Security

This cyber security glossary explains the meaning of terms about different types of computer security threats as well as words about application security, access control, network intrusion detection, security awareness training and computer forensics.

Authentication and access control

Terms related to authentication, including security definitions about passwords and words and phrases about proving identity.

  • What is a certificate authority (CA)?

    A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues digital certificates to authenticate content sent from web servers.

  • What is multifactor authentication?

    Multifactor authentication (MFA) is an IT security technology that requires multiple sources of unique information from independent categories of credentials to verify a user's identity for a login or other transaction.

  • What is a domain controller?

    A domain controller is a server that processes requests for authentication from users and computers within a computer domain.

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Compliance, risk and governance

This glossary contains definitions related to compliance. Some definitions explain the meaning of words used in compliance regulations. Other definitions are related to the strategies that compliance officers use to mitigate risk and create a manageable compliance infrastructure.

  • What is the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)?

    The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a European Union regulation designed to enhance cybersecurity and ensure functional continuity of the financial sector, employing rigorous information and communications technology (ICT) standards across all EU financial entities.

  • What is a think tank?

    A think tank is an organization that gathers a group of interdisciplinary scholars to perform research around particular policies, issues or ideas.

  • What is root cause analysis?

    Root cause analysis (RCA) is a method for understanding the underlying cause of an observed or experienced incident.

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Network security

Terms related to network security, including definitions about intrusion prevention and words and phrases about VPNs and firewalls.

  • What is a certificate authority (CA)?

    A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues digital certificates to authenticate content sent from web servers.

  • What is promiscuous mode in networking?

    In computer networking, promiscuous mode is a mode of operation in which a network device, such as a network interface card (NIC) or an adapter on a host system, can intercept and read in its entirety each network packet that arrives instead of just the packets addressed to the host.

  • What is the Twofish encryption algorithm?

    Twofish is a symmetric-key block cipher with a block size of 128 bits and variable-length key of size 128, 192 or 256 bits.

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Security Admin

Terms related to security management, including definitions about intrusion detection systems (IDS) and words and phrases about asset management, security policies, security monitoring, authorization and authentication.

  • What is a certificate authority (CA)?

    A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues digital certificates to authenticate content sent from web servers.

  • What is promiscuous mode in networking?

    In computer networking, promiscuous mode is a mode of operation in which a network device, such as a network interface card (NIC) or an adapter on a host system, can intercept and read in its entirety each network packet that arrives instead of just the packets addressed to the host.

  • What is the Twofish encryption algorithm?

    Twofish is a symmetric-key block cipher with a block size of 128 bits and variable-length key of size 128, 192 or 256 bits.

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Threat management

Terms related to security threats, including definitions about anti-virus programs or firewalls and words and phrases about malware, viruses, Trojans and other security attacks.

  • What is a certificate authority (CA)?

    A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues digital certificates to authenticate content sent from web servers.

  • What is promiscuous mode in networking?

    In computer networking, promiscuous mode is a mode of operation in which a network device, such as a network interface card (NIC) or an adapter on a host system, can intercept and read in its entirety each network packet that arrives instead of just the packets addressed to the host.

  • What is the Twofish encryption algorithm?

    Twofish is a symmetric-key block cipher with a block size of 128 bits and variable-length key of size 128, 192 or 256 bits.

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