ZEKASTRA Cyber
Glossary
Short definitions of the terms used across this section.
- Authentication
- Proving who you are to a system, with something you know, have or are.
- Backup
- A copy of data kept separately so it can be restored. A backup that was never restored in a test is only a hope.
- Content Security Policy (CSP)
- A browser-enforced list of where a page may load scripts, images and other content from.
- Coordinated disclosure
- Reporting a vulnerability privately to its owner and allowing time to fix it before details are published.
- Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
- Tricking a signed-in user's browser into sending a request the user did not intend.
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)
- Attacker-controlled content running as script in another site's page.
- CVE
- A public identifier, such as CVE-2021-44228, given to a specific known vulnerability.
- Defence in depth
- Layering several independent controls so one failure does not expose everything.
- Digital certificate
- A signed statement tying a public key to a domain or organisation, issued by a certificate authority.
- DKIM
- A cryptographic signature on an e-mail that lets the receiver check that the message was not altered and came from the signing domain.
- DMARC
- A policy that tells receivers what to do with mail that fails SPF or DKIM alignment, and where to send reports.
- Encoding
- A reversible change of representation, such as Base64. It protects nothing: anyone can decode it.
- Encryption
- Transforming data with a key so only someone with the right key can read it.
- Exploit
- The use of a vulnerability to make a system do something its owner did not intend.
- Firewall
- A control that allows or blocks network traffic by rules.
- Hash
- A fixed-length fingerprint of data. The same input gives the same hash; a change of one bit gives a very different one. It cannot be reversed.
- HSTS
- A header that tells the browser to use only HTTPS for a site for a stated period.
- Indicator of compromise (IoC)
- An observable trace, such as a file hash or a domain, that suggests a system was attacked.
- JSON Web Token (JWT)
- A compact signed token carrying claims such as who the user is and when it expires. Its contents are readable by anyone who holds it.
- Least privilege
- Giving each account and program only the access it needs for its task.
- Malware
- Any software intended to harm, spy on or take control of a system.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Sign-in that needs two or more kinds of proof, such as a password and a code from an app or a security key.
- Passkey
- A sign-in credential based on a key pair stored on your device; it is bound to the real site and cannot be typed into a fake one.
- Patch
- A software update that fixes a flaw.
- Penetration test
- An authorised, scoped attempt to find weaknesses in a system, ending in a written report. Without written permission it is a crime.
- Phishing
- Deceptive messages that try to obtain credentials, money or access.
- Ransomware
- Malware that locks or encrypts data and demands payment for access.
- Recovery time objective
- The longest outage a business can accept before a service must be back.
- Salt
- A random value added to a password before hashing so identical passwords do not produce identical hashes.
- SIEM
- A system that collects logs from many sources so events can be searched, correlated and alerted on.
- SPF
- A DNS record listing which servers may send e-mail for a domain.
- Spoofing
- Forging the sender, address or identity of a message or connection.
- SQL injection
- Input that changes the structure of a database query because it was joined into it as text.
- Threat model
- A structured answer to: what are we protecting, from whom, how could it fail and what will we do about it?
- TLS
- The protocol behind HTTPS. It encrypts traffic and lets the browser check the server's certificate.
- VPN
- An encrypted tunnel between your device and a network. It moves trust to the VPN operator; it does not make you anonymous.
- Vulnerability
- A weakness in software, hardware or process that could be used to cause harm.
- Zero-day
- A vulnerability that is exploited before the vendor has released a fix.