Z

Zero Day: The “Day Zero” or “Zero Day” is the day a new vulnerability is made known. In some cases, a “zero day” exploit is referred to an exploit for which no patch is available yet. (“day one” – the day on which the patch is made available).

Zero-day Attack: A zero-day (or zero-hour or day zero) attack or threat is a computer threat that tries to exploit computer application vulnerabilities that are unknown to others or undisclosed to the software developer. Zero-day exploits (actual code that can use a security hole to carry out an attack) are used or shared by attackers before the software developer knows about the vulnerability. An exploit that was previously unknown.

Zombies: A zombie computer (often shortened as zombie) is a computer connected to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, a computer virus, or a trojan horse. Generally, a compromised machine is only one of many in a botnet and will be used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under a remote direction. Most owners of zombie computers are unaware that their system is being used in this way. Because the owner tends to be unaware, these computers are metaphorically compared to zombies.