CYBR MGM Midterm

Assets

An organizational resource that is being protected

Information Assets

The focus of cybersecurity; information that has value to the organization

Security

The state of being secure and free from danger or harm

Cybersecurity

The protection of the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information assets

Computer security

The protection of computerized information processing systems and the data they contain and process

Communications security

The protection of all communications, media, technology, and content

Network security

A subset of communications security; the protection of voice and data networking components, connections, and content

Operations security

The protection of the details of an organization’s operations and activities

Physical security

The protection of physical items, objects, or areas from unauthorized access and misuse (Corporate Security)

Confidentiality

An attribute of information that describes how data is protected from disclosure or exposure to unauthorized individuals or systems

Disclosure

The intentional or unintentional exposure of an information asset to unauthorized parties

Possession

An attribute of information that describes how the data’s ownership or control is legitimate or authorized

Integrity

An attribute of information that describes how data is whole, complete, and uncorrupted

Noise

Additional, disruptive signals in network communications or electrical power delivery

Availability

The attribute of information that describes how data is accessible and correctly formatted for use without interference or obstruction

Privacy

The right of individuals or groups to protect themselves and their information from unauthorized access, providing confidentiality

Information Aggregation

The collection and combination of pieces of nonprivate data, possibly resulting in information that violates privacy

Identification

The access control mechanism whereby unverified entities who seek access to a resource provide a credential by which they are known to the system

IAAA security framework

An architectural framework that is used to allow access to computer resources, enforce policies, and facilitate audits

Authentication

The access control mechanism that requires the validation and verification of an entity’s asserted identity

Authorization

The access control mechanism that represents the matching of an authenticated entity to a list of information assets and their corresponding access levels

Accountability

The access control mechanism that ensures all actions on a system, whether authorized or unauthorized, can be attributed to an authenticated identity

Threat

Any event or circumstance that has the potential to adversely affect operations and assets

Attack

An intentional or unintentional act that can damage or otherwise compromise information and the systems that support it (Threat Event)

Threat Agent

A specific instance or a component of a threat (Threat Source)

Exploit

A technique used to compromise a system

Vulnerability

A potential weakness in an asset or its defensive control systems

Availability Disruption

An interruption in services that causes an adverse event within the organization

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A document that specifies the expected level of service from a service provider

Blackout

A long-term interruption (outage) in electrical power availability

Brownout

A long-term decrease in the quality of electrical power availability

Fault

A short-term interruption in electrical power availability

Sag

A short-term decrease in electrical power availability

Spike

A short-term increase in electrical power availability (Swell)

Surge

A long-term increase in electrical power availability

Competitive Intelligence

The collection and analysis of information about an organization’s business competitors through legal and ethical means to gain business intelligence and competitive advantage

Industrial Espionage

The collection and analysis of information about an organization’s business competitors, often through illegal or unethical means, to gain an unfair competitive advantage

Shoulder Surfing

The direct, covert observation of individual information or system use

Trespass

The unauthorized entry into the real or virtual property of another party

Hacker

A person who accesses systems and information without authorization and often illegally

Expert Hacker

uses extensive knowledge of the inner workings of computer hardware and software to hack (Elite Hacker)

Novice Hacker

unskilled hacker who uses the work of expert hackers

Professional Hacker

A hacker who conducts attacks for personal financial benefit

Script Kiddie

A novice hacker who uses software written by a commercial organization or expert hacker to attack a system (Skid, Skiddie, Script Bunny)

Packet Monkeys

A novice hacker who uses automated exploits to engage in denial-of-service attacks for no obvious reason

Penetration Tester

A cybersecurity professional with authorization to attempt to gain system access to identify and recommend resolutions for vulnerabilities in those systems

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)

A collection of processes, typically directed by a human threat agent, that targets a specific organization or individual

Packet Monkeys

A novice hacker who uses automated exploits to engage in denial-of-service attacks for no obvious reason

Jailbreaking

A process of escalating privileges to gain administrator-level control over a smartphone operating system

Rooting

A process of escalating privileges to gain administrator-level control over a computer system

Cracker

A hacker who intentionally removes or bypasses software copyright protection

Cracking

Attempting to reverse-engineer, remove, or bypass a password or other access control protection

Brute-Force A password attack

An effort to guess a password by attempting every possible combination of characters and numbers

Dictionary Password Attack

A variation of the brute-force password attack that attempts to narrow the range of possible passwords guessed by using a dictionary of common passwords

Rainbow Table

A database of hash values and their corresponding plaintext values that can be used to look up password values if an attacker possesses the hashed password

Social Engineering

The process of using social skills to convince people to reveal access credentials or other valuable information to an attacker

Advance-fee fraud (AFF)

A form of social engineering in which some third party offers an email recipient the promise of a large amount of money and requests a small advance fee or personal banking information to facilitate the transfer (4-1-9 Fraud)

Phishing

A form of social engineering in which the attacker provides what appears to be a legitimate communication, but it either contains hidden or embedded code that redirects the reply to a third-party site to extract personal or confidential information or asks the respondent to contact the sender directly

Spear Phishing

A highly targeted phishing attack

Pretexting

A form of social engineering in which the attacker pretends to be an authority figure who needs information to confirm the target’s identity

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

A social engineering attack directed toward an employee by an individual posing as their supervisor

Information Extortion

The theft of confidential information from an organization and subsequent demand for compensation for its return or for an agreement not to disclose it

Ransomware

A type of malware specifically designed to identify and encrypt valuable information in a victim’s system to extort payment for the key needed to unlock the encryption

Intellectual Property (IP)

The creation, ownership, and control of original ideas

Software Piracy

The unauthorized duplication, installation, or distribution of copyrighted computer software

Hacktivists

An attacker who seeks to interfere with or disrupt systems to protest the operations, policies, or actions of an organization or government agency (Cyberactivist)

Cyberterrorism

The conduct of terrorist activities by online attackers

Cyberwarfare

Formally sanctioned, offensive cyber operations conducted by one government or nation-state against another (Information Warfare)

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP)

The behavior of an actor

Tactic

the highest-level description of the behavior

Technique

provides a more detailed description of the behavior in the context of a tactic

Procedures

provides a lower-level, highly detailed description of the behavior in the context of a technique

Malware

Computer software specifically designed to perform malicious or unwanted actions (malicious code, malicious software)

Virus

A type of malware that is attached to other executable programs

Macro Virus

A type of virus written in a specific macro language to target applications that use the language

Boot Virus

A type of virus that targets the boot sector or Master Boot Record (MBR) of a computer system’s hard drive or removable storage media

Worms

A type of malware that is capable of activation and replication without being attached to an existing program

Trojan Horses

A malware program that hides its true nature and reveals its designed behavior only when activated

Polymorphic Threats

A type of malware that evolves over time by changing the way it appears to antivirus software programs

Back Door

A malware payload that provides access to a system bypassing normal access controls (Back Door, Maintenance Hook)

Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attack

An attack that attempts to overwhelm a computer target’s ability to handle incoming communications, prohibiting legitimate users from accessing those systems

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack

A DoS attack in which a coordinated stream of requests is launched against a target from many locations at the same time using other compromised systems

Bots

An abbreviation of “robot,” an automated software program that executes certain commands when it receives a specific input from a system that is directed remotely by the attacker (Zombie)

Spam

Unsolicited commercial email, typically advertising transmitted in bulk

Clickbait

Content such as email attachments or embedded links crafted to convince unsuspecting users into clicking them, which results in more web traffic for the content provider or the installation of unwanted software or malware

Mail Bomb

An attack designed to overwhelm the receiver with excessive quantities of email

Packet sniffer

A software program or hardware appliance that can intercept and interpret network traffic (Network Sniffer)

IP spoofing

A technique for gaining unauthorized access to computers using a forged or modified source IP address to give the perception that messages are coming from a trusted host

Pharming

An attack using the redirection of legitimate user web traffic to illegitimate websites with the intent to collect personal information

Domain Name System (DNS) Cache Poisoning

The intentional hacking and modification of a DNS database to redirect legitimate traffic to illegitimate Internet locations

Man-in-the-Middle Attack

Attacks whereby a person intercepts a communications stream and inserts themselves in the conversation to convince each of the legitimate parties that the attacker is the other communications partner

TCP Hijacking

A form of man-in-the-middle attack whereby the attacker inserts themselves into TCP/IP-based communications (session hijacking)

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

The average amount of time between hardware failures, calculated as the total amount of operation time for a specified number of units divided by the total number of failures

Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)

The average amount of time until the next hardware failure is expected

Mean Time to Diagnose (MTTD)

The average amount of time a computer repair technician needs to determine the cause of a failure

Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)

The average amount of time a computer repair technician needs to resolve the cause of a failure through replacement or repair of a faulty unit

Annualized Failure Rate (AFR)

The probability of a failure of hardware based on the manufacturer’s data of failures per year

Theft

The illegal taking of another’s property

Management

The process of achieving objectives by appropriately applying a given set of resources

Leadership

The ability to influence others and gain their willing cooperation to achieve an objective by providing purpose, direction, and motivation