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| Short for binary digit; taking the form of either a one or a zero, it is the smallest unit of information on a machine. |
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| A feature that allows the user to designate favorite web sites for fast and easy access. |
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| Central Processing Unit(CPU) |
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| The main chip within the computer; also referred to as the brain of the computer. This microprocessor chip handles most of the operations (code and instructions) of the computer. |
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| A group of sectors in multiples of two; typically the minimum space allocated to a file. |
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| Files placed on a computer from a visited web site; they are used to track visits and usage of that site. |
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| The area that begins at the end of the last sector that contains logical data and terminates at the end of the cluster. |
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| Hardware or software designed to protect against intrusions into an internet network. |
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| Slang term for an unauthorized computer or network intrusion. |
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| Typically the main storage location within the computer, consisting of magnetic platters contained in a case. |
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| The physical components of a computer: case, keyboard, monitor, motherboard, RAM, HDD, mouse, and so on. Generally speaking, if it is a computer component you can touch, it is hardware. |
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| Portions of visited web pages placed on the local hard disk drive to facilitate quicker retrieval once revisited. |
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| An accounting of web sites visited. Different browsers store this information in different ways. |
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| Areas of files and disks that are typically not apparent to the computer user (and often not to the operating system), but contain data nonetheless. |
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| Message Digest 5(MD5)/Secure Hash Algorithm(SHA) |
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Definition
| A software algorithm used to "fingerprint" a file or contents of a disk; used to verify the integrity of data. In forensic analysis it is typically used to verify that an acquired image of suspect data was not altered during the process of imaging. |
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| The main system board of a computer (and many other electronic devices) that delivers power, data, and instructions to the computer's components. |
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| Software that allows the user to interact with the hardware and manages the file system and applications. |
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| A contiguous set of blocks that are defined and treated as an independent disk. |
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| The area beginning at the end of the logical file and terminating at the end of that sector. In some older operating systems this area is padded with information contained in RAM. |
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| Random-Access Memory(RAM) |
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Definition
| The volatile memory of the computer; when power is turned off, its contents are lost. Programs and instructions are loaded into RAM while they are in use. |
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| The smallest unit of data addressable by a hard disk drive, generally consisting of 512 bytes. |
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| A set of instructions compiled into a program that performs a particular task. |
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| A file or defined space on the HDD to which data is written, or swapped, to free RAM for applications that are in use. |
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| Files temporarily written by an application to perform a function. |
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| The area of the HDD that the operating system (file system table) sees as empty (containing no logical files) and ready for data. Simply stated, it is the unused portion of the HDD, but is not necessarily empty. |
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| All data that the operating system is presently aware of, and thus is readily accessible to the user. |
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