Security glossary

This is the most widely-used form of cyber attack due to its technical and functional simplicity. It consists in stealing the user's confidential data by creating a pretext for the user to provide this.

This is a type of malicious software which tries to infect a computer or mobile device, for the general purpose of harming the user, and if this is bank malware, for stealing confidential information such as passwords, stealing money or jeopardising the security of bank accounts.

This is one of the methods most widely used by cybercriminals to obtain confidential data about users. This is based on psychological manipulation: cybercriminals use social engineering methods to obtain information, commit fraud or obtain unlawful access to users' confidential areas.

This is a safety element on the web which decides whether any specific traffic should be allowed or blocked. Firewalls set up a barrier between internal networks, which are reliable and safe, and more unreliable external networks such as Internet.

These are computer programs for detecting malware or potentially harmful software.

When accessing a mobile, program or web, two- factor authentication means that you need a code to access the required service, apart from the password. This tends to be a code which is received in the mobile phone. It is particularly useful in the fight against cybercrime, since two-factor authentication means it is useless for a cybercriminal to know the user's passwords, as they could never access this second code required to complete the operation that they wish to carry out. What is more, with the arrival of the two-authentication message in the mobile phone, the user realises that someone is trying to access some operation instead of them. Another features of this is that a "code" which is ephemeral, for a single use, and which is received in a device which only the customer must have.

This is an app used for storing passwords in an encoded database, which is protected by a master password. These managers tend to generate strong passwords, of sufficient length and combining letters, numbers and special characters with no meaning, to thus increase their strength. This enables users to dodge attacks and use of foreseeable patterns.