SECC+

AAA

Authentication, Authorization, Accounting - **Sound: "Triple A" like road service.** Road service controls who gets a tow (Authentication), what they fix (Authorization), and bills you (Accounting).

ACL

Access Control List - **Sound: "A C L" = "A See List"** You look at the list to see who is allowed.

AES

Advanced Encryption Standard - **Sound: "Ace"** The ace is the best card - this is the best encryption.

AES-256

Advanced Encryption Standard 256-bit - **Sound: "Ace 256"** The ace with 256 layers of security.

AH

Authentication Header - **Sound: "Ah" like "Ah, I see your ID."** Proves who you are (authentication) without hiding the message.

AI

Artificial Intelligence - **Sound: "Aye" like a pirate saying "Aye, I see."** Machines that see and learn.

AIS

Automated Indicator Sharing - **Sound: "Ace"** Sharing winning poker hands (threat indicators) automatically.

ALE

Annualized Loss Expectancy - **Sound: "Ail" like getting sick every year.** How much money you lose per year from a risk.

AP

Access Point - **Sound: "Ape"** An ape hangs from the ceiling and throws out WiFi signals.

API

Application Programming Interface - **Sound: "A Pee" like a waiter saying "May I take your order?"** The waiter between apps.

APT

Advanced Persistent Threat - **Sound: "Apartment"** A stalker moves into your apartment (network) long-term and hides.

ARO

Annualized Rate of Occurrence - **Sound: "Arrow"** How many arrows hit the target per year (how often something bad happens).

ARP

Address Resolution Protocol - **Sound: "Arp" like a harp.** Plucking strings to find which MAC address matches an IP.

ASLR

Address Space Layout Randomization - **Sound: "Asler" like "asler" = "a slither."** A slithering snake moving furniture around randomly so burglars can't find your TV.

ATT&CK

Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge - **Sound: "Attack"** The encyclopedia of how hackers attack.

AUP

Acceptable Use Policy - **Sound: "Oops"** What you say when you break the rule about using work laptops for Netflix.

AV

Antivirus - **Sound: "Ave" like "Avenue"** Police car driving down the avenue looking for bad guys.

BASH

Bourne Again Shell - **Sound: "Bash" like hitting keys.** You bash the keyboard to type Linux commands.

BCP

Business Continuity Planning - **Sound: "B C P" = "Because Coffee Pays"** The coffee shop stays open even during a flood.

BGP

Border Gateway Protocol - **Sound: "Big P" like a big path.** The big path GPS of the entire internet.

BIA

Business Impact Analysis - **Sound: "Bye uh" like saying goodbye to organs.** Figuring out which organs (departments) you need most.

BIOS

Basic Input/Output System - **Sound: "Buy OS"** You buy the OS after BIOS starts your computer.

BPA

Business Partners Agreement - **Sound: "BFF"** Business best friends signing a contract.

BPDU

Bridge Protocol Data Unit - **Sound: "Bipped you"** The bridge (switch) sends a message that says "I bipped you - don't create a loop."

BYOD

Bring Your Own Device - **Sound: "Bowed"** You bow to your boss while handing over your personal phone.

CA

Certificate Authority - **Sound: "Kay" like "OK"** The DMV that says "OK, you're verified" and issues digital IDs.

CAPTCHA

Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart - **Sound: "Capture"** Captures whether you're human vs robot.

CAR

Corrective Action Report - **Sound: "Car" like a repair shop.** Taking your broken process to the repair shop.

CASB

Cloud Access Security Broker - **Sound: "Caspian" like the Caspian Sea.** The sea you cross to reach the cloud - security guard in the middle.

CBC

Cipher Block Chaining - **Sound: "CBC" = "Chain Block Chain"** Each block holds the previous block's hand like a chain.

CCMP

Counter Mode/CBC-MAC Protocol - **Sound: "Camp"** Your WiFi is camping safely with WPA2 encryption.

CCTV

Closed-Circuit Television - **Sound: "See See TV"** Watching what the camera sees on a private TV.

CERT

Computer Emergency Response Team - **Sound: "Certain"** You can be certain they'll handle the emergency.

CFB

Cipher Feedback - **Sound: "C F B" = "Cipher Feeds Back"** Feeding output back into input like a snake eating its tail.

CHAP

Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol - **Sound: "Chap" like a secret handshake between chaps (guys).** A secret handshake that changes every time.

CIA

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability - **Sound: "See ya"** Spies say "see ya" while protecting secrets (Confidentiality), not letting enemies change maps (Integrity), and keeping comms working (Availability).

CIO

Chief Information Officer - **Sound: "See Yo"** They see everything you do on technology.

CIRT

Computer Incident Response Team - **Sound: "Squirt"** They squirt water on the fire (incident).

CMS

Content Management System - **Sound: "C M S" = "Create My Site"** Drag and drop to create a website.

COOP

Continuity of Operations Planning - **Sound: "Coop" like a chicken coop.** Government chickens stay safe in their coop during emergencies.

COPE

Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled - **Sound: "Cope"** You cope with having a work phone that you also use for Instagram.

CP

Contingency Planning - **Sound: "C P" = "Copy"** A copy of the original plan for emergencies.

CRC

Cyclical Redundancy Check - **Sound: "C R C" = "Check Redundancy Check"** Checks if data got accidentally changed.

CRL

Certificate Revocation List - **Sound: "Curl"** Curl up and blacklist the bad certificates.

CSO

Chief Security Officer - **Sound: "See So"** They see so much - both physical doors and digital security.

CSP

Cloud Service Provider - **Sound: "C S P" = "Cloud Service Person"** The landlord of the cloud (AWS, Azure).

CSR

Certificate Signing Request - **Sound: "Cesar" like Cesar salad.** You send a salad (application) to the CA saying "please sign my request."

CSRF

Cross-Site Request Forgery - **Sound: "C Surf"** Surfing on a bad website that secretly makes your bank send money.

CSU

Channel Service Unit - **Sound: "Sue"** The device that sues (connects) your network to the phone line.

CTM

Counter Mode - **Sound: "Count 'em"** Counting 1,2,3 and encrypting each number.

CTO

Chief Technology Officer - **Sound: "C T O" = "Chief Tech Officer"** The gadget guru.

CVE

Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures - **Sound: "Cave"** A cave is a hole - this is the official ID number for a vulnerability hole.

CVSS

Common Vulnerability Scoring System - **Sound: "C V S S" = "C V S" like the pharmacy.** CVS gives you a score on how sick (vulnerable) you are (0-10).

CYOD

Choose Your Own Device - **Sound: "Seed"** You plant a seed (choose a device) and it grows into your work phone.

DAC

Discretionary Access Control - **Sound: "Dack" like "deck" of cards.** You deal the cards (access) to whoever you want because you own the file.

DBA

Database Administrator - **Sound: "D B A" = "Data Base Admin"** The librarian for digital books.

DDoS

Distributed Denial of Service - **Sound: "D Dose" like a massive dose.** A massive dose of traffic from thousands of computers crashes your server.

DEP

Data Execution Prevention - **Sound: "Dep" like "deposit"** You deposit data in memory, but code can't run there - like a "no dancing" sign in a library.

DES

Digital Encryption Standard - **Sound: "Dez" like "deceased"** It's dead - don't use it (56-bit key is broken).

DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - **Sound: "D H C P" = "D Hip"** A hip hotel front desk gives each guest a room number (IP address).

DHE

Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral - **Sound: "D He" = "The He"** The handshake that changes every single time (ephemeral = temporary).

DKIM

DomainKeys Identified Mail - **Sound: "D Kim" like a guy named Kim.** Kim puts a wax seal on the email proving it's real.

DLL

Dynamic Link Library - **Sound: "Dill" like a dill pickle.** A shared pickle jar that multiple programs can take from.

DLP

Data Loss Prevention - **Sound: "D L P" = "Deep"** Deep checking to make sure you don't walk out with sensitive data (like store sensors).

DMARC

Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance - **Sound: "D Marc" like a guy named Marc.** Marc the bouncer says "If ID is fake, throw them out."

DNAT

Destination Network Address Translation - **Sound: "D Nat" like "The Nat"** Nat forwards your mail to your new destination address.

DNS

Domain Name System - **Sound: "D N S" = "Dins" like dinner bells.** Ring the dinner bell (type google.com) and it finds the number (8.8.8.8).

DoS

Denial of Service - **Sound: "Dose" like a small dose.** One person blocking a doorway.

DPO

Data Privacy Officer - **Sound: "D P O" = "Deep O"** The deep officer who protects your privacy (GDPR).

DRP

Disaster Recovery Plan - **Sound: "Drip"** When disaster drips (happens), you follow the plan.

DSA

Digital Signature Algorithm - **Sound: "D Sa" = "The Saw"** You saw (cut) a signature into the document.

DSL

Digital Subscriber Line - **Sound: "D S L" = "Digital Slow Line"** Internet over old phone wires - faster than dial-up but slow.

EAP

Extensible Authentication Protocol - **Sound: "Eap" like "eep!"** A framework that says "eep! here's another authentication method you can plug in."

ECB

Electronic Codebook - **Sound: "E C B" = "Easy Code Book"** A codebook where A always = Q - too easy to crack.

ECC

Elliptic Curve Cryptography - **Sound: "E C C" = "Easy C C"** The compact sports car of encryption - smaller keys, same security as RSA.

ECDHE

Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral - **Sound: "E C D He" = "Easy D He"** The sports car handshake - fast, temporary, secure.

ECDSA

Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm - **Sound: "E C D Sa" = "Easy D Saw"** Signing a check with a sports car pen.

EDR

Endpoint Detection and Response - **Sound: "E D R" = "Edder" like a spider.** A spider (security guard) lives on your computer and catches bugs (threats).

EFS

Encrypted File System - **Sound: "E F S" = "Effects"** The effects of encryption - only some files are locked in a safe.

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning - **Sound: "E R P" = "Erp" like a burp.** The brain of the company burps out data (SAP, Oracle).

ESN

Electronic Serial Number - **Sound: "E S N" = "E S N" like "easy N"** The easy number that is the phone's fingerprint (unique ID).

ESP

Encapsulated Security Payload - **Sound: "ESP" like extra sensory perception.** Hides the message (like telepathy) - part of IPSec.

FACL

File System Access Control List - **Sound: "Fackle"** The guest list for each individual file (fackle = file + ACL).

FDE

Full Disk Encryption - **Sound: "F D E" = "Fuddy"** Fuddy-duddy puts the whole filing cabinet inside a safe.

FIM

File Integrity Management - **Sound: "Fim" like "film"** A film (tamper-evident seal) on a file - you'll know if someone opened it.

FPGA

Field Programmable Gate Array - **Sound: "F P G A" = "Foggy"** You can reprogram this chip even after manufacturing - foggy (flexible) logic.

FRR

False Rejection Rate - **Sound: "Fur"** Your phone's face ID says "fur-get it, you're not you" (wrongly rejects you).

FTP

File Transfer Protocol - **Sound: "F T P" = "Footstep"** Sending a postcard - anyone can follow your footsteps and read it.

FTPS

Secured File Transfer Protocol - **Sound: "F T P S" = "Footsteps Secure"** Sending a letter in a locked box.

GCM

Galois Counter Mode - **Sound: "G C M" = "Gym"** A gym lock that also has a tamper seal (encryption + authentication together).

GDPR

General Data Protection Regulation - **Sound: "G D P R" = "Gee D PR"** The EU law that says "Gee, delete my data" (right to be forgotten).

GPG

Gnu Privacy Guard - **Sound: "G P G" = "Gnu P G"** The free version of PGP (Gnu = animal, free software).

GPO

Group Policy Object - **Sound: "G P O" = "G po" like "G PO"** The boss sends out the same rules (G PO = group policy) to every computer.

GPS

Global Positioning System - **Sound: "G P S" = "Gips" like gypsies.** Gypsies (travelers) use satellites to know where they are.

GPU

Graphics Processing Unit - **Sound: "G P U" = "Goo"** Goo (graphics) on your screen - also used for AI and cracking passwords.

GRE

Generic Routing Encapsulation - **Sound: "Grey" like a grey box.** Putting any shape of package inside a standard grey box.

HA

High Availability - **Sound: "Ha!" like laughing.** Ha! Two coffee makers - if one breaks, you still get caffeine.

HDD

Hard Disk Drive - **Sound: "H D D" = "Heavy D D"** Heavy spinning disks - a record player for data.

HIDS

Host-based Intrusion Detection System - **Sound: "Hids" like "hides"** Hides inside your host (computer) and watches.

HIPS

Host-based Intrusion Prevention System - **Sound: "Hips" like hips.** A security guard on your hips (computer) who tackles intruders.