Intro to Cybersecurity Chapters 3 to 7 Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, terminology, and definitions from Intro to Cybersecurity Chapters 3 through 7 review questions.

Root Directory

The topmost directory in a hierarchical file system structure.

Backslash ()

The character used to separate directories in a Windows directory path.

Directory Path

The list of directories from the root to a specific file that forms part of its unique identifier on a hard drive.

Seek Access Right

A directory access right that allows a user to search for a name in a file's path without examining the directory as a whole.

Interpreter

A program that interprets symbolic program text and performs specified actions, used by languages such as PHP, JavaScript, and Lisp.

Macro Virus

A type of virus that uses scripting languages, relies on an interpreter program to execute, and can be distributed through infected word-processing documents.

Trojan

Computer software that performs an unexpected and malicious action without the operator detecting the misbehavior.

ZeuS

A software product offered for sale on the black market that creates financial fraud botnets using Zbot malware.

Access Control Triad

The foundational elements of general security access controls, consisting of objects, rights, and subjects.

Default Permit

An access security policy where everything is allowed except for sites explicitly listed on a prohibited list.

Capability-based System

A system control mechanism, such as Kerberos, public-key certificates, or a process page table specifying RAM usage permissions.

Data in Motion

The information state associated with data during transmission.

Zero-day Exploit

A cyber exploit for which no software patch currently exists.

Access Control List (ACL)

A security database or file system attribute listing specific users and the individual access rights granted to each user for a file or folder.

User Account Control (UAC)

A Microsoft operating system security feature designed to provide temporary administrative privileges to users.

Audit Trail

A set of event log records maintained by a computer system to track actions and system events.

Information Systems Audit

A formal review of a system's integrity and of the data it maintains regarding an organization's business.

HIPAA

The U.S. federal law establishing security measures that must be implemented for health-related information.

Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP)

A platform used to optimize detection of potential attacks, provide attack attribution, and automate responses to common threats.

Red Team

A team of trained cybersecurity professionals that conducts security scanning and penetration tests.

ISAC

Information Sharing and Analysis Center; an organization from which entities obtain information regarding relevant cyber threats.

Remediation

The process of recovering from computer-related attacks, incidents, and compromises.

Due Diligence

Taking reasonable and customary security steps to avoid legal fault or liability if losses occur.

Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

A Fourth Amendment legal principle that protects individuals against arbitrary searches in areas where privacy is expected.

Master Boot Record (MBR)

The sector at the beginning of a hard disk that identifies the starting block of each partition.

Low-level Formatting

A formatting process that establishes addressable tracks and sectors, rewrites sector headers and check values, and presents a blank hard drive.

Checksum

An error detection calculation capable of detecting 1-bit or 2-bit changes in data.

File Allocation Table (FAT)

A file system structure providing status on every cluster on a drive (indicating whether it is free or part of a file) and linking clusters via cluster chaining.

Inode

A Unix file system structure that maintains a list of cluster addresses and links to indirect blocks for larger files.

HFS+ File System

An Apple file system that uses extents and an extents overflow file to manage contiguous sets of clusters for larger files.

NTFS File System

A Windows file system that uses run lists to identify and track sets of extents in a file.

Device Driver

Operating system software that adapts different hardware devices to a standard interface provided by the operating system.

Authentication

The security process of associating an individual with a specific identity.

Authentication Factors

The three fundamental categories used to authenticate users: something you know, something you have, and something you are.

Denial of Service (DoS)

An attack that blocks access to a system or resource for other users.

Keylogger

A hardware- or software-based tool used to record keystrokes typed on a computer.

Search Space

The total number of possible password combinations in a password system.

Passive Tokens

Authentication tokens containing a base secret that remain vulnerable to sniffing attacks.

Privileged Access Management (PAM)

A security solution that provides session recording, session brokering, and credential storage for administrative accounts.

Symmetric Algorithm

An encryption algorithm that uses the exact same key for both encryption and decryption.

Transposition Cipher

A cipher mechanism that rearranges the order of letters or text in a message.

Blechley, United Kingdom

The location where Allied cryptanalysts built upon 1930s Polish cryptanalysis to break rotor machine ciphers.

Enigma

A rotor machine cipher used by the Germans during World War II.

Moore's Law

The observation that computing power doubles approximately every $18\,\text{months}$.

DESCHALL

A distributed computing effort that used tens of thousands of computers to crack a DES message by trial and error in 7 months.

Stream Cipher

An encryption method where a single-bit error during transmission results in a 1-bit error in the exact same location in the decrypted plaintext.

Plaintext File Erasure

The safest file deletion method following encryption, which involves writing zeroes over every data block in the original plaintext file.

Quick Format

A drive formatting action that overwrites the root directory and folder directories but leaves data blocks and bad blocks intact.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

A symmetric encryption standard that is stronger than the Data Encryption Standard (DES).