PEBCAK
Syllables: PEB·CAK/ˈpɛbkæk/
PEBCAK noun: chiefly used by technical support helpdesk staff: a problem experienced with a user's computer that is due to user error.
Noun
PEBCAK (plural PEBCAKs)
- Chiefly used by technical support helpdesk staff: a problem experienced with a user's computer that is due to user error.
- Miraculously, all of a sudden, the client's network began behaving beautifully! Before, PEBCAKs were causing a technician to need to visit their company every day, and now—after a simple deployment of basic policies—the client was ecstatic. […] Ask your IT professionals, "What percentage of your...2007, Mike Foster, “Domain Policies”, in The Secure CEO: How to Protect Your Computer Systems, Your Company, and Your Job, Wichita, Kan.: Prime Concepts Group Publishing, →ISBN, page 150
- In the tech support world, there's an old joke about "PEBCAK," or Problem Exists Between the Chair and Keyboard. Cybersecurity really is all about people and incentives. There are plenty of important technical fixes and new tools to adopt, but if organizations and individuals aren't willing to...2014 July 2, Peter W[arren] Singer, Allan Friedman, “The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Myths, Debunked”, in Wired, archived from the original on 02 Jul 2014
Examples of PEBCAK in a sentence
- Now, calculate how much money PEBCAKs are costing you in IT expense as well as lost productivity for the employees.2007, Mike Foster, “Domain Policies”, in The Secure CEO: How to Protect Your Computer Systems, Your Company, and Your Job, Wichita, Kan....
- In the tech support world, there's an old joke about "PEBCAK," or Problem Exists Between the Chair and Keyboard.2014 July 2, Peter W[arren] Singer, Allan Friedman, “The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Myths, Debunked”, in Wired, archived from the original on...
- Juzer You can’t, because of the old computer industry phenomenon known as PEBCAK, or "Problem exists between chair and keyboard".2015 January 15, Jack Schofield, “Ask Jack: How Can I Make My PC Completely Secure?”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original...
- That said, for many attacks, PEBCAK is the answer.2017 August 19, Adam [K.] Levin, “5 Cyber-security Myths We Need to Ditch”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2017:
Synonyms of PEBCAK
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- PLBKAC
- PBKAC
Forms of PEBCAK
| plural | PEBCAKs |
|---|
Origin of PEBCAK
Acronym of problem exists between chair and keyboard.
Questions about PEBCAK
- What does PEBCAK mean?
- PEBCAK means chiefly used by technical support helpdesk staff: a problem experienced with a user's computer that is due to user error.
- How do you use PEBCAK in a sentence?
- Now, calculate how much money PEBCAKs are costing you in IT expense as well as lost productivity for the employees.
- What part of speech is PEBCAK?
- PEBCAK is a noun.
- How do you pronounce PEBCAK?
- PEBCAK is pronounced /ˈpɛbkæk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of PEBCAK?
- The plural of PEBCAK is PEBCAKs.
Words near PEBCAK in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: PEBCAK (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-PEBCAK.wav.
Cite this entry: “PEBCAK.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pebcak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.