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 of a system to adequately take measurement information from sensors, validate the data, and communicate the processes and results to other devices"
  • "A computing system able to perceive that it is not operating correctly and, without human intervention, make the necessary adjustments to restore itself to normalcy."
  • "A strategic schema or framework of metadata labels applied to all data, data groups, data fields, data types, or data content used to introduce new or raw data into a corpus or data fabric to give machine learning algorithms direction for investigating known or potential relationships between(...)
  • "a specific set of "special categories" that must be treated with extra security[, including] information about: [r]acial or ethnic origin; [p]olitical opinions; [r]eligious or philosophical beliefs; [t]rade union membership; [g]enetic data; [d]ata related to a person's sex life or sexual(...)
  • "A “what-if” type of analysis to determine the sensitivity of the outcomes to changes in parameters. If a small change in a parameter results in relatively large changes in the outcomes, the outcomes are said to be sensitive to that parameter."
  • "The conversion of typically analog or human sensory perception (e.g., vision, speech) to a digital format useful for machine-to-human interaction or machine processing of traditionally analog sensory information [e.g., optical character recognition (OCR)]."
  • Any computer on a network that contains data or applications shared by users of the network on their client PCs. 
  • "A collection of coordinated processes that takes one or more kinds of input, performs a value-added transformation, and creates an output that fulfills the needs of a customer [or shareholder]."
  • "Techniques that separate the process of feature extraction from learning itself."
  • Software distributed free on a trial basis with the understanding that the user will pay if the software is used beyond the trial period. 
  • A sibling is a document that shares a common parent with the document in question (e.g. two attachments that share the same parent email or are sibling documents in the same Zip file). 
  • "a framework for interpreting data from experiments in which accuracy is measured."
  • Definition: A recognizable, distinguishing pattern. Types of signatures: attack signature, digital signature, electronic signature.
  • Definition: In cybersecurity, comprehending the current status and security posture with respect to availability, confidentiality, and integrity of networks, systems, users, and data, as well as projecting future states of these.
  • A form of residual data, slack space is the amount of on-disk file space from the end of the logical record information to the end of the physical disk record. It is unused space in a disk cluster. Slack space can contain information soft-deleted from the record, information from prior(...)
  • Plastic, credit card sized cards with an embedded integrated electronic chip.
  • "Something proposed as a solution to a problem, but which is of little real or practical value; speech or action which is superficially attractive or convincing but of no real substance or effectiveness."
  • "how humans interact with technology within the broader societal context"
  • Coded instructions (programs) that make a computer do useful work. 
  • Definition: The level of confidence that software is free from vulnerabilities, either intentionally designed into the software or accidentally inserted at any time during its lifecycle, and that the software functions in the intended manner.
  • Definition: In the NICE Framework, cybersecurity work where a person: Develops and writes/codes new (or modifies existing) computer applications, software, or specialized utility programs following software assurance best practices.
  • "Activity in which a system or component is executed under specified conditions, the results are observed or recorded, and an evaluation is made of some aspect of the system or component."
  • Definition: The abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages.
  • "refers to a matrix of numbers that includes many zeros or values that will not significantly impact a calculation."
  • "A document that specifies, in a complete, precise, verifiable manner, the requirements, design, behavior, or other characteristics of a system or component and often the procedures for determining whether these provisions have been satisfied."