OSI 7 Layers and Networking Background Concepts

Threat modelling is the structured practice of asking what could go wrong with a system, who would make it go wrong and how, while the design can still be changed cheaply.

Phishing is an attack that deceives a person into revealing credentials, approving a payment or running malicious content, usually through a message that impersonates someone they trust.

Ransomware is an attack in which criminals gain access to an organisation's systems, encrypt or steal its data, and demand payment to restore access or withhold publication.

Switching is the forwarding of frames within a single network segment by a device that learns which hardware address sits on which port and sends each frame only where it needs to go.

A VLAN divides one physical switched network into several logical segments, each with its own broadcast domain, by tagging frames with a VLAN identifier so that ports and devices in different VLANs cannot reach each other without a router.

Network address translation rewrites the addresses and ports in packets as they cross a network boundary, most commonly so that many devices with private addresses can share one public address to reach the internet.

Cloud hosting is the model in which servers, storage and databases are created on demand through an API from a provider's pooled hardware and billed for the time they exist, rather than rented as a fixed box by the month.

A web server is the program listening on a network port for HTTP requests and answering them, either by returning a file from disk or by handing the request to application code behind it.

IaaS is the layer of cloud computing where you rent raw infrastructure through an API, meaning virtual machines, disks and networks, and take responsibility for the operating system and everything you install above it.