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
  • " ability to perform as and when required (note 1: includes availability, reliability, recoverability, maintainability, and maintenance support performance, and, in some cases, other characteristics such as durability, safety and security. Note 2: used as a collective term for the time-related(...)
  • "Phase of a project in which a system is put into operation and cutover issues are resolved"
  • "Insights, reporting, and information answering the question, “Why did something happen?” Descriptive analytics determines information useful to understanding the cause(s) of an event(s)."
  • Usually refers to an individual PC -- a user's desktop computer.
  • "modelling [that] produces consistent outcomes for a given set of inputs, regardless of how many times the model is recalculated. The mathematical characteristics are known in this case. None of them is random, and each problem has just one set of specified values as well as one answer or(...)
  • "An algorithm that, given the same inputs, always produces the same outputs."
  • "A general term that includes developers or manufacturers of systems, system components, or system services; systems integrators; vendors; and product resellers. Development of systems, components, or services can occur internally within organizations or through external entities."
  • "Insights, reporting, and information answering the question, “Why did something happen?” Diagnostic analytics determines information useful to understanding the cause(s) of an event(s)."
  • "Pertaining to the detection and isolation of faults or failures"
  • "Differential privacy is a method for measuring how much information the output of a computation reveals about an individual. It is based on the randomised injection of "noise". Noise is a random alteration of data in a dataset so that values such as direct or indirect identifiers of(...)
  • "Differential validity states that the validities in two applicant populations are unequal, that is, pi != pa."
  • Storing information as a string of digits – namely “1”s and “0”s. 
  • Information stored or transmitted in binary form that may be relied upon in court.
  • Definition: The processes and specialized techniques for gathering, retaining, and analyzing system-related data (digital evidence) for investigative purposes.Synonym(s): computer forensics, forensics
  • "Digital automation of information technology systems and/or business processes that successfully delivers work output previously performed by human labor or new work output that would typically or alternatively have been performed by human labor."
  • Definition: A form of access control technology to protect and manage use of digital content or devices in accordance with the content or device provider's intentions.
  • Definition: A value computed with a cryptographic process using a private key and then appended to a data object, thereby digitally signing the data.Related Term(s): electronic signature
  • "The collective suite of automation technologies delivering existing or new work output as applied in a business; the manifestation of digital labor."
  • "The dimension of an object is a topological measure of the size of its covering properties. Roughly speaking, it is the number of coordinates needed to specify a point on the object."
  • "Dimensionality reduction is the process of taking data in a high dimensional space and mapping it into a new space whose dimensionality is much smaller"
  • It may be a floppy disk, or it may be a hard disk. Either way, it is a magnetic storage medium on which data is digitally stored. A disc may also refer to a CD-ROM.  Distributed Data: Distributed data is that information belonging to an organization which resides on portable media and(...)
  • "Disadvantageous treatment of a person based on belonging to a category rather than on individual merit."
  • "Facially neutral practices that might nevertheless have an unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class."
  • "Intentional discrimination, including (i) decisions explicitly based on protected characteristics; and (ii) intentional discrimination via proxy variables (e.g literacy tests for voting eligibility)."
  • Definition: An event which causes unplanned interruption in operations or functions for an unacceptable length of time.