Acronyms

• 2DAY Today
• 4EAE For ever and ever
• ADN Any day now
• ADR Address
• AEAP As early as possible
• AFAIK As far as I know
• AFK Away from keyboard
• ALAP As late as possible
• ASL Age/sex/location
• ATM At the moment
• BFN Bye for now
• BOL Be on later
• BRB Be right back
• BTW By the way
• C-P Sleeply
• CTN Can’t talk now
• CD9 Code 9 – it means parents are around
• DWBH Don’t worry, be happy
• F2F or FTF Face to face
• FWB Friends with benefits
• FYEO For your eyes only
• GAL Get a life
• GB Goodbye
• GLHF Good luck, have fun
• GNOC Get Naked on Cam
• GTG Got to go
• GYPO Get your pants off
• HAK Hugs and kisses
• HAND Have a nice day
• HTH Hope this helps / Happy to help
• HW Homework
• IDK I don’t know
• IIRC If I remember correctly
• IKR I know, right?
• ILY / ILU I love you
• IM Instant message
• IMHO In my honest opinion / In my humble opinion
• IMO In my opinion
• IRL In real life
• IWSN I want sex now
• IU2U It’s up to you
• IYKWIM If you know what I mean
• J4F Just for fun
• J/K Just kidding
• J/O Jerking off
• JIC Just in case
• JSYK Just so you know
• KFY Kiss for you
• KOTL Kiss On The Lips
• KPC Keeping parents clueless
• L8 Late
• LMBO Laughing my butt off
• LMIRL Let’s meet in real life
• LMK Let me know
• LOL Laugh out loud
• LSR Loser
• MOOS Member Of The Opposite Sex
• MOSS Member(s) Of The Same Sex
• MorF Male or Female
• MIRL Meet in real life
• MOS Mom over shoulder
• MPFB My Personal F* Buddy
• NAGI Not a good idea

• NALOPKT Not A Lot Of People Know That
• NIFOC Nude in front of computer
• NM Never mind
• NMU Not much, you?
• NP No problem
• NTS Note to self
• OIC Oh I see
• OMG Oh my God
• ORLY Oh, really?
• OT Off topic
• OTP On the phone
• P911 Parent alert
• PAW Parents are watching
• PAL Parents are listening
• PCM Please call me
• PIR Parent in room
• PLS or PLZ Please
• POS Parent Over the Shoulder or Piece of Sh**
• PPL People
• PRON porn
• PTB Please text back
• QQ Crying. This abbreviation produces an emoticon in text.
• QTC Quick to cum
• RAK Random act of kindness
• RL Real life
• ROFL Rolling on the floor laughing
• RT Retweet
• RUOK Are you okay?
• RU/18 Are You Over 18?
• RUMORF Are You Male OR Female?
• RUH Are You Horny?
• S2R Send To Receive
• SMH Shaking my head
• SorG Straight or Gay
• SOS Someone over shoulder
• SRSLY Seriously
• SSDD Same stuff, different day
• SWAK Sealed with a kiss
• SWYP So, what’s your problem?
• SYS See you soon
• TBC To be continued
• TDTM Talk dirty to me
• TIME Tears in my eyes
• TMI Too much information
• TMRW Tomorrow
• TTYL Talk to you later
• TY or TU Thank you
• VSF Very sad face
• WB Welcome back
• WTF What The F***
• WTH What the heck/hell?
• WTPA Where the party at?
• WUF Where You From
• WYCM Will You Call Me?
• WYRN What’s Your Real Name?
• YGM You’ve got mail
• YOLO You only live once
• YW You’re welcome
• ZERG To gang up on someone
• ZOMG Oh my God (sarcastic)

Key Terms/Definitions

Age-appropriate search engine

A tool for school-aged children to use which filters and condenses search results so that users cannot view inappropriate and irrelevant information/content while browsing the internet.

/b/

4chan’s oldest and most popular board where users post anonymously; it is known for its lack of enforced forum rules making it notorious for highly offensive or illegal content

Bait

To troll an internet scammer by pretending to be interested in the falsified company/product order to waste said scammer’s time/collect useful information on the crime for law enforcement agencies and other consumers who could be affected, or simply for entertainment; could also be applied/used in terms of a social engineer luring victims to divulge sensitive information

/Baphomet/

A hacking news source community thread within 8chan that focuses specifically on “all news on recent hacks, exploits, danknet markets etc.” using “lulz” as a primary source of motivation. As a result, they often terrorize their subjects and release incriminating or highly sensitive information to others within the group for further exploitation.

Clickjack(ing)

Malicious code is hidden behind a virtually harmless hyperlink that unsuspecting users are tricked into accessing, resulting in their computer and personal information being compromised/exploited.

Cross-site Scripting (XSS)

“Cross site scripting is an attack on the privacy of clients of a particular web site which can lead to a total breach of security when customer details are stolen or manipulated.”

Cyberbullying

Bullying that is conducted in an online setting. This can be done by sending harassing messages to the victim, blackmailing the victim, spreading rumors about/shaming the victim using social media, or manipulating the victim using fake profiles/social media accounts. Like face-to-face bullying, victims can develop serious depression/anxiety, suffer damaged self-confidence, sever relationships, or self-harm in order to cope with the serious consequences of cyberbullying.

Cybermob

A group of people who collectively harass, manipulate, or threaten another person using mob mentality as a means of holding that person accountable for some real or imagined gaffe.

Darknet

Not to be confused with the Deep Web; an overlay network that can be accessed using specific software; enables anonymous communication for the sake of file sharing, p2p connection through privacy networks like Tor.

Digital Alchemy

The search and subsequent evolution of outdated online media components, code or software so that they may thrive in the current market, as the face of the digital world evolves rapidly with technological innovation.

DoS

Acronym for “denial of service”; often an attack which inhibits a user or users from establishing a network connection. This is usually done by overwhelming a network with information, preventing other users from accessing services like email, web browsing, etc.

Dox(x)

Doxing is the act of publishing someone’s personal information, of which there would be a reasonable expectation of privacy and dubious value to the conversation, in an environment that implies or encourages intimidation or threat.

Firewall

A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both.

Gaslighting

Coined by the 1938 play Gas Light; a form of psychological abuse in which the abuser selectively alters information so that the victim doubts themselves, becomes less confident, and instead increasingly dependent on the abuser. 

GamerGate

A viral Twitter hashtag used to describe an ongoing controversy in which predominantly male video gamers harass/dox feminist game designers, journalists and bloggers under the guise that the movement preserves the integrity of gaming journalism.

Hacker

A person who is actively involved in the programming community, and works and experiments with online systems (although other types could apply) to expose problems with software, internet security and/or online transparency. Hacking culture has made many important contributions to the technological community (one example is Unix). However, some hackers have ill intent in their work and often try to compromise others’ safety by collecting sensitive personal information without consent.

Hacktivist

Coined in 1994 by Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) member Omega; a person who uses computer networks to insight social change; hacking for political purposes.

IP Address

An IP address (internet protocol) is a computer’s unique series of numbers separated by periods which identifies the system communicating across a network.

Internet Relay Chat Protocol (IRC)

“A teleconferencing system, which (through the use of the client-server model) is well-suited to running on many machines in a distributed fashion. A typical setup involves a single process (the server) forming a central point for clients (or other servers) to connect to, performing the required message delivery/multiplexing and other functions.”

Lulz

A variation of the online acronym LOL: laugh(ing) out loud. Signifies amusement in response to some form of online communication, especially at someone else’s expense.

Pharm(ing)

An online attack which redirects traffic aimed at website to another fake site by exploiting vulnerabilities in server software, which then allows hackers to gather users’ sensitive personal information.

Phish(ing)

Phishing scams use spoofed emails and websites as lures to prompt people to voluntarily hand over sensitive information like usernames/passwords, credit card information social security numbers, etc. 

Phreak(ing)

The practice of hacking phone (or other communication) networks to gain access to certain features that media companies may typically charge/exploit customers to use (ex from source: hacking the phone system to make free long distance calls).

Reddit

Reddit is a social networking, news, and entertainment site where registered users can upload context and communicate with one another through a bulletin board/messageboard format. Through voting posts up or down, Reddit’s algorithm arranges posts’ positions on the site according to popularity. The site’s name is a play on words—“I read it on reddit.”

Scam

A facetious or fraudulent ploy that takes advantage of victims in an online setting, usually resulting in the unsuspecting victim losing some sort of good (information, money, the victim’s computer may be compromised in some way, etc.

Sexting

To send sexually explicit photos, images, text messages, or e-mails by using a cell phone, social media, web camera, or other mobile device. 

Social Engineering

The act of psychological and emotional manipulation using fraudulent methods to compel people to give sensitive and confidential information, especially in an online setting.

Spoof(ing)

A situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data, thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage over the victim(s) so that their information can be used fraudulently upon disclosure. This can be done through web applications or telephone. (ex used in source: falsifying caller ID display info to coerce those accepting the call to give away sensitive information) 

SWATTING

When a person or group of people draws police forces’ attention to another person or organization (i.e. filing an anonymous police report) in the hopes of instigating a police raid/investigation of the target.

ThisTweetCalledMyBack

A Twitter hashtag started by seven popular black female activists in response to their work being appropriated and misused by mainstream media; these activists then decided to stop contributing content online in protest.

Toolkit

A software or utility program that is used by programmers/developers to write and maintain applications.

Tor

A program that can be ran on someone’s personal computer that conceals their activities, identity and location using a network of Tor users in order to expand their privacy when online. This is usually done using a browser which closes many privacy loopholes that are incorporated into unconcealed internet browsers.

Troll

To post deliberately inflammatory articles on an internet discussion board with the intention of offending, negatively provoking, or hurting someone; can also be used to signify someone who engages in this behavior as a means of taunting those affected and in turn engaging with them in arguments online; many trolls treat this method as an argumentative technique which degrades discourse.

Trollstorm

Synonymous with cybermob; a group of people (trolls) who aim to collectively harass others in an online setting, usually for the sake of intimidating and/or oppressing those with opposing views.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

The extension of a private network that encompasses links across shared or public networks like the Internet. A VPN enables you to send data between two computers across a shared or public internetwork in a manner that emulates the properties of a point-to-point private link. The act of configuring and creating a virtual private network is known as virtual private networking. 

YourSlipIsShowing

A hashtag used in response to #EndFathersDay, which was an attempt by Men’s Rights Activists to divide feminist activists using fake Twitter accounts pretending to be feminists of color; #YourSlipIsShowing outed fake accounts and exposed the racism and sexism that black women experience online.

4chan

4chan is a messageboard/imageboard website, originally intended to be an unofficial sister site to 2chan.net—a Japanese imageboard. Users generally post anonymously, with the most recent posts appearing above the others. 4chan is split into various boards with each of their own specific content and guidelines, but it is popular for its often shocking or “not safe for work” (NSFW) content. Registration is not required or possible (except for by staff).

8chan

Also called Infinitechan, is an imageboard website created as a spinoff from 4chan upon the parent site’s banning of all GamerGate threads, as site administrators identified the threads’ violation of community standards. Users create posts anonymously. The site is composed of user-created boards moderated by its respective creator, with minimal interaction from other site administration. The boards’ lack of administrative rules and community standards made it a favored alternative to 4chan.

Sources: http://femtechnet.org | https://internetsafety101.org