CRISC - Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control term definition - Part 41

IT Governance Basic

Phreakers

Those who crack security, most frequently telephone and other communication networks.

Piggybacking

1 Following an authorized person into a restricted access area. 2 Electronically attaching to an authorized telecommunications link to intercept and possibly alter transmissions.

Plaintext

Digital information, such as cleartext, that is intelligible to the reader.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Offers the capability to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure customer-created or -acquired applications that are created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider.

PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge)

A project management standard developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Point-of-presence (POP)

A telephone number that represents the area in which the communication provider or Internet service provider (ISP) provides service.

Point-of-sale (POS) systems

Enables the capture of data at the time and place of transaction. POS terminals may include use of optical scanners for use with bar codes or magnetic card readers for use with credit cards. POS systems may be online to a central computer or may use stand-alone terminals or microcomputers that hold the transactions until the end of a specified period when they are sent to the main computer for batch processing.

Point-to-point Protocol (PPP)

A protocol used for transmitting data between two ends of a connection.

Point-to-point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)

A protocol used to transmit data securely between two end points to create a virtual private network (VPN).

Policy

1. Generally, a document that records a high-level principle or course of action that has been decided on. The intended purpose is to influence and guide both present and future decision making to be in line with the philosophy, objectives and strategic plans established by the enterprise’s management teams.

Polymorphism (Objects)

Polymorphism refers to database structures that send the same command to different child objects that can produce different results depending on their family hierarchical tree structure.

Population

The entire set of data from which a sample is selected and about which an IS auditor wishes to draw conclusions.

Portfolio

A grouping of "objects of interest" (investment programs, IT services, IT projects, other IT assets or resources) managed and monitored to optimize business value. (The investment portfolio is of primary interest to Val IT. IT service, project, asset and other resource portfolios are of primary interest to COBIT.).

Posting

The process of actually entering transactions into computerized or manual files.<br/><br/><strong>Scope Notes: </strong>Posting transactions might immediately update the master files or may result in memo posting, in which the transactions are accumulated over a period of time and then applied to master file updating.

Preventive application control

Application control that is intended to prevent an error from occurring. Preventive application controls are typically executed at the transaction level, before an action is performed.

Preventive control

An internal control that is used to avoid undesirable events, errors and other occurrences that an enterprise has determined could have a negative material effect on a process or end product.

PRINCE2 (Projects in a Controlled Environment)

Developed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), PRINCE2 is a project management method that covers the management, control and organization of a project.

Privacy

The rights of an individual to trust that others will appropriately and respectfully use, store, share and dispose of his/her associated personal and sensitive information within the context, and according to the purposes, for which it was collected or derived.

Private branch exchange (PBX)

A telephone exchange that is owned by a private business, as opposed to one owned by a common carrier or by a telephone company.

Private key

A mathematical key (kept secret by the holder) used to create digital signatures and, depending on the algorithm, to decrypt messages or files encrypted (for confidentiality) with the corresponding public key.