TechSpective’s Emerging Tech section is the publication’s widest lens — a running look at the technologies shaping how people live, work, and make decisions, written for readers who want more than a recap of what got announced at a press event. Coverage spans consumer and professional technology, including AI assistants, on-device intelligence, mobile platforms, AI PCs, personal finance tools, and the policy and social dynamics shaping how emerging technology is adopted and who benefits from it.
Definition: A packet, otherwise known as a datagram, is a fragment of data. Data transmissions are broken up into packets. Each packet contains a portion of the data being sent as well as header information which includes the destination address.
Definition: Packet sniffing is the act of capturing packets of data flowing across a computer network. The software or device used to do this is called a packet sniffer. Packet sniffing is to computer networks what wire tapping is to
Definition: A packet filter is a type of firewall. Packet filters can restrict network traffic and protect your network by rejecting packets from unauthorized hosts, using unauthorized ports or trying to connect to unauthorized IP addresses.
Definition: Peer-to-Peer Networking (P2P) is a phrase coined to apply to individual PC’s acting as servers to other individual PC’s. Made popular by the music file swapping service Napster, P2P allows users to share files with each other through a
Definition: Network security is used to describe all aspects of securing your computer or computers from unauthorized access. This includes blocking outsiders from getting into the network at all, as well as password protecting your computers and ensuring that only
Definition: Technically, it only takes two computers, or hosts, to form a network. A network is any two or more computers connected together to share data or resources. Common network resources are things like printers that may be shared by
Definition: NAT, otherwise known as Network Address Translation, is used to mask the true identity of internal computers. Typically, the NAT server or device has a public IP address that can be seen by external Hosts. Computers on the local
Definition: Malware, or Malicious Code, is a catch-all term used to refer to various types of software that can cause problems or damage your computer. The more common classes of program referred to as malicious code are viruses, worms, Trojan
Definition: A keylogger is a program used to monitor every keystroke typed on a computer keyboard. Used primarily in malware such as viruses or Trojans in order to capture usernames, passwords and other sensitive information from unsuspecting users. Keyloggers are
Definition: JavaScript is an active scripting language created by Netscape based on Sun Microsystem’s platform-independent programming language Java. Originally named LiveScript, Netscape changed the name to JavaScript to ride on the coattails of Java’s popularity. JavaScript is used within HTML
