ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)

by iKen-Z on quilzet. ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) glossary.

Adequate Security

Security commensurate with the risk and the magnitude of harm resulting from the loss, misuse or unauthorized access to or modification of information.

Administrative Controls

Controls implemented through policy and procedures. Examples include access control processes and requiring multiple personnel to conduct a specific operation.

Adverse Events

Events with a negative consequence, such as system crashes, network packet floods, unauthorized use of system privileges, defacement of a web page or execution of malicious code that destroys data.

Application Programming Interface (API)

A set of routines, standards, protocols, and tools for building software applications to access a web-based software application or web tool.

Application Server

A computer responsible for hosting applications to user workstations.

Artificial Intelligence

The ability of computers and robots to simulate human intelligence and behavior.

Asset

Anything of value that is owned by an organization. Assets include both tangible items such as information systems and physical property and intangible assets such as intellectual property.

Asymmetric Encryption

An algorithm that uses one key to encrypt and a different key to decrypt the input plaintext.

Audit

Independent review and examination of records and activities to assess the adequacy of system controls, to ensure compliance with established policies and operational procedures.

Authentication

Access control process validating that the identity being claimed by a user or entity is known to the system, by comparing one or more factors of identification (SFA or MFA).

Authorization

The right or a permission that is granted to a system entity to access a system resource.

Availability

Ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information by authorized users.

Baseline

A documented, lowest level of security configuration allowed by a standard or organization.

Biometric

Biological characteristics of an individual, such as a fingerprint, hand geometry, voice, or iris patterns.

Bit

The most essential representation of data (zero or one) at Layer 1 of the OSI model.

Bot

Malicious code that acts like a remotely controlled "robot" for an attacker, with other Trojan and worm capabilities.

Breach

The loss of control, compromise, unauthorized disclosure, or unauthorized acquisition where a person other than an authorized user accesses personally identifiable information.

Broadcast

A one-to-many (one-to-everyone) form of sending internet traffic.

Business Continuity (BC)

Actions, processes and tools for ensuring an organization can continue critical operations during a contingency.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

The documentation of a predetermined set of instructions or procedures that describe how an organization's mission/business processes will be sustained during and after a significant disruption.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

An analysis of an information system's requirements, functions, and interdependencies used to characterize system contingency requirements and priorities in the event of a significant disruption.

Byte

A unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits.

Checksum

A digit representing the sum of the correct digits in a piece of stored or transmitted digital data, against which later comparisons can be made to detect errors in the data.

Ciphertext

The altered form of a plaintext message so it is unreadable for anyone except the intended recipients.

Classification

Identifies the degree of harm to the organization that might result if an information asset is divulged to an unauthorized person; focused on maintaining confidentiality based on data sensitivity.

Classified or Sensitive Information

Information that has been determined to require protection against unauthorized disclosure and is marked to indicate its classified status and classification level.

Cloud Computing

A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.

Community Cloud

Cloud infrastructure provisioned for exclusive use by a specific community of consumers from organizations that have shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy and compliance).

Confidentiality

The characteristic of data or information when it is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized persons or processes.

Configuration Management

A process and discipline used to ensure that the only changes made to a system are those that have been authorized and validated.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED)

An architectural approach to the design of buildings and spaces that emphasizes passive features to reduce the likelihood of criminal activity.

Criticality

A measure of the degree to which an organization depends on the information or information system for the success of a mission or business function.

Cryptanalyst

One who performs cryptanalysis — the study of mathematical techniques for attempting to defeat cryptographic techniques and/or information systems security.

Cryptography

The study or applications of methods to secure or protect the meaning and content of messages, files, or other information, usually by disguise, obscuration, or other transformations.

Data Integrity

The property that data has not been altered in an unauthorized manner. Covers data in storage, during processing and while in transit.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

System capabilities designed to detect and prevent the unauthorized use and transmission of information.

Decryption

The process of converting a ciphertext message back into plaintext through the use of a cryptographic algorithm and the appropriate key.

De-encapsulation

The opposite process of encapsulation, in which bundles of data are unpacked or revealed.

Defense in Depth

Information security strategy integrating people, technology, and operations capabilities to establish variable barriers across multiple layers and missions of the organization.

Degaussing

A technique of erasing data on disk or tape that, when performed properly, ensures there is insufficient magnetic remanence to reconstruct data.

Denial-of-Service (DoS)

The prevention of authorized access to resources or the delaying of time-critical operations.

Digital Signature

The result of a cryptographic transformation of data which provides the services of origin authentication, data integrity, and signer non-repudiation.

Disaster Recovery (DR)

The activities necessary to restore IT and communications services to an organization during and after an outage, disruption or disturbance of any kind or scale.

Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

The processes, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of an organization's critical business functions, technology infrastructure, systems and applications after a disaster.

Discretionary Access Control (DAC)

A certain amount of access control is left to the discretion of the object's owner, who can determine who should have access rights to an object and what those rights should be.

Domain Name Service (DNS)

Can be applied to three interrelated elements: a service, a physical server and a network protocol.

Egress Monitoring

Monitoring of outgoing network traffic.

Encapsulation

Enforcement of data hiding and code hiding during all phases of software development and operational use. Bundling together data and methods.

Encrypt

To protect private information by putting it into a form that can only be read by people who have permission to do so.

Encryption

The process and act of converting a message from its plaintext to ciphertext.

Encryption System

The total set of algorithms, processes, hardware, software and procedures that together provide an encryption and decryption capability.

Event

Any observable occurrence in a network or system.

Exploit

A particular attack that exploits system vulnerabilities.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

The internet protocol (and program) used to transfer files between hosts.

Firewalls

Devices that enforce administrative security policies by filtering incoming traffic based on a set of rules.

Fragment Attack

An attack where an attacker fragments traffic in such a way that a system is unable to put data packets back together.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

EU legislation passed in 2016 that addresses personal privacy, deeming it an individual human right.

Governance

The process of how an organization is managed; includes all aspects of how decisions are made, such as policies, roles and procedures.

Hardening

The process of applying secure configurations to reduce the attack surface and locking down hardware, communications systems, and software based on industry guidelines and benchmarks.

Hardware

The physical parts of a computer and related devices.

Hash Function

An algorithm that computes a numerical value on a data file or electronic message that represents that file or message — like a fingerprint of the file.

Hashing

The process of using a mathematical algorithm against data to produce a numeric value that is representative of that data.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

U.S. federal law (est. 1996) that directs the adoption of national standards for electronic healthcare transactions while protecting the privacy of individual's health information.

Hybrid Cloud

A combination of public cloud storage and private cloud storage where some critical data resides in the enterprise's private cloud while other data is stored in a public cloud.

Impact

The magnitude of harm that could be caused by a threat's exercise of a vulnerability.

Incident

An event that actually or potentially jeopardizes the confidentiality, integrity or availability of an information system or the information the system processes, stores or transmits.

Incident Handling

The mitigation of violations of security policies and recommended practices. Also known as Incident Response.

Incident Response (IR)

The mitigation of violations of security policies and recommended practices. Also known as Incident Handling.

Incident Response Plan (IRP)

The documentation of a predetermined set of instructions or procedures to detect, respond to and limit consequences of a malicious cyberattack against an organization's information systems.

Information Security Risk

The potential adverse impacts to an organization's operations, assets, and individuals which results from the possibility of unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction of information and/or information systems.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The provider of the core computing, storage and network hardware and software that is the foundation upon which organizations can build and deploy applications.

Ingress Monitoring

Monitoring of incoming network traffic.

Insider Threat

An entity with authorized access that has the potential to harm an information system through destruction, disclosure, modification of data, and/or denial of service.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

A professional organization that sets standards for telecommunications, computer engineering and similar disciplines.

Integrity

The property of information whereby it is recorded, used and maintained in a way that ensures its completeness, accuracy, internal consistency and usefulness for a stated purpose.

International Organization of Standards (ISO)

Develops voluntary international standards in collaboration with IEC and ITU, particularly in the field of information and communication technologies.

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)

An IP network protocol used to determine if a particular service or host is available.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

The internet standards organization that defines protocol standards (e.g., IP, TCP, DNS) through a process of collaboration and consensus.

Internet Protocol (IPv4)

Standard protocol for transmission of data from source to destinations in packet-switched communications networks.

Intrusion

A security event in which an intruder gains, or attempts to gain, access to a system or system resource without authorization.

iOS

An operating system manufactured by Apple Inc. Used for mobile devices.

Layered Defense

The use of multiple controls arranged in series to provide several consecutive controls to protect an asset; also called defense in depth.

Likelihood

The probability that a potential vulnerability may be exercised within the construct of the associated threat environment.

Likelihood of Occurrence

A weighted factor based on a subjective analysis of the probability that a given threat is capable of exploiting a given vulnerability or set of vulnerabilities.

Linux

An operating system that is open source, making its source code legally available to end users.

Log Anomaly

A system irregularity identified when studying log entries which could represent events of interest for further surveillance.

Logging

Collecting and storing user activities in a log, which is a record of the events occurring within an organization's systems and networks.

Logical Access Control Systems

An automated system that controls an individual's ability to access one or more computer system resources, requiring validation of an individual's identity through a PIN, card, biometric or other token.

Man-in-the-Middle

An attack where the adversary positions himself between the user and the system so that he can intercept and alter data traveling between them.

Mandatory Access Control (MAC)

Access control that requires the system itself to manage access controls in accordance with the organization's security policies.

Mantrap

An entrance to a building or an area that requires people to pass through two doors with only one door opened at a time.

Message Digest

A digital signature that uniquely identifies data; changing a single bit in the data will cause a completely different message digest to be generated.

Microsegmentation

Part of a zero-trust strategy that breaks LANs into very small, highly localized zones using firewalls or similar technologies.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Using two or more distinct instances of the three factors of authentication (something you know, something you have, something you are) for identity verification.

National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Part of the U.S. Department of Commerce; sets standards in a number of areas including information security.

Non-repudiation

The inability to deny taking an action such as creating information, approving information and sending or receiving a message.

Object

Passive information system-related entity (e.g., devices, files, records, tables, processes, programs, domains) containing or receiving information.

Operating System

The software "master control application" that runs the computer. The first program loaded when the computer is turned on; its main component, the kernel, resides in memory at all times.

Oversized Packet Attack

Purposely sending a network packet that is larger than expected or larger than can be handled by the receiving system, causing the receiving system to fail unexpectedly.

Packet

Representation of data at Layer 3 of the OSI model.