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Hacker: An unauthorized user who attempts to or gains access to an information system.

Hacktivist: A person who uses hacking to achieve a political goal.

Hard Drive: A hardware component used for long-term memory

Hardening: Hardening is the process of identifying and fixing vulnerabilities in a system.

Hardware: The physical components of a computer.

Hash Collision: An instance when different inputs produce the same hash value.

Hash Function: An algorithm that produces a code that can’t be decrypted.

Hash Table: A data structure that’s used to store and reference hash values.

Hashing: A process of applying a mathematical algorithm against a set of data to produce a numeric value (a ‘hash value’) that represents the data.

Header: A header is the extra information in a packet that is needed for the protocol stack to process the packet.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): A U.S. federal law

Honey Pot:  Programs that simulate one or more network services that you designate on your computer’s ports. An attacker assumes you’re running vulnerable services that can be used to break into the machine. A honey pot can be used to log access attempts to those ports including the attacker’s keystrokes. This could give you an advanced warning of a more concerted attack.

Host: Any computer that has full two-way access to other computers on the Internet. Or a computer with a web server that serves the pages for one or more Web sites.

Host-based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS): An application that monitors the

HTTPS:  When used in the first part of a URL (the part that precedes the colon and specifies an access scheme or protocol), this term specifies the use of HTTP enhanced by a security mechanism, which is usually SSL.

Hub: A network device that broadcasts information to every device on the network

Hyperlink: In hypertext or hypermedia, an information object (such as a word, a phrase, or an image; usually highlighted by color or underscoring) that points (indicates how to connect) to related information that is located elsewhere and can be retrieved by activating the link.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): The set of markup symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser page.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): An application layer protocol that provides a method of communication between clients and website servers. The protocol in the Internet Protocol (IP) family is used to transport hypertext documents across the Internet.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS): A network protocol that provides a secure method of communication between clients and servers.