Cybersecurity glossary

Plain-English definitions for 29 cybersecurity terms. Cross-linked to the tools and buying guides where each one matters.

C

CASB· Cloud Access Security Broker

A security policy enforcement point placed between cloud service consumers and cloud service providers to monitor activity, enforc…

CSPM· Cloud Security Posture Management

A category of security tools that continuously monitor cloud infrastructure configurations to identify misconfigurations, complian…

CNAPP· Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform

An integrated security platform that combines cloud workload protection, cloud security posture management, infrastructure-as-code…

Cybersecurity Compliance Frameworks

Structured sets of guidelines, standards, and best practices that organizations follow to manage cybersecurity risk, protect data,…

D

DLP· Data Loss Prevention

A set of tools and processes designed to detect and prevent the unauthorized transmission of sensitive data outside an organizatio…

E

Email Security

The technologies and practices designed to protect email communications from threats including phishing, business email compromise…

EDR· Endpoint Detection and Response

A security solution that continuously monitors endpoint devices (laptops, servers, workstations) to detect, investigate, and respo…

I

IAM· Identity and Access Management

A framework of policies and technologies that ensures the right individuals have appropriate access to technology resources, encom…

IGA· Identity Governance and Administration

A framework of policies and technologies that manages digital identities and governs access rights, including access request workf…

IR· Incident Response

The organized approach to preparing for, detecting, containing, eradicating, and recovering from cybersecurity incidents, guided b…

M

MITRE ATT&CK Framework

A globally accessible, curated knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations, used as a comm…

MFA· Multi-Factor Authentication

A security mechanism that requires users to provide two or more independent verification factors. Something they know (password), …

N

NDR· Network Detection and Response

Network detection and response (NDR) is a category of security tools that monitor network traffic to detect, investigate, and resp…

NGFW· Next-Generation Firewall

A network security device that combines traditional firewall capabilities (packet filtering, stateful inspection, NAT) with advanc…

P

Penetration Testing

A simulated cyberattack against an organization's systems, networks, or applications conducted by authorized security professional…

PAM· Privileged Access Management

A security discipline and set of tools that control, monitor, and audit access to critical systems by privileged users such as sys…

R

Ransomware

A type of malicious software that encrypts an organization's data or locks systems and demands payment (ransom) in exchange for th…

S

Secrets Management

The practice and tooling for securely storing, accessing, rotating, and auditing sensitive credentials such as API keys, database …

SASE· Secure Access Service Edge

A cloud-delivered architecture that converges wide-area networking (SD-WAN) and network security services (SWG, CASB, ZTNA, FWaaS)…

Security Data Pipeline

Infrastructure for collecting, transforming, routing, and delivering security telemetry (logs, metrics, traces) from sources to de…

SIEM· Security Information and Event Management

A platform that aggregates, correlates, and analyzes security event data from across an organization's IT infrastructure to detect…

SOAR· Security Orchestration, Automation and Response

A category of security tools that combine incident response case management, workflow automation, and threat intelligence aggregat…

SBOM· Software Bill of Materials

A comprehensive inventory of all components, libraries, and dependencies that make up a software product, analogous to a list of i…

SCA· Software Composition Analysis

A security practice and toolset that identifies open-source and third-party components in a codebase, detects known vulnerabilitie…

SAST· Static Application Security Testing

A method of analyzing application source code, bytecode, or binaries for security vulnerabilities without executing the program, t…

T

TI· Threat Intelligence

The evidence-based knowledge about existing or emerging cyber threats, including context about threat actors, their motivations, c…

V

VM· Vulnerability Management

The continuous process of identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, and remediating security vulnerabilities across an organization's…

X

XDR· Extended Detection and Response

A unified security platform that integrates detection and response across endpoints, networks, cloud workloads, email, and identit…

Z

ZTA· Zero Trust Architecture

A security model based on the principle of "never trust, always verify" that requires continuous authentication and authorization …