wetware
jargonops culturesecurity
The humans in the system, named as if they were another component alongside hardware and software.
Jargon File vintage, the word frames people as the third platform in the stack: the one that ships with fatigue, habits, and social trust preinstalled. Security uses it soberly, since phishing and social engineering are attacks on wetware that no patch fixes, only training and design that assumes human error. The term's half-joke carries the discipline's most serious lesson: the perimeter includes everyone with a badge and an inbox.