Cyber Security Glossary
Find definitions for IT security and compliance in our online glossary of key terms, acronyms, and vocabulary.
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TermDefinition
- error propagation"the way in which uncertainties in the variables affect the uncertainty in the calculated results."
- Ethernet A common way of networking PCs to create a LAN.
- ethics"definition 1a: "a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values"; definition 1b: "the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group"; definition 1c: "a consciousness of moral importance"; definition 1d: "a guiding philosophy"; definition 2: "a set of moral issues or(...)
- ethics by design"An approach to technology ethics and a key component of responsible innovation that aims to integrate ethics in the design and development stage of the technology. Sometimes formulated as "embedding values in design." Similar terms are "value-sensitive design" and "ethically aligned design.""
- evaluation"(1) systematic determination of the extent to which an entity meets its specified criteria; (2) action that assesses the value of something"
- evasion"In Evasion Attacks, the adversary solves a constrained optimization problem to find a small input perturbation that causes a large change in the loss function and results in output misclassification."
- Event Definition: An observable occurrence in an information system or network. Sometimes provides an indication that an incident is occurring or at least raises the suspicion that an incident may be occurring.Related Term(s): incident
- ex-nomination"Ex-nomination is the harm of eliminating social identity by almost ignoring its existence. This term comes from Barthes where he coined it to describe what the bourgeoisie do to hide their name and identity by not referring to themselves as such to naturalize bourgeois ideology. This can show(...)
- example"definition 1: "one that serves as a pattern to be imitated or not to be imitated"; definition 3: "one that is representative of all of a group or type"; definition 4: "a parallel or closely similar case especially when serving as a precedent or model"; definition 5: "an instance (such as a(...)
- exception"An event that occurs during the performance of the process that causes a diversion from the normal flow of the process. Exceptions are generated by an unanticipated event within a process due to an undefined or unknown input, undefined or unexpected outcome, or unforeseen sequencing of a task(...)
- execute"To carry out a plan, a task command, or another instruction"
- executive"one that exercises administrative or managerial control"
- Exfiltration Definition: The unauthorized transfer of information from an information system.Related Term(s): data breach
- experiment"a series of observations conducted under controlled conditions to study a relationship with the purpose of drawing causal inferences about that relationship. An experiment involves the manipulation of an independent variable, the measurement of a dependent variable, and the exposure of(...)
- expert system"A form of AI that attempts to replicate a human's expertise in an area, such as medical diagnosis. It combines a knowledge base with a set of hand-coded rules for applying that knowledge. Machine-learning techniques are increasingly replacing hand coding."
- expertise"The accumulation of specialized knowledge is often called expertise. Passive expertise is a type of knowledge-based specialization that arises from experiences in life and one's position in a society or culture. Formal expertise is the result of a self-selection of a domain of knowledge that(...)
- explainability"The ability to provide a human interpretable explanation for a machine learning prediction and produce insights about the causes of decisions, potentially to line up with human reasoning."
- explainable artificial intelligence (XAI)"XAI seeks to make AI more understandable and interpretable, and therefore trustworthy. One of the complaints about artificial intelligence is the lack of transparency in how it operates. Many algorithm developers don’t reveal the data that go into applications or how various factors are(...)
- explainer"Functionality for providing details on or causes for fairness metric results."
- explanation"Systems deliver accompanying evidence or reason(s) for all outputs."
- Exploit Definition: A technique to breach the security of a network or information system in violation of security policy.
- Exploitation Analysis Definition: In the NICE Framework, cybersecurity work where a person: Analyzes collected information to identify vulnerabilities and potential for exploitation.
- exploratory"Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is an approach/philosophy for data analysis that employs a variety of techniques (mostly graphical) to 1. maximize insight into a data set; 2. uncover underlying structure; 3. extract important variables; 4. detect outliers and anomalies; 5. test underlying(...)
- Exposure Definition: The condition of being unprotected, thereby allowing access to information or access to capabilities that an attacker can use to enter a system or network.
- external validity"A study has external validity to the degree that its results can be extended (generalized) beyond the limited research setting and sample in which they were obtained"