Cybersecurity Glossary

Risk averse means avoiding risks even if this leads to the loss of opportunity. An example is using a (more expensive) phone call vs. Sending an email in order to avoid risks associated with email may be considered “risk averse”.

Race condition is also known as race hazard. Race condition is the behavior of an electronic, software, or other system where the output is dependent on the sequence or timing of other uncontrollable events. This becomes a bug when events don’t happen in the order the programmer planned. Race conditions can occur in electronics systems, especially logic circuits, and in computer software, especially multithreaded or distributed programs.

A router is a device that forwards or transfers data packets across networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two lans or WANs or a LAN and its ISP’s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect.

Risk assessment is a systematic process to analyze and identify any possible threats or risks that may leave sensitive information vulnerable to attacks. It also employs methods to calculate the risk impact and eliminate such threats.

A response is information that is sent in response to some stimulus.

Reverse engineering is also known as “back engineering” and is the process of extracting design information or any kind of sensitive information by disassembling and analyzing the design of a system component.

A safeguarding statement is a statement affixed to a computer output or printout that states the highest classification being processed at the time the product was produced and requires control of the product, at that level, until determination of the true classification by an authorized individual. Synonymous with banners.

An S/MIME is a set of specifications for securing electronic mail. Secure/ multipurpose internet mail extensions (S/MIME) is based upon the widely used mime standard and describes a protocol for adding cryptographic security services through mime encapsulation of digitally signed and encrypted objects. The basic security services offered by s/mime are authentication, non-repudiation of origin, message integrity, and message privacy. Optional security services include signed receipts, security labels, secure mailing lists, and an extended method of identifying the signer’s certificate(s).

An s/key is a one-time password mechanism developed for authentication to unix-like operating systems, particularly from dumb terminals or untrusted public computers. This mechanism uses a cryptographic hash function to generate a sequence of 64-bit, one-time passwords for remote user login. Since each password is only used once, the user is protected from password sniffers.

A s-box is a nonlinear substitution table used in several byte substitution transformations and in the key expansion routine to perform a one-for-one substitution of a byte value.