Cyber Security Policy Guidebook

Glossary

Though there may be more technical definitions for the list of words, terms, and phrases that we have included in this book on cyber security policy, these definitions are purposely worded in layman’s terms. Readers who seek further clarity may achieve it by consulting more technical publications.

Access control lists (ACLs, pronounced ak-els):	Permissions with respect to files and programs allocated to computer users, for example, read, write execute; may be listed for individual users or groups of users, where groups are designated by membership lists or attributes of a user record designated as a role.
Account hijacking:	Using credentials for a computer that belongs to someone else without their knowledge.
Advanced persistent threat (APT):	An adversary who is continually actively engaged in reconnaissance to collect information for purposes of cyber espionage and/or cyber attack.
Anti-malware:	Software designed to detect and minimize the damaging impact of malicious software.
Antivirus:	Software designed to detect and minimize the damaging impact of malicious self-replicating software.
Availability:	A system security attribute that refers to the delivery of functional capability when required.
Badness-ometer:	A scale on which every reading indicates security is bad.
Bandwidth:	A measure of the amount of data that can simultaneously traverse through a telecommunications line.
Bit:	An electronic representation of a 1 or a 0, typically combined with other bits ...