Security(181 terms)
A full list of the Security terms and explanations covered by ITBGM.
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ABAC Authentication & Authorization ☆
An access-control approach that decides access based on attributes of the user and resource.
Access Token Authentication & Authorization ☆
Temporary credentials used to access an authorized resource.
Adware Malware ☆
Nuisance software that displays unwanted advertisements.
AES Encryption ☆
A symmetric-key encryption algorithm in widespread use today.
Air Gap Firewalls ☆
A defense technique that physically isolates a critical system from external networks, including the internet.
APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) Malware ☆
A sophisticated attacker or attack campaign that targets a specific organization and remains hidden inside it over a long period while evading detection.
Audit Log Compliance ☆
A log recorded so that who did what can be traced.
Authentication Authentication & Authorization ☆
Confirming that a user is who they claim to be.
Authentication Bypass Vulnerabilities ☆
Accessing a system by circumventing the legitimate authentication process.
Authorization Authentication & Authorization ☆
Deciding which actions an authenticated user is permitted to perform.
Biometric Authentication Authentication & Authorization ☆
An authentication method that verifies identity using physical traits such as a fingerprint or face.
Block Cipher Encryption ☆
An encryption method that splits data into fixed-size blocks before encrypting.
Blue Team Incident Response ☆
The defending team responsible for detecting and responding to an attack.
Botnet Malware ☆
A network of many infected devices controlled remotely as a group.
Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack that writes data past an allocated region to cause malfunction.
Bug Bounty Vulnerabilities ☆
A program that pays a reward to whoever reports a vulnerability they've found.
Business Continuity Plan Incident Response ☆
A plan (BCP) for continuing business operations even during a disaster or incident.
Business Email Compromise Malware ☆
Fraud that impersonates a business partner or executive to trick a victim into transferring money.
C2 Server Malware ☆
A command server attackers use to remotely control infected devices.
CASB Cloud Security ☆
A mechanism for gaining visibility into cloud service usage and applying policy.
Certificate Encryption ☆
Data by which a third party certifies that a public key belongs to its claimed owner.
Certificate Authority Encryption ☆
An organization that issues certificates and vouches for their trustworthiness.
CIS Benchmarks Compliance ☆
A guideline collecting secure configuration standards for OSes and middleware.
CIS Controls Compliance ☆
A practical security guideline that prioritizes actions for defending against cyberattacks.
Clickjacking Web Security ☆
An attack that disguises what's on screen to trick a user into an unintended click.
Cloud Shared Responsibility Model Cloud Security ☆
The idea that security responsibility is divided between a cloud provider and its customer.
CNAPP Cloud Security ☆
A framework that unifies the protection of cloud-native applications from development through operations.
Command Injection Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack that gets an unintended OS command executed via user input.
Container Image Scanning Vulnerabilities ☆
Examining a container image's OS packages and libraries for known vulnerabilities.
Content Security Policy Web Security ☆
A mechanism (CSP) that restricts where scripts and other resources can load from, to prevent XSS and similar attacks.
Context-Based Access Control Zero Trust ☆
An access-control approach that factors in context, such as location and time.
Continuous Verification Zero Trust ☆
The idea of continually re-verifying the legitimacy of access, rather than stopping after one authentication.
CORS Web Security ☆
A mechanism that controls resource sharing between different origins.
Credential Stuffing Authentication & Authorization ☆
An attack that reuses username/password combinations leaked from other services to attempt unauthorized logins.
CSIRT Incident Response ☆
A specialized team that responds when a security incident occurs.
CSPM Cloud Security ☆
A tool that continuously detects misconfigurations and risk in a cloud environment.
CSRF Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack that tricks a user into sending an unintended request.
CTEM Security Operations ☆
A security operations approach for continuously discovering an organization's attack surface, prioritizing risks, and addressing them on an ongoing basis.
CVE Vulnerabilities ☆
An identifier that assigns a unique number to a publicly disclosed vulnerability.
CVSS Vulnerabilities ☆
A common metric for scoring the severity of a vulnerability numerically.
CWE Vulnerabilities ☆
A common list for classifying and identifying types of vulnerability.
Cyber Kill Chain Security Operations ☆
A model that breaks a cyberattack down into a sequence of seven stages.
Dark Web Monitoring Security Operations ☆
A service that continuously watches for a company's leaked credentials or confidential information being sold or exposed on the dark web.
Data Breach Compliance ☆
Confidential or personal information leaking to the outside.
DDoS Attack Incident Response ☆
An attack that overwhelms a service by concentrating a flood of traffic from many compromised sources.
Deepfake Malware ☆
A technology that uses AI to generate realistic fake video or audio, abused for fraud and impersonation.
Defense in Depth Security Operations ☆
An approach to security that layers multiple defenses rather than relying on a single measure.
Device Authentication Zero Trust ☆
Verifying the trustworthiness of the connecting device itself, not just the user.
Device Posture Zero Trust ☆
The state indicating whether a connecting device meets security requirements.
DevSecOps Security Operations ☆
An approach that integrates development (Dev), security (Sec), and operations (Ops).
Digital Signature Encryption ☆
A mechanism that uses public-key cryptography to prove data's authenticity and its creator.
Directory Traversal Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack that improperly reads files in a directory it shouldn't have access to.
DMZ Firewalls ☆
A buffer zone for public-facing servers, placed between the external and internal networks.
DNS Rebinding Web Security ☆
An attack that switches a DNS resolution result mid-attack to bypass the same-origin policy and make a browser access an internal network.
EDR Malware ☆
A category of security product that detects and responds to suspicious behavior on an endpoint.
Elliptic Curve Cryptography Encryption ☆
A form of public-key cryptography that achieves strong security even with a short key length.
Exploit Vulnerabilities ☆
Attack code or a technique built specifically to take advantage of a vulnerability.
Fileless Malware Malware ☆
Malware that runs in memory instead of being saved to disk as a file.
Firewall Firewalls ☆
A mechanism that monitors traffic and blocks anything not permitted.
Forensics Incident Response ☆
Collecting and analyzing evidentiary data to determine the cause of an incident.
GDPR Compliance ☆
An EU regulation on the protection of personal data.
Golden Ticket Attack Malware ☆
An attack that abuses Active Directory's authentication system to forge a fraudulent ticket granting unlimited access to every resource in the domain.
Hash Function Encryption ☆
A function that produces a fixed-length value from arbitrary data, used for things like tamper detection.
HMAC Encryption ☆
A mechanism that uses a shared key to detect tampering with a message.
Honeypot Security Operations ☆
A deliberately vulnerable system set up to lure attackers and observe their methods.
HSTS Web Security ☆
A mechanism that instructs a browser to always connect over HTTPS.
HTTPS Web Security ☆
HTTP communication encrypted with TLS.
IAM Authentication & Authorization ☆
A general term for a system that centrally manages who can access what.
IDS Firewalls ☆
A mechanism that detects and reports signs of malicious traffic.
Incident Response Plan Incident Response ☆
A plan that predefines the steps to take when an incident occurs.
Initialization Vector Encryption ☆
An initial value varied on each encryption to eliminate predictable patterns.
Input Validation Web Security ☆
Processing that checks whether user input matches what's expected.
Insider Threat Incident Response ☆
The risk of data leaks or misconduct from employees or contractors who already hold legitimate access, rather than from an outside attacker.
IOC Incident Response ☆
Evidence indicating that an attack or breach has occurred.
IPS Firewalls ☆
A mechanism that detects malicious traffic and automatically blocks it.
ISO27001 Compliance ☆
An international standard for information security management.
Just-in-Time Access Zero Trust ☆
A mechanism that temporarily grants a permission only when it's actually needed.
JWT Authentication & Authorization ☆
A token format that represents things like authentication information compactly and tamper-evidently.
Kerberos Authentication & Authorization ☆
A protocol that uses tickets to authenticate securely over a network.
Key Stretching Encryption ☆
A technique that repeats hashing to increase the time needed to crack it.
Keylogger Malware ☆
Malware that secretly records what's typed on a keyboard.
Least Privilege Access Zero Trust ☆
The principle of granting only the minimum permission needed, each time.
Living off the Land Security Operations ☆
An attack technique that uses only tools already built into the OS.
Malware Malware ☆
An umbrella term for malicious software created to harm the user.
Man-in-the-Middle Attack Incident Response ☆
An attack where a third party inserts itself between two communicating parties to eavesdrop on or tamper with the traffic.
Microsegmentation Zero Trust ☆
A technique that finely partitions a network to minimize the blast radius of a breach.
MITRE ATT&CK Security Operations ☆
A knowledge base published by MITRE that systematically catalogs attacker tactics and techniques.
MTTD Incident Response ☆
The average time it takes to detect a threat or incident.
MTTR Incident Response ☆
The average time from an outage or incident occurring to recovery.
Multi-Factor Authentication Authentication & Authorization ☆
An authentication method that combines multiple different factors, such as a password, to verify identity.
Next-Generation Firewall Firewalls ☆
A firewall with advanced capabilities, such as identifying traffic at the application level.
NIST Compliance ☆
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology, which develops various security standards and guidelines.
OAuth Authentication & Authorization ☆
An authorization mechanism for delegating permission to another service without sharing a password.
One-Time Password Authentication & Authorization ☆
A single-use, disposable password.
OpenID Connect Authentication & Authorization ☆
A mechanism for verifying identity, built as an extension of OAuth.
OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities ☆
A ranking of the leading vulnerabilities found in web applications.
Packet Filtering Firewalls ☆
A mechanism that decides whether to let a packet through based on its header information.
Passkey Authentication & Authorization ☆
A mechanism for logging in securely via biometrics and the like, without a password.
Pass-the-Hash Attack Authentication & Authorization ☆
An attack that bypasses authentication using a stolen password hash directly, without needing to know the plaintext password.
Password Spraying Authentication & Authorization ☆
An attack that tries a small number of commonly used passwords against a large number of accounts.
Patch Management Vulnerabilities ☆
Systematically applying and managing security fixes.
PCI DSS Compliance ☆
A security standard required of businesses that handle credit card information.
Penetration Testing Vulnerabilities ☆
A test that simulates a real attack to verify whether intrusion is possible.
Perfect Forward Secrecy Encryption ☆
The property that past communication stays undecipherable even if a key later leaks.
Phishing Malware ☆
A fraud technique that tricks victims into handing over credentials via a fake site or similar.
PKI Encryption ☆
The overall infrastructure, including certificate issuance, for operating public-key cryptography securely.
Playbook Incident Response ☆
A document that predefines the response steps to take when an incident occurs.
Port Scan Firewalls ☆
Probing a target device from outside to find which ports are open.
Post-Quantum Cryptography Encryption ☆
A new class of cryptography designed to resist decryption by quantum computers.
Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities ☆
Improperly gaining a higher privilege than one was granted.
Prompt Injection Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack technique that embeds malicious instructions in input to make an AI behave in unintended ways.
Proxy Firewall Firewalls ☆
A firewall that mediates and inspects traffic content at the application layer.
Public-Key Cryptography Encryption ☆
An encryption scheme that uses different keys (a public key and a private key) for encryption and decryption.
Purple Team Incident Response ☆
An activity where the attacking side (red team) and defending side (blue team) collaborate to improve detection and response capability.
Rainbow Table Attack Authentication & Authorization ☆
An attack that uses a precomputed table mapping hash values back to their original plaintext, to quickly crack a password from its hash.
Ransomware Malware ☆
Malware that encrypts data and demands payment in exchange for restoring it.
Rate Limiting Web Security ☆
A mechanism that caps the number of requests allowed in a given time period.
RBAC Authentication & Authorization ☆
An access-control approach that bundles permissions and assigns them per role.
Red Team Incident Response ☆
A team that plays the role of an attacker to test an organization's defenses.
Refresh Token Authentication & Authorization ☆
A token used to reissue an access token after it expires.
Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities ☆
A vulnerability that lets an attacker execute arbitrary code on a target system.
Risk Assessment Compliance ☆
Identifying anticipated risks and evaluating their impact.
Risk-Based Authentication Authentication & Authorization ☆
A mechanism that requests additional authentication based on the risk of a login attempt.
Rootkit Malware ☆
A set of tools for maintaining unauthorized control of a system while hiding the traces of intrusion.
RSA Encryption ☆
A leading public-key cryptosystem based on the difficulty of factoring.
Salt Encryption ☆
A random value added before hashing a password, as a defense against cracking.
Same-Origin Policy Web Security ☆
A fundamental browser principle that restricts a script from one origin (a combination of domain, port, and protocol) from freely accessing resources on a different origin.
SAML Authentication & Authorization ☆
An XML-based standard for securely exchanging authentication information between organizations.
Sandbox Malware ☆
A mechanism for running a program in an isolated environment to safely observe its behavior.
SASE Zero Trust ☆
An approach that delivers networking and security functions together from the cloud.
SBOM Vulnerabilities ☆
An inventory list of the components (such as libraries) that make up a piece of software.
Secrets Management Cloud Security ☆
A mechanism for securely storing and managing secrets such as API keys and passwords.
Secure Coding Compliance ☆
The practice of writing code with care not to introduce vulnerabilities.
Security Awareness Training Compliance ☆
Education and training conducted to raise awareness across an organization.
Security Policy Compliance ☆
A document laying out an organization's security policy.
Session Hijacking Web Security ☆
An attack that steals someone else's session information to impersonate them.
Session Management Authentication & Authorization ☆
A mechanism for maintaining and managing login state over a period of time.
SHA-256 Encryption ☆
A widely used 256-bit hash function.
Shadow IT Cloud Security ☆
IT services or devices that employees have adopted and use on their own, without the knowledge or approval of the IT department.
Side-Channel Attack Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack technique that infers secret information, such as an encryption key, by observing physical side effects like processing time, power consumption, or electromagnetic emissions.
SIEM Security Operations ☆
A mechanism that aggregates logs from various devices and detects threats through correlation analysis.
Single Sign-On Authentication & Authorization ☆
A mechanism that lets one authentication cover access to multiple services.
SOAR Security Operations ☆
A mechanism that automates security operations from detection through response.
SOC Incident Response ☆
An organization or facility specialized in security monitoring and analysis.
SOC 2 Compliance ☆
An internationally recognized assurance standard for evaluating internal controls around information security.
Social Engineering Malware ☆
An umbrella term for attack techniques that exploit human psychology and assumptions, rather than technical vulnerabilities, to steal information.
Spear Phishing Malware ☆
A targeted phishing attack aimed at a specific individual.
Spoofing Authentication & Authorization ☆
An umbrella term for pretending to be another person or system in order to gain unauthorized access or communication.
Spyware Malware ☆
Software that collects information and sends it out without the user noticing.
SQL Injection Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack that injects malicious SQL to manipulate a database.
SSRF Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack that uses a server as a stepping stone to reach internal resources it shouldn't be able to access.
Stateful Inspection Firewalls ☆
A method that remembers connection state and decides to allow or deny traffic based on context.
Stream Cipher Encryption ☆
An encryption method that continuously encrypts data one bit or byte at a time.
STRIDE Security Operations ☆
A threat modeling method devised by Microsoft that classifies threats into six categories.
Subresource Integrity Web Security ☆
A mechanism that uses a hash value to verify that an externally loaded file, such as JavaScript, has not been tampered with.
Supply Chain Attack Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack carried out through a peripheral route, such as a business partner or a library in use.
Symmetric-Key Cryptography Encryption ☆
An encryption scheme that uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. Fast to process.
Targeted Attack Malware ☆
An attack aimed at a specific organization or individual.
Threat Hunting Security Operations ☆
Proactively searching for signs of a threat instead of waiting for a detection alert.
Threat Intelligence Security Operations ☆
Collected and analyzed information about attackers' methods and trends.
Threat Modeling Security Operations ☆
A technique for identifying likely threats during a system's design phase.
TLS Encryption ☆
The current protocol for encrypting a communication channel, the successor to SSL.
TOTP Authentication & Authorization ☆
A one-time-password scheme where the password changes at fixed intervals based on time.
Triage Incident Response ☆
Assessing the severity of incidents that have occurred and prioritizing them.
Trojan Horse Malware ☆
A malicious program that infiltrates a system disguised as legitimate software.
Typosquatting Incident Response ☆
A technique that registers a lookalike fake domain to catch typos of a well-known domain name.
UTM Firewalls ☆
A security appliance that integrates multiple functions, such as a firewall and IPS, into a single device.
Virus Malware ☆
A type of malware that attaches to other programs and self-replicates.
Vulnerability Vulnerabilities ☆
A security weakness present in a system.
Vulnerability Assessment Vulnerabilities ☆
Investigating a system for weaknesses.
WAF Firewalls ☆
A dedicated firewall for blocking attacks aimed at web applications.
Watering Hole Attack Incident Response ☆
An attack technique that compromises a website a target frequently visits and lies in wait to infect them.
Worm Malware ☆
Malware that spreads on its own over a network, without attaching to another program.
XDR Malware ☆
A mechanism that detects threats by integrating detection data across multiple domains, not just endpoints.
XSS Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack technique that gets a malicious script embedded into a web page.
XXE Vulnerabilities ☆
An attack that abuses XML external entity references to read internal information.
Zero Trust Zero Trust ☆
The idea that even an internal network shouldn't be trusted unconditionally.
Zero-Day Vulnerability Vulnerabilities ☆
A vulnerability exploited before a fix is available.
ZTNA Zero Trust ☆
A mechanism, based on zero trust principles, that individually verifies and authorizes access to internal applications on a per-user, per-device basis.
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