Archives Glossary Terms

A denial of service attack which floods a server with requests, causing it to not function properly and/or crash. Often executed by multiple infected PC’s being manipulated by the attacker.

Web Application Firewall A firewall designed to protect a specific HTTP Web Application.  WAFs can be either hardware appliances or software based, including software as a service.  WAFs work by filtering web traffic and applying rules to prevent malicious attacks.…

Virtual Private Cloud A configurable shared computing resource within a Public Cloud, providing isolation from other users and organisations so as to be considered ‘Private’. Several cloud providers offer VPC including Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure).

Hardware Security Module A physical device used to hold Cryptographic (Encryption) Keys. HSMs have the advantage of allowing organisations to keep their own encryption keys and provide additional controls such as tamper proofing. Often HSMs are certified to internationally recognized…

User Generated Content Blogs, Articles, Posts, Graphics, Podcasts, Videos or other content created by the users of a system or website, and made publicly available. Social media provides a platform for this, although other websites such as news sites and…

Politically Exposed Person A term mainly used in financial regulation which describes a person who is or has been in a prominent public function.  Generally PEPs are considered at higher risk of potential involvement in bribery or corruption due the…

Minimum Viable Product A term often used in product design or software development which describes the minimum features and functionality a product or service needs to have in order to satisfy early adopters.

Role-based Access Control A method of managing logical access to applications or network services based on an individuals role within an organisation. This may be based on the department their work within, their seniority within a company or a combination…

Total Cost of Ownership An estimate of the direct and indirect costs of purchasing and operating an asset over its life time.  Often used to promote the benefits of or Subscription products, rather than a capital outlay to acquire a…

Data Loss Prevention Software, Systems or Business Processes designed to minimise the threat of data leakage. Examples including policies applied to mail servers to detect and quarantine messages contain sensitive data.