Cyber Security Glossary

Find definitions for IT security and compliance in our online glossary of key terms, acronyms, and vocabulary.

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  • Term
    Definition
  • "The ingestion of a corpus, application of semantic mapping, and relevant ontology of structured and/or unstructured data that yields inference and correlation leading to the creation of useful conclusive or predictive capabilities in a given knowledge domain. Strong AI learning also includes(...)
  • "[an AI system that] is designed to accomplish a specific problem-solving or reasoning task."
  • "A computing system, made up of a number of simple, highly interconnected processing elements, which processes information by its dynamic state response to external inputs."
  • "Action of applying specific documented criteria to a specific software module, package or product for the purpose of determining acceptance or release of the software module, package or product."
  • Definition: Anything useful that contributes to the success of something, such as an organizational mission; assets are things of value or properties to which value can be assigned.
  • Synonym(s): public key cryptography
  • An attachment is a record or file associated with another record for the purpose of storage or transfer. There may be multiple attachments associated with a single “parent” or “master” record. The attachments and associated record may be managed and processed as a single unit. In common use,(...)
  • Definition: An attempt to gain unauthorized access to system services, resources, or information, or an attempt to compromise system integrity. Related Term(s): active attack, passive attack
  • Definition: The manner or technique and means an adversary may use in an assault on information or an information system.
  • Definition: The steps that an adversary takes or may take to plan, prepare for, and execute an attack.
  • Definition: A characteristic or distinctive pattern that can be searched for or that can be used in matching to previously identified attacks. Related Term(s): attack pattern
  • Definition: An information system's characteristics that permit an adversary to probe, attack, or maintain presence in the information system.
  • Definition: An individual, group, organization, or government that executes an attack. Related Term(s): adversary, threat agent
  • An attribute is a characteristic of data that sets it apart from other data, such as location, length, or type. The term attribute is sometimes used synonymously with “data element” or “property.”  ASCII (Acronym for American Standard Code): ASCII is a code that assigns a number to each(...)
  • "Systematic, independent, documented process for obtaining records, statements of fact, or other relevant information and assessing them objectively, to determine the extent to which specified requirements are fulfilled."
  • "A chronological record of system activities, including records of system accesses and operations performed in a given period."
  • Definition: The process of verifying the identity or other attributes of an entity (user, process, or device). Extended Definition: Also the process of verifying the source and integrity of data.
  • Definition: A property achieved through cryptographic methods of being genuine and being able to be verified and trusted, resulting in confidence in the validity of a transmission, information or a message, or sender of information or a message. Related Term(s): integrity, non-repudiation
  • The author of a document is the person, office or designated position responsible for its creation or issuance. In the case of a document in the form of a letter, the author or originator is usually indicated on the letterhead or by signature. In some cases, the software application producing(...)
  • Definition: A process of determining, by evaluating applicable access control information, whether a subject is allowed to have the specified types of access to a particular resource. Extended Definition: The process or act of granting access privileges or the access privileges as granted.
  • "Independent machine-managed choreography of the operation of one or more digital systems."
  • "over-relying on the outputs of AI systems"
  • "A monitor-analyze-plan-execute (MAPE) computer system capable of sensing environments, interpreting policy, accessing knowledge (data --- information --- knowledge), making decisions, and initiating dynamically assembled routines of choreographed activity to both complete a process and update(...)
  • "[an] automobile, bus, tractor, combine, boat, forklift, etc. . . . capable of sensing its environment and moving safely with little or no human input."
  • "The system has a set of intelligence-based capabilities that allows it to respond to situations that were not pre-programmed or anticipated (i.e., decision-based responses) prior to system deployment. Autonomous systems have a degree of self-government and self-directed behavior (with the(...)