Cybersecurity 101

In today’s digital world, cybersecurity is essential. At WatchGuard, we break down key cybersecurity topics with clear explanations, practical examples, and proven best practices. Whether you want to learn about network security, endpoint protection, identity management, or cyber threats—start your journey with Cybersecurity 101.

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Dark Web

A hidden part of the Internet requiring special browsers like Tor to access. Designed for user anonymity through onion routing, used for both legitimate purposes (privacy, anti-censorship) and illicit activities (black markets, illegal services).

Dark Web Credential Monitoring

Tools that can scan stealer logs, criminal forums, and third-party breaches on the dark web for your organization's exposed passwords. By providing visibility into exposed corporate credentials, it enables faster response and risk mitigation.

Dark Web Monitoring

A process of continually scanning the dark web to identify compromised, stolen, or leaked data. This can include intellectual property, credentials, and personal information.

Data Integrity

The concept that you can discern whether data is in the condition its authors or owners intend it to be, and that it has not been modified by unauthorized persons during storage or transmittal.

Deepfakes

A highly realistic, AI-generated image, video, or audio, created to convincingly impersonate someone or some event. In cybersecurity, deepfakes are used to trick users into taking an action, like redirecting funds or sharing confidential information.

Denial of Service (DoS) Attack

A type of attack that attempts to make an online service unavailable by flooding the target with more requests than it can handle, usually from a single source.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack

A type of attack that attempts to make an online service unavailable by flooding the target with more requests than it can handle. Unlike a DoS attack that typically comes from a single source, in a DDoS attack attackers use multiple compromised devices to generate traffic from many sources simultaneously.

DNS cache poisoning

A technique that tricks a DNS server into believing it has received authentic information when, in reality, the information is false. Used to take unsuspecting victim to a malicious website.

DNS Spoofing

An attack technique where a hacker intercepts a system's requests to a DNS server in order to issue false responses as though they came from the real DNS server.

DNSWatch

A WatchGuard security service that blocks malicious DNS requests, redirects users to a secure, informative page, and promotes best security practices to prevent phishing attacks and reduce malware infections.

Doxxing

The gathering and publication of personal information like addresses and phone numbers by hostile parties to try to intimidate or harass someone.