B

Back door – programmers and administrators deliberately leave ways into software systems that can be used later to allow access to the system while bypassing the authorised user file. Sometimes, developers forget to take out something that was put there simply to ease development work or to assist with the debugging routine. Sometimes they are deliberately left in to help field engineers maintain the system. However they get there, they can provide any unauthorised user with access to the system.

Back orifice – is a remote administration tool that has great potential for malicious use. It is very easy to use, so that script kiddies have no problem using it. It is also ‘extensible’, which means that it develops and improves with age. Most anti-malware systems should detect and remove back orifice, but new versions become available on a regular basis.

Back-up (PDAs, computers, networks) – a back-up is a copy of information that is made and retained in case of loss or damage to the original (it could be paper copies of paper documents, but we are mostly concerned with digital copies of digital data) which includes all information assets: client and supplier data, business planning data, intellectual property, operating systems, applications, protocols, everything. Different types of back-up include full (everything is backed up whether it has changed or not) and incremental (only items that have been created or changed since the last back-up are copied).

Back-up cycles – a copy of tonight’s data only is useful, but neither efficient nor adequate. It is not efficient, because a complete back-up will take a substantial time to run and will require a lot of tape. It is not useful, because you may need (for forensic reasons, for instance) to access an older version of the data – and you don’t want to have hundreds and hundreds of back-up tapes. A back-up cycle usually works on a grandfather, father, son, basis. The ‘son’ is an incremental daily back-up, collecting details only of today’s changes, and the tape is re-used on the same day next week; the ‘father’ back-up is done at the end of every week (one tape for each day) and is overwritten at the end of the same week next month. The ‘grandfather’ back-ups are done at the end of every month and are overwritten in the same month next year. Remember: back-up has nothing to do with data retention policies; data retention policies are driven by local compliance requirements. Whatever data has to be retained, also has to be backed up.

Bandwidth – the amount of data that a particular data cable can carry at any one time.

Basel II – the Committee for Bank Supervision’s most recent revision to the Basel risk-based capital rules for banks.

Baseline – snapshot of the state of a service or individual configuration items at a point in time.****

BCM – see Business continuity management and Business continuity plan.

BCS – the British Computer Society is the UK’s Chartered Engineering Institution for Information Systems Engineering. Through the Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB), the BCS provides industry-recognised qualifications that measure competence, ability, and performance in information security.

Biometrics – is the identification of a user by means of a physical characteristic, such as a fingerprint, iris, face or voice.

BIOS password – a BIOS software code that links the operating system to the hardware and often includes the ability to prevent any unauthorised users starting the machine.

Bit – a unit of measurement of information (from binary + digit); there are 8 bits in a byte.

Bit-wiping software – is software that will, under certain conditions, wipe out specific data stored on a device.

BlackBerry – a hand-held wireless e-mail device. See also Crackberry.

Black hat – a criminal hacker.

Blacklist – a list with negative connotations, e.g. it might be a list of those senders that a spam filter will always filter out, or a list of those mobile phones that will be banned from connecting to the mobile phone network.

Blended threat – this might more accurately be described as the threat of a blended attack, an attack which comes from a number of directions, or via a number of vectors. For instance, a spam e-mail message might be carrying a payload, in the form of a Trojan, which it installs on your computer to open it up to a botnet. Similarly, an innocent-looking piece of adware might contain some spyware, a Trojan installer and a browser hijacker.

Bluejacking – an attack on a Bluetooth enabled device (usually a mobile phone) in which an attacker sends an unauthorised message to the device.

Blue screen – when Microsoft’s Windows operating system snarled up on some internal software fault and became incapable of continuing, the user would usually get a blue screen (aka the ‘blue screen of death’). Any work you were doing was lost and you had to switch off and re-boot.

Bluesnarfing – an attack on a Bluetooth enabled device that allows download of all contact details, along with other information, without leaving any trace of the attack.

Bluetooth – a radio-frequency standard that allows any sort of electronic equipment to make its own short range connections, without wires, cables or direct action of any sort from a user. It is an inexpensive, wireless and hassle-free technology that is being deployed in a vast range of digital equipment. The name ‘Bluetooth’ refers to the eighth century Danish king, Harald Bluetooth, who united Denmark and Norway and introduced Christianity into Denmark. He had little to do with communication technology, but Scandinavian companies have long been a driving force behind the development of mobile telephony and the development of this standard. Bluetooth is not restricted to line-of-sight, but its effective range is about 10 metres; this short range is a result of its very weak signal, selected to avoid the danger of interference with other devices, primarily medical ones that use the same range of frequencies.

Bluetooth snarfing – see Bluesnarfing.

Boot – the process that takes place inside the computer after you switch it on and it starts loading your operating system while you do something else; it comes from the idea of a bootstrap as something that you use to pull your boots on with.

Boot password – a password that applies during computer start-up before operating systems load.

Botnets – a network of zombie computers, usually created and controlled by criminals, either for distributing spam or for mounting DDoS attacks.

Bots – short for robots, as in ‘botnets’ and ‘crawlerbots’.

Broadband – high bandwidth cable.

Browser (IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome) – this is the piece of software that enables a user to browse sites on the Web. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the most widely used; Firefox and Opera are two leading open-source competitors; Chrome is Google’s offering.

‘Brute force’ attack – see Password cracking.

BS7799 – the British specification for an Information Security Management System, conformance with which provides grounds for external, third party certification of the quality of an organisation’s information security posture. BS7799 has been replaced, outside the UK – and largely inside the UK – by the international ISO27000 series. See ISO27001.

BS7799-2:2005 – part 2 of the British information security standard is the equivalent of the international standard ISO/IEC 27001:2005.

BS7799-3:2006 – part 3 of the British information security standard contains guidelines for information security risk assessments.

BSA – the Business Software Alliance is ‘the foremost organisation dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world’, which it does by pursuing organisations that might be running unlicensed software.

B2B – business-to-business.

B2C – business-to-consumer.

BSI – the British Standards Institution, the UK’s national standards body. (BSI also has a certification division which competes with many other certification bodies. The two functions should not be confused.)

Buffer overflow (or overrun) – a buffer is an area of memory that holds data to be processed. It has a fixed, predetermined size. If too much data is placed into the buffer, it can be lost or can overwrite other, legitimate data. Buffer overflow vulnerabilities have for a number of years been a major method of intrusion. They provide hackers with an opportunity to load and execute malicious code on a target workstation.

Bug – an error or flaw in a computer program.

Bugtraq – is a regularly updated ‘high volume, full disclosure mailing list for the detailed discussion and announcement of computer security vulnerabilities’. It is a vendor-neutral, central store of known operating system vulnerabilities; the website is at www.securityfocus.com/archive/1. Anyone can read the latest vulnerability disclosures – including cybercriminals.

Business continuity – processes and/or procedures for ensuring continued business operations. #

Business continuity management – is the creation, management and maintenance of an organisation’s business continuity plan.

Business continuity plan – this is a scenario-based plan, developed in advance of any incidents that might undermine the availability of an organisation’s information, and which describes precisely how each of the most likely incidents is to be handled. It usually involves specific infrastructure and system amendments that will make continuity possible, and it certainly requires regular testing, to ensure that it will actually work when the time comes.

Byte – eight bits.