black hat
= B =
black magic
black hole n.,vt.
[common] What data (a piece of email
or netnews, or a stream of TCP/IP packets) has fallen into if it
disappears mysteriously between its origin and destination sites
(that is, without returning a bounce message). "I think
there's a black hole at foovax!" conveys suspicion that site
foovax has been dropping a lot of stuff on the floor lately
(see drop on the floor). The implied metaphor of email as
interstellar travel is interesting in itself. Readily verbed as
`blackhole': "That router is blackholing IDP packets." Compare
bit bucket and see RBL.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.