'People'

Driver - a person who drives a motor vehicle of any sort

OR

A piece of software/computer program that controls a hardware device such as a printer or scanner. A driver will usually need to be installed after a device has been purchased in order to use it. It will communicate with the device and issue commands to evoke the required output e.g. printing of a document.

Zombie - a reanimated human corpse

OR

A computer that has been compromised by a hacker, spammer or virus. An affected machine will generally be just one of a botnet (collection of computer robots), operated remotely to perform malicious tasks including email spam, pay per click fraud, phishing and website flooding (which can result in the crashing of legitimate websites).

In most cases, the owner of a zombie computer will be unaware that their system is being used in this way.

MAN - an adult male human

OR

A Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). Rather than a Local Area Network (LAN) that enables computing devices to communicate with each other within an office or building, a MAN can span a larger geographical location, such as a city.

The largest area network is a Wide Area Network (WAN), which has no geographical limitations and is typically a group of networks or LANs linked together in remote locations.

Ethical hacker - a mediocre golfer who believes in proper conduct and good living

OR

A specialist whose job it is to protect and secure IT systems. With the owner's permission, they attack a network or security system, utilising methods such as social engineering and hacking tools. The aim is to evade security, gain entry into secured areas and then to report on its vulnerability to malicious hackers.

Also known as a white hat hacker, a group of these people are often called tiger teams or red teams.

Surfer - a person that rides a surfboard

OR

A person who browses the internet!

View our other light hearted jargon themes or view a full A-Z IT jargon busting list.