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13 Essential ABCs To Disaster Proofing Your Security Network

What you need to understand to protect your data from the cyber bad guys.

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Hackers got your down? Before you can protect your bits and bytes, you need to glean what technology you need—and what those technical terms actually mean. Start with these 13 definitions so you can talk, and walk, data security details.

A Cyber Takeover: The act of a hacker taking control of a computer, car or other device. This is what you absolutely want to avoid.


Bandwidth: The capacity of a computer system to process information, usually expressed in terms of volume per second. Can be network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth. You'll need enough after a disaster to avoid a bottleneck when you recover your data.

Cloud: Technically, a cloud is a group of computers configured to work as a single computer. But the term has also come to refer to the Internet in general. For example, when most people say "cloud-based storage," they mean "online storage." Often data travels between clouds to go from one IoT device to another.

Critical Data and Optional Data: Critical data is what you absolutely need to function. Optional data is what you can do without. Categorizing data is part of disaster planning.

Data Downtime: Not having your data available. Costs to a small business can top $8,000 every hour, estimates LA-based Infrascale. Reinstalling lost data can cost $150-$200 an hour, says Leif Holtzman, chief operating officer of the Boston-based TekDoc Solutions, an IT services provider.


Disaster Preparedness Plan: A long-range view of the worst possible disasters that could befall your small business and a blueprint for how to get ready and react so that you don't lose money, customers or data.

Geographic Diversification: The theory that you should keep your back-up data in various places.

Physical Drive: Sometimes referred to as a 'backup drive." A physical drive is another place to back up your data so that you can access it quickly.

Mitigations: These are procedures you put in place to stop foreseeably bad things from happening. A device that reads—then blocks— malware attempts is one such example.

Risk Assessment: An evaluation of potential threats to your hardware, software, and the general exposure of your business or home.

Rogue Programs: Malicious software placed in your device or connected car's computer system without your permission.


Software Patches: Updates to your software. Some patches are transmitted automatically. Others you have to install yourself. Some are transmitted by the manufacturer of the device, others by the software developer.

White Hat Hackers: Just like in the movies, hackers who metaphorically wear "white hats" are good guys who look for vulnerabilities in systems to see how security can be improved.

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