ISC 2 Unit Outline Review

Flashcards covering IT infrastructure, cloud computing, enterprise systems, system availability, change management, and database design based on the ISC 2 Unit Outline.

IT Infrastructure

The supporting IT architecture within most modern companies, composed of interconnected technological components involving hardware, software, and specialized personnel.

End-user devices (EUDs)

Electronic machines, such as computers or minicomputers, that directly interact with employees or consumers at the "edge" of a network.

Motherboard

A key internal hardware component that connects critical pieces including microprocessors, graphics cards, hard drives, RAM, and the power supply.

Infrastructure Housing

The facilities and safeguards, such as data centers or offices, that contain hardware as part of the broader IT infrastructure.

Network infrastructure

The hardware, software, layout, and topology of network resources enabling connectivity and communication between devices.

Modems

Devices that receive analog signals from the internet service provider and translate them into digital signals.

Routers

Devices that manage network traffic by reading source and destination fields in information packet headers to determine the most efficient travel path.

Gateways

Hardware that transforms data from one protocol into another to allow information to flow between different networks.

Edge-enabled Devices

Devices that allow computing, storage, and networking functions to occur closer to where the data or system request originates.

Firewalls

Software applications or hardware devices that protect network traffic by filtering it through security protocols with predefined rules.

Network topology

The physical layout of equipment, or "nodes," in a network, commonly including bus, mesh, ring, and star types.

Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model

A model that segregates network functions into seven layers: application ($7$), presentation ($6$), session ($5$), transport ($4$), network ($3$), data link ($2$), and physical ($1$).

Local-Area Networks (LAN)

Networks that provide access to a limited geographic area, such as a home or a single-location office.

Wide-Area Networks (WAN)

Networks providing access to larger geographic areas, such as cities, regions, or countries.

Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN)

A setup where control and management are separated from hardware into software to monitor and optimize WAN connection performance.

VPNs

Virtual connections through a secure channel or tunnel providing remote and secure access to an existing network.

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

A subnetwork located outside a LAN's firewall that separates the LAN from untrusted networks like the internet.

Cloud computing

A model using shared resources over the internet where customers rent storage, processing power, or software from remote servers.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

A cloud model where the CSP provides a virtual data center including servers, storage, hardware, and networking services billed on a per-use basis.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

A cloud model where the CSP provides proprietary tools remotely to facilitate the creation of programs and delivery of services.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

A cloud model where the CSP provides business applications via the internet and manages upgrades, security, and support through licensing.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems

Cross-functional systems that integrate information across departments such as accounting, finance, HR, and manufacturing.

Accounting Information System (AIS)

A system that collects, records, and stores accounting information to report financial and nonfinancial data to decision makers; consists of TPS, FRS, and MRS.

Processing integrity

A system's ability to initiate and complete transactions so they are valid, accurate, completed timely, and authorized.

AICPA definition of control deficiency

A properly designed control that either does not operate as designed or is performed by a person lacking authority or competence.

COSO Principle $13$

The principle stating organizations should acquire, create, and use quality information to support internal controls.

Business Resiliency

The integration of availability controls, disaster recovery, business continuity, and crisis management into procedures to ensure operation survival.

Disaster Recovery

An entity's plans for restoring IT functions, including data files and processing capability, in the event of destruction.

Cold site

The least expensive alternative processing facility option for disaster recovery.

Hot site

The most expensive alternative processing facility option for disaster recovery.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

A process to identify business units and processes essential to the survival of an entity and the impact of their failure.

Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD)

A metric used for system availability indicating the maximum amount of time a business can tolerate being down.

Incremental backup

A backup that copies only data items changed since the last backup, requiring the last full backup and all subsequent files for restoration.

Differential backup

A backup that copies all changes made since the last full backup; daily files contain cumulative activity.

Change Management

The policies, procedures, and resources employed to govern change within an organization.

Waterfall Model

A sequential change management methodology where teams perform separate tasks in order based on pre-written authoritative agreements.

Agile Method

A flexible approach to change management characterized by cross-functional teams working on prioritized lists of customer needs.

Patch management

The systematic process of identifying vulnerabilities or bugs in operating systems and addressing them with fixes between releases.

Direct conversion

An aggressive system conversion method where the organization switches from the old system to the new system immediately.

Extract, transform, and load (ETL)

A method of data collection used in the first step of the data life cycle.

Operational Data Store (ODS)

A repository of transactional data from multiple sources often used as an interim area between data sources and warehouses.

Data Lake

A repository containing both structured and unstructured data in its natural or raw format.

Primary keys

A column type in a relational database table that uniquely identifies each record.

Data dictionary

A type of metadata that provides and summarizes information about the data in a database to inform decisions and reports.

Normalization

A database design technique that reduces data redundancy and eliminates insertion, update, and deletion anomalies through steps like $1NF$, $2NF$, and $3NF$.

Database schema

A set of instructions defining the actual structure of the database, including tables, columns, and relationships.

Structured query language (SQL)

A computer language used to interact with, update, delete, and view data in a relational database.

Cartesian product

A SQL error where every row from one table is incorrectly matched with every row from another due to unspecified column sources.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)

A flowchart template used to create activity models using symbols like pools, swim lanes, and gateways.