A 3 1/2-inch or 5 1/4-inch floppy disk.

Using a computer to accept, edit, organize, and print out text.

Small bits of data that a Web page asks a browser to store on a user’s computer, either in RAM or on the hard drive.

The process of scrambling a message so that a key, held only by authorized recipients, is needed to unscramble and read the message.

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Computer programs designed to directly deal with solving the user’s problems. Examples would include programs for accounting, word processing, financial analysis, computer games, etc.

The act of making a second (backup) copy of the data stored on a disk or other storage device, to safeguard against loss of data if there is damage to the primary copy.

Acronym for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. A general-purpose programming language, often used in computers.

A measurement of the speed at which data are transmitted between two computers, the number of signal per second being transmitted.

Abbreviation for “binary digit,” the most common unit computers use for representing data internally.