Glossary of Cyber Security Terms

S Key

S Key is a cybersecurity protocol using cryptographic hash functions to create a series of unique 64-bit passwords for remote logins. The client generates a one-time password by repeatedly applying the MD4 cryptographic hash function to the user's secret key, reducing the number of hash applications with each successive user authentication.

Safety

In the cybersecurity context, safety denotes the necessity to safeguard all associated parties, including employees, customers, and visitors, from potential harm.

Scavenging

Scavenging refers to the clandestine practice of examining residual data in a system to obtain unauthorized access to confidential information.

Secure Electronic Transactions (SET)

SET is a protocol specifically designed to secure online credit card transactions. It employs digital signatures for customer, merchant, and bank authentication, while encryption secures the message and maintains its integrity, ensuring end-to-end security.

Secure Shell (SSH)

SSH is a security protocol that allows a user to remotely access another computer over a network, execute commands, and transfer files between machines.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

SSL, developed by Netscape, is a protocol for transmitting private documents over the Internet. SSL uses a public key to encrypt data transferred over the SSL connection.

Security Policy

A security policy consists of rules and practices that dictate or regulate how a system or organization provides security services to safeguard sensitive and critical system resources.

Segment

In terms of TCP IP communication, a segment refers to a single TCP data packet.

Sensitive Information

As per federal government definitions, sensitive information is any non-classified information that, if compromised, could adversely impact the national interest or the execution of federal programs.

Separation of Duties

Separation of duties is a principle of dividing privileges across multiple individuals or systems to enhance security and accountability.

Server

In network communication, a server is a system entity that responds to requests from clients by providing a service.

Session

In network parlance, a session signifies a virtual connection between two hosts through which network traffic is transmitted.

Session Hijacking

Session hijacking refers to unauthorized takeover of a session established by someone else, often with malicious intent.

Session Key

In symmetric encryption, a session key is a temporary key used for a relatively short period. It is typically used for a single connection or transaction set, or to protect large amounts of data that need frequent re-keying.

SHA1

SHA1 is a one-way cryptographic hash function often used in securing data and verifying file integrity. It's similar to MD5 but provides a stronger hash value.

Shadow Password Files

Shadow password files are system files in which encrypted user passwords are stored, thereby shielding them from unauthorized access.

Share

In a networked environment, a share refers to a resource, such as a directory or a printer, made available (or "shared") on a machine.

Shell

In Unix systems, the shell acts as an interactive user interface with the operating system. It interprets and executes user commands. In some systems, it's known as a command interpreter.

Signals Analysis

Signals analysis involves monitoring and analyzing system-emitted signals carrying data to indirectly understand the communicated information.

Signature

In cybersecurity, a signature refers to a distinctive pattern in network traffic that can be linked to a specific tool or exploit.

Simple Integrity Property

In the context of information security, the Simple Integrity Property rule states that a user cannot write data to a higher integrity level than their own.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

SNMP is a set of protocols governing network management and the monitoring of network devices and their functions.

Simple Security Property

The Simple Security Property principle states that a user cannot read data classified at a higher level than their own.

Smartcard

A smartcard is a portable device, like an electronic card, equipped with a magnetic strip or chip capable of recording and replaying a predetermined key.

Smurf Attack

A smurf attack is a type of DDoS attack that spoofs the target's address and pings the broadcast address of a remote network, resulting in a significant amount of ping replies flooding the target.

Sniffer

A sniffer is a software tool that monitors and analyzes network traffic as it is received on a network interface.

Sniffing

Also known as "passive wiretapping," sniffing refers to the practice of silently monitoring network traffic, often for malicious purposes.

Social Engineering

Social engineering encompasses non-technical or low-technology strategies, including lies, impersonation, tricks, bribes, blackmail, and threats, employed to exploit information systems.

Socket

In network communication, a socket instructs a host's IP stack where to connect a data stream to ensure it links to the correct application.

Socket Pair

A socket pair uniquely identifies a connection by specifying the source IP address, source port, destination IP address, and destination port.

SOCKS

SOCKS is a protocol that a proxy server can use to accept and forward client users' requests across the Internet. SOCKS uses sockets to represent and track individual connections.

Software

Software refers to computer programs and associated data, which are stored and executed by computer hardware. The data can be dynamically written or modified during execution.

Source Port

A source port is the port a host uses to connect to a server. It is usually a random number greater than or equal to 1024 and changes with each connection.

Spam

Spam refers to unsolicited digital communications, often in the form of emails or newsgroup postings, typically sent in bulk for advertising or phishing purposes.

Spanning Port

In network switching, a spanning port setting makes a switch behave like a hub for a specific port.

Split Horizon

Split horizon is an algorithm designed to prevent routing loops by omitting routes in updates sent to the gateway from which they were learned.

Split Key

A split key is a cryptographic key partitioned into two or more data items. Each item individually offers no knowledge of the complete key derived from combining them.

Spoof

Spoofing involves an unauthorized entity attempting to gain system access by impersonating an authorized user.

SQL Injection

SQL injection is a type of security exploit in which an attacker inserts malicious SQL code into application queries to manipulate a database.

Stack Mashing

Stack mashing is a technique used by cyber attackers to exploit buffer overflow vulnerabilities, tricking a computer into executing arbitrary code.

Standard ACLs (Cisco)

In Cisco's infrastructure, standard Access Control Lists (ACLs) make packet filtering decisions based on the source IP address alone.

Star Property

Star property, also known as the "*-property" or "confidentiality property," states that a user can't write data to a lower classification level without logging in at that lower classification level.

State Machine

A state machine is a system that sequentially progresses through a series of conditions or states.

Stateful Inspection

Stateful inspection, also referred to as dynamic packet filtering, is a firewall architecture that works at the network layer. It inspects not just the packet header information but also the packet contents up to the application layer, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the packet than static packet filtering.

Static Host Tables

Static host tables are text files containing mappings of hostnames and addresses.

Static Routing

Static routing implies that routing table entries are fixed and do not change dynamically.

Stealthing

Stealthing refers to techniques used by malicious software to conceal its presence on the infected system.

Steganalysis

Steganalysis involves the detection and defeat of steganography, the practice of concealing a message or data within another non-secret message or data.

Steganography

Steganography involves concealing the existence of data within another data. Unlike cryptography, which obfuscates the meaning of a message, steganography hides the existence of the message itself.

Stimulus

In network terminology, a stimulus refers to network traffic that initiates a connection or provokes a response.

Store-and-Forward

Store-and-forward is a switching method where a switch reads the entirety of a packet to ensure it is intact before forwarding it to its destination.

Straight-Through Cable

A straight-through cable is a type of networking cable in which the connector pins at one end are wired directly to the same pins at the other end. It is primarily used for interconnecting network nodes.

Stream Cipher

A stream cipher is a method of encryption that encrypts a message one bit, byte, or computer word at a time, providing real-time data encryption.

Strong Star Property

In the Strong Star Property concept, a user cannot write data to higher or lower classification levels than their own, ensuring secure information handling.

Sub Network

A sub network, or subnet, is an independently identifiable portion of a larger network. It typically represents a certain limited number of host computers, the hosts in a specific building or geographic area, or the hosts on an individual local area network.

Subnet Mask

A subnet mask is a 32-bit number used to delineate the number of bits used for the subnet and host portions of an address.

Switch

A network switch is a device that keeps a record of the MAC addresses linked to each of its ports, ensuring data is only transmitted to the intended recipient.

Switched Network

A switched network is a communications network where any user may be connected to any other user through the use of message, circuit, or packet switching and control devices.

Symbolic Links

Symbolic links, or symlinks, are special files that point to another file or directory, serving as shortcuts or references.

Symmetric Cryptography

Symmetric cryptography is a branch of cryptography featuring algorithms that use the same key for two different steps of the algorithm (such as encryption and decryption). Also known as secret-key cryptography, symmetric cryptography involves shared keys between the entities involved.

Symmetric Key

A symmetric key is a cryptographic key used in a symmetric cryptographic algorithm.

SYN Flood

A SYN flood is a type of denial-of-service attack that overloads a target by sending more TCP SYN packets (requests to synchronize sequence numbers when opening a connection) than the protocol implementation can handle.

Synchronization

In networking, synchronization is a unique bit pattern that network hardware seeks to signal the start of a frame.

Syslog

Syslog is a standard for message logging in Unix-based systems, providing a mechanism for collecting and storing log data on a centralized server.

System Security Officer (SSO)

A System Security Officer is an individual responsible for enforcing or administering the security policy applicable to a particular system.

System-Specific Policy

A system-specific policy is a policy written explicitly for a particular system or device, setting guidelines and rules specific to its operation and security.