Delaware PC Help
Glossary
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Term |
Definition |
Zebibyte |
zebibyte is a unit of data storage that equals 2 to
the 70th power, or 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
bytes. While a zettabyte can be estimated as 10^21
or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes, a zebibyte
is exactly 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes. This
is to avoid the ambiguity associated with the size
of zettabytes. A zebibyte is 1,024 exbibytes and
precedes the yobibyte unit of measurement. For a
list of other units of measurements, view this Help
Center article. Abbreviation: ZiB |
Zero Day Exploit |
A
zero day exploit is a malicious computer attack that
takes advantage of a security hole before the
vulnerability is known. This means the security
issue is made known the same day as the computer
attack is released. In other words, the software
developer has zero days to prepare for the security
breach and must work as quickly as possible to
develop a patch or update that fixes the problem.
Zero day exploits may involve viruses, trojan
horses, worms or other malicious code that can be
run within a software program. While most programs
do not allow unauthorized code to be executed,
hackers can sometimes create files that will cause a
program to perform functions unintended by the
developer. Programs like Web browsers and media
players are often targeted by hackers because they
can receive files from the Internet and have access
to system functions. While most zero day exploits
may not cause serious damage to your system, some
may be able to corrupt or delete files. Because the
security hole is made known the same day the attack
is released, zero day exploits are difficult to
prevent, even if you have antivirus software
installed on your computer. Therefore, it is always
good to keep a backup of your data in a safe place
so that no hacker attack can cause you to lose your
data. |
Zettabyte |
A
zettabyte is 2 to the 70th power, or
1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes. It can be
estimated as 10 to the 21st power, or
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. A zettabyte is
1,024 exabytes and precedes the yottabyte unit of
measurement. Because of the enormous size of a
zettabyte, this unit is almost never used. The
prefix zetta comes from "Zeta," which is the sixth
letter of the Greek alphabet. For a list of all the
different units of measurements, view this Help
Center article. Abbreviation: ZB |
ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) |
Stands for "Zero Insertion Force." ZIF is a type of
CPU socket on a computer motherboard that allows for
the simple replacement or upgrade of the processor.
Processors that use a ZIF socket can easily be
removed by pulling a small release lever next to the
processor and lifting it out. The replacement
processor is then placed in the socket and secured
by pushing the lever in the opposite direction --
hence the phrase, "zero insertion force." I suppose
there is some force required to push the lever, but
it is significantly less than non-ZIF sockets, which
require special tools to force the processor out. |
Zip |
Windows users will see this term a lot when looking
for files on the Internet. A zip file (.zip) is a
"zipped" or compressed file. For example, when you
download a file, if the filename looks like this: "filename.zip,"
you are downloading a zipped file. "Zipping" a file
involves compressing one or more items into a
smaller archive. A zipped file takes up less hard
drive space and takes less time to transfer to
another computer. This is why most Windows files
that you find on the Internet are compressed. To use
a zipped file, you'll need to unzip it first. PKZIP
for DOS, or WinZip for Windows, are some popular
programs that can unzip files for you. Fortunately,
these programs can be downloaded for free from Web
sites like Download.com. Macintosh files are most
often "stuffed" into Stuffit files (.sit), which can
be "unstuffed" using Aladdin's Stuffit Expander. The
term "Zip" also refers to a product by Iomega. The
company makes a removable storage device called a
Zip Drive. Depending on the model, these drives can
hold 100, 250 or 750 MB Zip disks. They are usually
used for backup and for transferring large files to
different locations. However, Zip drives are not as
fast as hard drives, so it is usually not a good
idea to run programs off them. File extension: .ZIP |
Zone File |
A
zone file is stored on a name server and provides
information about one or more domain names. Each
zone file contains a list of DNS records with
mappings between domain names and IP addresses.
These records define the IP address of a domain
name, the reverse lookup of an IP to other domains,
and contain DNS and mail server information. Because
zone files are plain text files, they can be edited
quickly and easily. However, this also means that if
unauthorized users gain access to zone files, the
files can be easily modified. This could cause
websites to not respond, or worse yet, redirect to
the wrong Web server. For this reason, it is
important to keep the zone files on a highly secured
server and always have a recent backup of zone files
on another machine. |
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