Security and Data Management Terminology

Vocabulary flashcards covering data roles, risk management, cryptography, deception technologies, backup strategies, email authentication, and wireless security protocols.

Data Owner

The person or business role ultimately accountable for a dataset—decides its classification, access requirements, retention, and acceptable use.

Data Steward / Data Custodian

The role that manages and protects data day to day according to the owner’s rules. This includes storage, backups, access administration, and maintaining data quality. “Steward” may also focus on governance and quality.

Data Processor

A party that processes personal data on behalf of a controller and follows the controller’s instructions—for example, a cloud payroll vendor.

Data Controller

The organization or person that determines why and how personal data is collected and processed; it has primary responsibility for privacy-law compliance.

Risk Owner

The individual accountable for managing a specific risk and ensuring appropriate treatment, monitoring, and acceptance decisions occur.

Risk Register

A documented inventory of identified risks, including their likelihood, impact, owner, treatment plan, and current status.

Risk Indicator

A measurable metric or warning sign that shows a risk’s likelihood, impact, or status may be changing.

Risk Assessor

The person or team that identifies, analyzes, and evaluates risks to determine their likelihood and potential impact.

Key Exchange

The process of securely establishing or sharing cryptographic keys between parties so they can encrypt and decrypt communications.

Symmetric Encryption

Uses one shared secret key for both encryption and decryption. It is fast, but both parties must securely obtain and protect the same key.

Asymmetric Encryption

Uses a public/private key pair: the public key can be shared, while the private key stays secret. It supports secure key exchange, digital signatures, and authentication, but is slower than symmetric encryption.

Honeynet

A network of intentionally deployed decoy systems designed to attract, monitor, and study attackers.

Honeypot

A decoy system, service, or device that appears legitimate to lure attackers and detect unauthorized activity.

Honeyfile

A decoy file placed on a system; opening, copying, or modifying it generates an alert.

Honeytoken

A fake piece of data—such as credentials, an API key, database record, or email address—used to detect unauthorized access or use.

Full Backup

Copies all selected data each time. Fastest to restore, but uses the most time and storage.

Incremental Backup

Copies only data changed since the most recent backup of any type. Fast to create and space-efficient; restoring requires the full backup plus every incremental backup.

Differential Backup

Copies data changed since the last full backup. Uses more storage over time than incremental backups; restoring requires only the full backup and most recent differential backup.

Snapshot Backup

A point-in-time capture of a system, virtual machine, volume, or database. It is very fast, but may rely on the original storage and is not always a complete independent backup.

Image Backup / System Image

A full copy of a system’s drive or virtual machine, including the operating system, applications, configuration, and data. Used for bare-metal or full-system recovery.

Synthetic Full Backup

A new “full” backup created from an existing full backup plus later incremental backups, without rereading all data from the original system.

Archive Backup

Long-term retained data that is not expected to be restored frequently. It is for preservation, compliance, or historical records—not routine recovery.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

A DNS record that lists which mail servers/IP addresses are authorized to send email for a domain.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

Adds a cryptographic digital signature to outgoing email so receiving servers can verify the message was authorized by the domain and was not altered in transit.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)

Uses SPF and/or DKIM to verify email alignment with the visible “From” domain, tells receiving servers whether to allow, quarantine, or reject failures, and provides reporting.

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

An obsolete Wi‑Fi security protocol that uses RC4 encryption with weak, easily cracked protections. Do not use it.

WPA (Wi‑Fi Protected Access)

An older Wi‑Fi security standard created to improve on WEP. It commonly uses TKIP and is now considered insecure.

TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol)

The encryption/key-management method used with WPA to improve WEP by changing keys dynamically. It is deprecated and insecure.

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

A strong, modern encryption algorithm used by WPA2 and WPA3 Wi‑Fi security, typically through CCMP.