Important abbreviations used by hackers.

Below are some frequently used abbreviations and acronyms that all hackers should know about. The abbreviations we’re about to take a look at are used by programmers, database administrators, hackers - the technically savvy bunch. So let’s get started and soon you’ll be using these yourself:

The musical notes in a hacker's symphony

Hacking Abbreviations

• DoS: Denial of Service
• DDoS: Distributed Denial of Service
• Dox: Not an acronym, but a slang term meaning: To publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge
• FUD: Fully Undetectable. For eg: A FUD virus LEA: Law Enforcement Agency
• R.A.T: Remote administration tool
• SE: Social Engineering
• Skid: Script Kiddie
• SQLi: SQL Injection
• XSS: Cross-Site Scripting Networking Abbreviations
• AP: Access Point (eg: A Wi-Fi router)
• DNS: Domain Name System (For converting a URL to IP address)
• LAN: Local Area Network
• MAC: Media Access Control
• NAT: Network Address Translation
• NIC: Network Interface Card
• HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol
• HTTPS: HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure
• SSH: Secure Shell, used to connect to servers remotely
• FTP: File Transfer Protocol
• VM: Virtual Machine
• VPS: Virtual Private Server
• VPN: Virtual Private Network
• WAN: Wide Area Network
• IP: Internet Protocol
• ISP: Internet Service Provider
• TCP: Transmission Control Protocol
• URL: Uniform Resource Locator/Location

Programming Abbreviations

• ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange
• API: Application Programming Interface
• BIOS: Basic Input Output System
• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets
• Nix: Unix based operating system, usually referred to here when referring to DDoS’in
• HTML: HyperText Markup Language
• JS: JavaScript
• XML: eXtensible Markup Language

Computer Hardware Abbreviations

• CD: Compact Disk
• CDR: Compact Disk Recorder
• CDRW: Compact Disk Re-Writer C
• D-ROM: Compact Disk: Read Only Memory
• CPU: Central Processing Unit
• DDR: Double Data Rate
• DRAM: Dynamic Random Access Memory
• DVD: Digital Versatile Disc
• FPS: Frame Per Second
• FPU: Floating Point Unit
• HDD: Hard Disk Drive
• IC: Integrated Circuit
• OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
• PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect
• PSU: Power Supply Unit
• RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks
• RAM: Random Access Memory
• ROM: Read Only Memory
• SSD: Solid State Drive UPS: Uninterruptible Power Supply
• USB: Universal Serial Bus

Other Abbreviations

• CLI: Command Line Interface
• DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• GUI: Graphical User Interface
• I/O: Input & Output
• KISS: Keep it simple stupid
• PDF: Portable Document Format
• PGP: Pretty Good Privacy
• OS: Operating System
• TLD: Top-level domain (e.g: .com, .org)
• RSS: Really simple syndication
• WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get

And there we go, now you too can talk like a hacker. But abbreviations are only half the story. Next up we’re going to take a look at the most common phrases and terms that hackers use.

author @Akhil Naidu