asking the vendor's service what is known about a file or web address. Effective, and a reason the product transmits information about what you open.

Sandbox

An isolated environment in which code runs without access to the rest of the system. The reason mobile applications can do less harm to each other than desktop programs can.

Signature

A fingerprint of known malicious code. Precise and fast, and useless against something not yet catalogued.

Social engineering

Persuading a person to act against their own interests — the mechanism behind most reported consumer losses, and the one no scanner participates in. See fake alerts and support scams.

Spyware

Software that gathers information about use of a device and sends it elsewhere. Ranges from commercial tracking to targeted surveillance tools.

Subscription term

The period a licence covers before it renews. In this category the first term is commonly discounted and the renewal is not; see subscriptions and renewals.

Two-factor authentication

A common form of multi-factor authentication using exactly two elements. The codes it produces are the thing support scams most often ask people to read out — no legitimate organisation ever will.

Unfair contract terms

Rules applying to standard form consumer contracts that allow certain one-sided terms to be declared void. The ACCC publishes guidance on how they operate.

Virtual private network

A service that encrypts traffic between a device and the provider's server. It changes who can observe a connection. It does not stop malware and does not make a person anonymous.

Vulnerability

A defect that can be used to make software behave in ways it should not. Fixed by patches; exploited most often when patches are not applied.

Zero-day

A vulnerability being exploited before a fix exists. The reason behavioural detection is worth having alongside signature matching.

Two notes on language in this category

The first is that vendors use different names for the same mechanism, and the names change between releases. Advanced threat protection, next-generation detection and behavioural shielding all describe the same family of techniques described above. Matching marketing language to mechanism is most of what it takes to compare two products sensibly.

The second is that the strongest-sounding words carry the least information. Complete, total, guaranteed and unbreakable describe nothing that can be measured, and under Australian Consumer Law they are also the words a seller is least able to defend if challenged. When you meet one on a product page, the useful response is to look for the specific claim underneath it — and if there is not one, to treat the sentence as decoration.