Simplifying the complex

Glossary of Terms

Whether you need a refresher or heard something in passing that want to understand better, we have compiled a list of industry terms to help

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  • a

  • Also known as account compromise. It occurs when a cyber attacker gains control of a legitimate account.
  • A user management database for Windows domains.
  • A server that hosts and manages AD.
  • This is a mostly nation-state-sponsored attack that aims to compromise an organization to carry out espionage or carry out goals while remaining undetected for a long time.
  • Amazon AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon providing on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. Launched in 2006, AWS offers a broad set of global cloud-based products including compute power, storage options,(...)
  • An endpoint anti-malware software.
  • A software interface that uses common connectors between software applications.
  • Data loss prevention (DLP) is a tool admins use to classify data and set authorization policies to access that data. It helps organizations that store data in AWS keep their sensitive data safe from corruption, disclosure, and theft.

  • b

  • A strain of ransomware (first appearing in 2017) and suspected variant of Petya. Like other ransomware, bad rabbit infections lock up victims’ computers, servers, or files to prevent them from regaining access until they pay a ransom.
  • A group of computers or devices under an attacker’s control with the goal of performing malicious activity against a targeted victim.
  • A policy that allows employees to bring their personal laptops and smartphones to work and connect them to the corporate network.
  • A virtualized browser strategy that’s far more secure than traditional methods.
  • A password-cracking method cybercriminals use to discover account credentials—like passwords.
  • A type of email cybercrime scam where an attacker targets a business to defraud it.

  • c

  • CCPA was enacted in 2018 to combat many incidents of data breaches in big tech from poorly defined access controls and privacy management.
  • This fraud falls under the umbrella of phishing, but instead of attackers spoofing a popular website, they spoof the CEO (or other C-suite executive) for the targeted business.
  • First discovered in 2016, this ransomware acts as ransomware as a service (RaaS) malware. Anyone can deploy it, with or without coding skills.
  • The person responsible for designing cybersecurity strategies used to protect corporate data and assess risk across the organization. Their job is to improve cyber defenses.
  • An email-based threat where attackers clone real email messages with attachments and resend them pretending to be the original sender.
  • An on-prem or cloud-based security software that monitors activity and enforces security policies between users and cloud applications.
  • A cloud-based archiving solution that stores data offsite (on cloud servers) where admins can provision necessary resources to ensure they can create thorough backups with sufficient storage capacity.
  • Complying with regulatory standards about cloud usage at the local, national, and international level (laws). You must comply with all data privacy and protection regulatory standards.
  • Helps keep an organization’s sensitive information safe from cyberattacks, insider threats, and accidental exposure.
  • A broad set of rules, technologies, applications, and controls to protect apps, data, virtualized IP, services, and the infrastructure of cloud computing.
  • Oversees cloud resources to alert admins of exploitable vulnerabilities.
  • Rules businesses must follow that require them to perform corporate activity ethically and safely.
  • Quality assurance tests businesses do to check how well their operations meet regulatory obligations, including protecting data and safeguarding user privacy.
  • An organization’s potential risk of exposure to legal, financial, and material loss resulting from not complying with industry laws and regulations.
  • An account that has been compromised because of a threat actor gaining access to credible and/or other means to perform actions on behalf of the targeted user.
  • A malicious application or authored code used to perform a destructive activity on a device or local network.
  • A security solution that inspects packets and attempts to detect and remove exploits, executable code, and malformed packets.
  • Tricking users into using their computers and mobile devices to generate cryptocurrency for an attacker.
  • Ransomware that restricts access to infected computers by encrypting its contents. Once infected, victims are expected to pay a ransom to decrypt and recover their files.
  • Ransomware malware that works by encrypting files on an infected computer. It requires users to pay a ransom to receive a decryption key.
  • Allows organizations to offload the residual risk-related reliability and costs associated with cybersecurity events.
  • Any ongoing threat on a system. They can come from internal users who fall victim to phishing attacks or an outsider who finds a vulnerability in a web app and exploits it.
  • Cybersecurity encompasses the technology, services, strategies, practices, and policies designed to secure people, data, and infrastructure from a wide range of cyberattacks.
  • They help determined the cause of an incident and collect data for future investigations.
  • It usually follows a severe data breach where victims of identity theft or future financial loss are your customers and are seeking compensation for the event.

  • d

  • Collecting older data and moving it to a protected location so an organization can retrieve it, especially in a data forensics investigation.
  • When data is stolen or disclosed to an unauthorized third party.
  • The physical and virtual cybersecurity that protects corporate data from attackers.
  • A method for defining and categorizing files and other critical business information.
  • When there’s unauthorized copying, transfer, or retrieval of data from either a server or an individual’s computer.
  • The strategies and rules used to maintain corporate data and its security.
  • Also known as data tagging. It involves assigning various data points with information so machine learning (ML) algorithms can better understand its meaning.
  • When sensitive data is disclosed to an unauthorized third party.
  • Software that ensures users don’t send sensitive/critical information outside of the corporate network.
  • Aims to protect customer data from unethical use and distribution to third parties.
  • Strategies that focus on building infrastructure and policies to stop attacks aimed at stealing valuable or sensitive data.
  • A policy that specifies how long an organization stores backup data before archiving, overwriting, or destroying it.
  • The practices, strategies, procedures, and mitigation techniques used to protect sensitive (personal) information from attackers.
  • A remote access service where desktops are hosted in the cloud and are available when a remote user logs in and launches a session.
  • A malicious attack that attempts to disrupt normal traffic on a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic.
  • An open email authentication protocol that provides domain-level protection of the email channel.
  • The IT service that matches domain name requests with IP addresses.
  • Poisoning entries on a DNS server to redirect a targeted user to a malicious website under attacker control.
  • A an email authentication protocol that detects forged sender addresses in email, like those used in phishing and email spam. DKIM lets receivers verify that an email sender was authorized by the owner of the domain.

  • e

  • A digital investigation that attempts to find evidence in email, business communications, and other data that could aid in litigation or criminal proceedings.
  • A highly sophisticated attack where attackers use various tactics—phishing, malware, password spray—to compromise a victim’s email account.
  • A system for preserving email communications in a format that can be digitally stored, indexed, searched, and retrieved.
  • Services that filter an organization’s inbound and outbound email traffic.
  • An email server that protects a company’s or users’ internal email servers.
  • A combination of security technology deployment and employee, associate, and customer training in how to guard against cyberattacks that infiltrate the network through email.
  • When attackers steal money, account credentials, and sensitive information through scam emails.
  • Different procedures and techniques for protecting email accounts, content, and communication against unauthorized access, loss, or compromise.
  • A technique used in spam and phishing attacks to trick users into thinking a message came from a person or business they either know or can trust.
  • Encoding a message or information in a way that only authorized parties can access it—those who aren’t authorized cannot.
  • A practice used to track user behavior or actions while interacting with a site or web application. It helps measure the impact of website and device performance on the end user journey.
  • Usually, they enter an organization through a user-infected device introduced into the corporate network that delivers malware that can spread laterally. Threats can also come through an infected portable device or from users who were tricked into downloading and installing malicious software.
  • Advanced endpoint protection that can proactively respond to malware detection or attacker behavior.
  • Involves the strategies, software, and hardware used to protect all devices and access points on a corporate network.
  • The overall strategies and procedures used to defend an organization from bad actors.

  • f

  • An act to protect students’ personal information.
  • An organization’s first line of security defense. It’s a gatekeeper to a digital network.
  • Firewalls set up and managed as a service from a service provider.

  • g

  • First discovered in 2005, Zeus is a family of malware. GameOver Zeus is an advanced variant with a ransomware component.
  • The European Union’s (EU) ruling set to protect the data of all EU citizens.
  • Bulk email that doesn’t fit the definition of spam because it’s solicited and comes from a legitimate source. It has varying values to different recipients.

  • h

  • “Hack” plus “activism.” It describes the intent of specific attackers, specifically those hacking or breaking into a computer system for political/social motivations.
  • Compliance with HIPPA regulations requires companies that handle or deal with protected health information (PHI) have physical, network, and process security measures in place and strict adherence to those policies.
  • A computer system designed to attract cyberattackers so security researchers can see how they operate and what they might be after.
  • The modern HTML version powering the internet.
  • An application layer protocol to transmit HTML documents between websites and end users.
  • An encrypted version of HTTP.

  • i

  • An authentication tool that provides a single set of login credentials that verifies user identities across multiple platforms, networks, or applications.
  • Contains and eradicates threats when an attacker exploits a vulnerability within an organization.
  • Clues and evidence of a data breach during a cybersecurity incident. 
  • Scammers who trick email recipients into giving them information.
  • The technology associated with the data, computers, networks, and IT security.
  • A managed service that replaces part or all of the IT infrastructure needed by an organization, like networks, switches, and routers.
  • It can happen when someone close to an organization with authorized access misuses that access to negatively affects the organization’s critical information or systems.
  • Devices around the world that automatically connect to the cloud and function by storing data or running commands from an online server.
  • The safeguards and protections for cloud-connected devices, like home automation, SCADA machines, security cameras, and any other technology that connects directly to the cloud.
  • Often used in the context of an IP address, which is the series of numbers that identify any device attached to a network.
  • Specific guidelines a business must follow to ensure its processes are secure.

  • k

  • Programs that run as a background process on a computer or other device to collect keystrokes as a user types on their keyboard.

  • l

  • A user management database that manages identities and access.
  • Mmass customized phishing messaging that are typically engineered to look like they’re only arriving in small quantities, mimicking targeted attacks.

  • m

  • Designed to launch an attack on a user’s computer. Attackers often disguise email attachments as documents, PDFs, e-files, or voicemails.
  • A common cyberattack, and an umbrella term for various malicious programs delivered and installed on user systems and servers.
  • Data eavesdropping and theft where an attacker intercepts data from a sender to the recipient and then from the recipient back to the sender.
  • A third-party provider that manages a company’s day-to-day security operations.
  • The strategy, infrastructure, and software used to protect any device that travels with users, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
  • A multi-cloud environment lets a business use solutions across cloud platforms to reduce downtime and failure rates.
  • Multiple means to verify a user’s identity for authentication. It’s meant to increase user account security.

  • n

  • A month dedicated to bringing more awareness to cybersecurity and adta privacy. It started in 2004.
  • A solution that inspects users and devices to verify they have permission to access the network based upon defined policies.
  • There are typically two types: passive and active network threats. Passive network threats are activities such as wiretapping and idle scans that are designed to intercept traffic traveling through the network. Active network threats include activities such as denial of services (DoS) and SQL(...)

  • o

  • A protocol that lets a user grant a third-party application access to their data without sharing their account password.
  • A shared-based model where application developers provide the full codebase for a project instead of only a compiled project with executable files. 
  • A conceptual framework that defines how networking systems communicate and send data from sender to recipient.
  • An open-source authentication protocol and part of the OAuth 2.0 framework.

  • p

  • It occurs when one or more transmitted data packets cannot reach their destination. It can cause data corruption when transferring files across a network.
  • A component of the software development life cycle (SDLC) is maintaining it. Patch management strategies handle how updates and hotfixes deploy among a network of devices.
  • A list of compliance standards containing policies around protecting consumer payment financial data.
  • A set of data that can be used to distinguish a specific person. It includes the personal information of customers or employees, like social security numbers, credit card numbers, and healthcare information.
  • A family of encrypting malware that infects Microsoft Windows-based computers. It infects the master boot record to execute a payload that encrypts data on a hard drive’s systems.
  • An attack that involves sending users to fake websites to trick them into divulging private information.
  • When attackers send malicious emails designed to trick people into falling for a scam. Typically, the intent is to get users to reveal financial information, system credentials, or other sensitive data.
  • Statistics and data modeling businesses leverage to make predictions.
  • Various access control and monitoring tools and technologies used to secure access to critical information/resources.
  • A model where a third-party provider hosts any “as a service” technology, including hardware, software, monitoring and logging solutions, identity management, remote resources, and other data center solutions.

  • r

  • A malicious software (malware) that threatens to publish or block access to data or a computer system (by encrypting it) until the victim pays the attacker a ransom.
  • Used to understand and optimize user experience. It also helps with threat monitoring.
  • A set of rules organizations must follow to protect sensitive information and human safety.
  • Malware an attacker uses to gain full admin privileges and remote control of the targeted device.
  • A secure browse that effectively puts a web browser (and hosts) in a container on the device hosting the browser.

  • s

  • An isolated virtual machine in which potentially unsafe software code can execute without affecting network resources or local applications.
  • A common protocol used in virtual private network connections (VPN).
  • A networking tool that enforces corporate acceptable use policies and protects users from web-based threats.
  • A component of cloud computing where applications run on a remote host server, but the service integrates with local IT infrastructure.
  • A standard used by security domains to exchange authentication and authorization identities.
  • Training that helps employees understand and follow certain practices that ensure an organization’s security.
  • A security tool used to gather alerts and logs for investigations and analysis.
  • Introduced by Gartner in 2021, SSE improves data protection in cloud environments, allowing for safe access to websites, SaaS, and other applications.
  • An email authentication protocol. It’s part of email cybersecurity and used to stop phishing attacks.
  • A server application that gives businesses a way to send email using the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP).
  • It determines the level of service between a vendor and a customer. These agreements often center on availability and reliability.
  • A situation where users deploy cloud-connected apps or use cloud services within the enterprise environment without the IT department’s knowledge or consent.
  • A text messaging protocol.
  • Gives businesses with a way to use a separate domain and email server when sending bulk email.
  • An authentication scheme that creates a trusted identity that can be passed on to other applications or websites without additional authentication.
  • A form of phishing where an attacker uses a compelling text message to trick targeted recipients into clicking a link and sending the attacker private information or downloading malicious programs to a smartphone.
  • A tactic that manipulates, influences, or takes advantage of a targeted user’s inability to detect an attack. The goal is to control the victim’s computer system or steal personal/financial information.
  • Archiving social media accounts to keep a record of social media communications and remain compliant.
  • Solutions that prevent unauthorized access to an organization’s social media accounts. They also help find accounts posing as your brand or executives and shield customers from malicious social media content.
  • Attackers use social media accounts in social engineering and phishing attacks as it gives them a platform to impersonate trusted people and businesses or gather the information they need to carry out additional attacks.
  • A security framework that converts networks and their security into cloud-delivered platforms.
  • Software licensed on a monthly basis. It’s typically installed and centrally managed by the software company in the cloud.
  • An approach to computer security that hides internet-connected infrastructure so external parties and attackers can’t see it. The goal is to base the network perimeter on software (instead of hardware).
  • Leverages software optimization to control how a network operates instead of the stereotypical hardware infrastructure that uses an on or off environment to direct traffic.
  • A spam email—also known as unsolicited commercial email (UCE)—is unwanted and questionable mass-emailed advertisements.
  • Scams that attempt to trick the victim into providing confidential information, such as credentials, to the attacker.
  • The process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating the risks to the integrity and authenticity of products and services within the supply chain. 
  • A highly effective way of breaching security. It involves injecting malicious libraries or components into a product without the developer, manufacturer, or end user realizing it.

  • t

  • A basic computing device that runs services and software from a centralized server.
  • Any inside or external attacker that could affect data security.
  • Protects businesses from threats by monitoring attackers and their malware.
  • A cryptographic protocol to provide secure communication over a computer network. It replaced secure sockets later (SSL) and was incorporated into many protocols, like email and HTTPS.

  • u

  • Technologies that secure and manage devices and operating systems from a single command console.
  • A powerful cybersecurity tool that detects and analyzes unusual behavior from traffic patterns on the network.

  • v

  • Similar to DaaS, VDI provides desktops for remote access employees.
  • A remote access protocol that gives users security and anonymity (through an encrypted connection) when they connect to web-based services or websites.
  • Similar to phishing, vishing involves attackers making fraudulent phone calls or leaving voice messages pretending to be a reputable company to get people to reveal personal information.

  • w

  • A ransomware attack discovered in early 2017 that struck corporate networks worldwide running Microsoft Windows as part of a massive global cyberattack.
  • A targeted attack designed to compromise users within a specific industry or a group of users by infecting websites they usually visit—the attackers lure victims to a malicious site.
  • A tool organizations use for cybersecurity and performance. It includes features like anonymizing internal IP addresses and caching content for improved data transfer speeds and less bandwidth usage.
  • It leverages strategies to prevent users from introducing threats to the network from a malicious website.

  • z

  • A security flaw never previously seen in the world.
  • A zero-trust network assumes every user—internal or external—could be a threat. Therefore, every request for network resources must be from an authenticated, authorized, and validated users. It centers on the never trust, always verify philosophy. The zero-trust security model has become the(...)
  • IT infrastructure that embraces zero-trust principles.
  • IT networks that embrace zero-trust principles.
  • One of the oldest malware programs used to steal victims’ banking details. 

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