This page explains some of the technical terms used in this website. Click on the terms if you are interested in learning about them in detail.
- Content Management System (CMS)
- CMSes are software that can be installed on a web server to give its users the ability to create online content without learning how to code in web coding languages such as HTML, CSS or Javascript.
Examples : Joomla, WordPress (Technically, WordPress is a blogging platform. However, it can be used as CMS, and is simpler to use than Joomla.)
- Web Server
- A Web Server can refer to either a computer or a software running on it that tells your browser how and what to display on the web pages on a website.
Examples : Apache, Microsoft IIS
- Spam Links
- Web search engines such as Google & Bing determine the order in which websites appear in search results (“ranking”) by checking which websites are linking to them using the keyword searched for, among other criteria. If the sites who have the links are themselves ranked high for the keyword, the prominence of the linked website increases further. You could consider a link to another website as an endorsement of the linked site. Website attackers may insert hidden links in your site which point to irreputable sites selling cheap medicines or pornographic sites. A link from your practice’s website could boost the ranking of the linked sites considerably, as your site will appear to endorse those sites.
- Malware
- Malware, short for ‘Malicious Software’, is a computer program created with the intention of harming people who run them, directly or indirectly, or to simply annoy them. In the absence of a reputable and regularly updated AntiVirus Software, malware programs can do terrifying things such as steal your information and send it to its creators, delete your files, send unsolicited email to others on your behalf, lock you out of your system or be otherwise quite annoying. Computer Viruses are a type of Malware that spreads across computers by hiding themselves in removable devices such as thumb drives or through networks.
- Malware Blacklist
- Modern web browsers such as Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox & Google Chrome check web addresses visited by their users against a list of addresses of known attack sites, and show a warning page instead of displaying the website’s contents. Since its possible to have malware installed on a visitor’s computer by simply visiting the site in their browser, these blacklists are constantly updated with newly found malicious websites, and help offer a basic level of protection against them.