Difference between revisions of "Keyword Index and Glossary of Core Ideas"
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| + | ===Information Infrastructure=== | ||
| + | The network of computers and communication lines underlying critical services that American society has come to depend on: financial systems, the power grid, transportation, emergency services, and government programs. Information infrastructure includes the Internet, telecommunications networks, “embedded” systems (the built-in microprocessors that control machines from microwaves to missiles), and “dedicated” devices like individual personal computers. [http://www.cfr.org/publication/10212/targets_for_terrorism.html Counicl on Foreign relations] | ||
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===Intelligence Infrastructure/Information Infrastructure=== | ===Intelligence Infrastructure/Information Infrastructure=== | ||
Revision as of 14:46, 17 June 2010
Glossary of Core Ideas
Air-Gapped Network
Air gapping is a security measure that isolates a secure network from unsecure networks physically, electrically and electromagnetically.
See also: Sneakernet
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Antivirus
Software which attempts to identify and delete or isolate malware. Antivirus software may use both a database containing signatures of known threats and heuristics to identify malware. Usually run as a background service to scan files and email copied to the protected system.
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Black Hat
A black hat is a computer hacker who works to harm others (e.g., steal identities, spread computer viruses, install bot software).
See also: White Hat
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Blacklist
A list of computers, IP addresses, user names or other identifiers to block from access to a computing resource.
See also: Whitelist
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Botnet
A portmanteau of robot and network.) Refers to networks of sometimes millions of infected machines that are remotely controlled by malicious actors. A single infected computer may be referred to as a zombie computer. The owners of the computer remotely controlled is often unaware of the infection. The owners of a botnet may use the combined network processing power and bandwidth to send SPAM, install malware and mount DDoS attacks or may rent out the botnet to other malicious actors.
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Casus Belli
The justification for going to war. From the Latin "casus" meaning "incident" or "event" and "belli" meaning "of war."
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Civilian Participation
The involvement of non-military persons in warfare. While civilians have often provided support to the military in kinetic wars, in cyber warfare civilians are able to remotely participate in direct attacks against opponents. This raises complicated questions of law when the combatants are not uniformed military personnel.
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Combatant Status
The legal status of combatants in warfare. Existing law distinguishes between uniformed military and civilian status.
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Computer Emergency Response Team
A group of experts brought together to deal with computer security issues. The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) mandate is to develop and promote best management practices and technology applications to “resist attacks on networked systems, to limit damage, and to ensure continuity of critical services.” (Software Engineering Institute 2008). CERT may be formed by governments to handle security at the national level or by academic institutions or individual corporations.
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Computer Network Attack
Includes actions taken via computer networks to disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy the information within computers and computer networks and/or the computers/networks themselves. Joint Doctrine for Information Operations JP 3-13 at I-9 (1998)
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Communications Privacy Law
Laws which regulate access to electronic communications. In the United States, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) protects electronic communications while in transit and prohibits the unlawful access and disclosure of communication contents.
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Credit Card Fraud
Theft of goods or services using false or stolen credit card information.
See Also: Shoulder Surfing
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Crimeware
Software tools designed to aid criminals in perpetrating online crime. Refers only to programs not generally considered desirable or usable for ordinary tasks. Thus, while a criminal may use Internet Explorer in the commission of a cybercrime, the Internet Explorer application itself would not be considered crimeware.
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Cyber Crime
In its broadest definition, cybercrime includes all crime perpetrated with or involving a computer. Symantec defines it as any crime that is committed using a computer or network, or hardware device. The computer or device may be the agent of the crime, the facilitator of the crime, or the target of the crime. The crime may take place on the computer alone or in addition to other locations. Symantec
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Cyber Terrorism
A criminal act perpetrated by the use of computers and telecommunications capabilities, resulting in violence, destruction and/or disruption of services to create fear by causing confusion and uncertainty within a given population, with the goal of influencing a government or population to conform to a particular political, social, or ideological agenda. FBI
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Cyber Warfare
Actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption. Clarke
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Data Mining
The process of extracting hidden information and correlations from one or more databases or collections of data that would not normally be revealed by a simple database query.
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Department of Homeland Security
Cabinet level department of the United States assigned, inter alia, the task of protecting against terrorist threats and helping state and local authorities prepare for, respond to and recover from domestic disasters.
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Digital Pearl Harbor
A cyberwarfare attack similar in scale and surprise to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The expression is often invoked by those who argue that a cyber-based attack is either imminent or inevitable and that by not being properly prepared, the United States will suffer significant and unnecessary losses.
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DDoS Attack
The disabling of a targeted website or Internet connection by flooding it with such high levels of Internet traffic that it can no longer respond to normal connection requests. Often mounted by directing an army of zombie computers (see botnet) to connect to the targeted site simultaneously. The targeted site may crash while trying to respond to an overwhelming number of connections requests or it may be disabled because all available bandwidth and/or computing resources are tied up responding to the attack requests.
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Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
See: DDoS Attack
Dumpster Diving
A method of obtaining proprietary, confidential or useful information by searching through trash discarded by a target.
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E.U. Cybersecurity
Discussions relating to cybersecurity of the European Union and of European Union states.
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Geneva Conventions
Four treaties and three additional protocols that regulates the conduct of hostilities between states and set the standards for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war.
See also: Laws of War
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Hacker
Advanced computer users who spend a lot of time on or with computers and work hard to find vulnerabilities in IT systems. DCSINT
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Hacktivism
The nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends. These tools include web site defacements, redirects, denial-of-service attacks, information theft, web site parodies, virtual sit-ins, virtual sabotage, and software development. Samuel, A.
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Hacktivist
Combination of hacker and activist. Individuals that have a political motive for their activities, and identify that motivation by their actions, such as defacing opponents’ websites with counter-information or disinformation.
See also: Hacktivism
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Honeypot
A computer, network or other information technology resource set as a trap to attract attacks. Honeypots may be used to collect metrics (how long does it take for an unprotected system to be breached), to test defenses, to examine methods of attack or to catch attackers. A honeypot system may also be used to collect SPAM so it can be added to a blacklist.
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Identity Fraud/Theft
The exploitation by malevolent third parties of unwarranted access to clients' or consumers' identities. Often the result of lax data security or privacy measures.
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Information Infrastructure
The network of computers and communication lines underlying critical services that American society has come to depend on: financial systems, the power grid, transportation, emergency services, and government programs. Information infrastructure includes the Internet, telecommunications networks, “embedded” systems (the built-in microprocessors that control machines from microwaves to missiles), and “dedicated” devices like individual personal computers. Counicl on Foreign relations
Intelligence Infrastructure/Information Infrastructure
Interdependencies
International Humanitarian Law
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
Internet Service Providers
Keylogger
Software or hardware that monitors the and logs the keystrokes a user types into a computer. The keylogger may store the key sequences locally or send them to a remote location.
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Lawfare
Laws of War
Malware
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National Cybersecurity Strategy (U.S.)
National Security
Organized Crime
Outreach and Collaboration
Password Weakness
Security threats due to easily guessable passwords which protect vital stores of confidential information stored online.
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Phishing
The criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
Privacy Law
Risk Modeling
Research & Development
SCADA Systems
Scareware
Script Kiddie
Shoulder Surfing
Social Engineering
Social Network
SPAM
Sponsored Attacks
State Affiliation
Trojan
Virtual Military Technologies
Virtual Warfare
White Hat
Whitelist
A list of computers, IP addresses, user names or other identifiers to specifically allow access to a computing resource. Normally combined with a default "no-access" policy.
See also: Blacklist
Worm
Zero-Day Exploit
Einstein
NCPS, operationally known as Einstein, was created in 2003 by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)14 in order to aid in its ability to help reduce and prevent computer network vulnerabilities across the federal government. The initial version of Einstein provided an automated process for collecting, correlating, and analyzing agencies’ computer network traffic information from sensors installed at their Internet connections. The Einstein sensors collected network flow records15 at participating agencies, which were then analyzed by US-CERT to detect certain types of malicious activity.