CompTIA Security Plus Acronyms

A

• AAA: Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
• ACL: Access Control List
• AES: Advanced Encryption Standard
• AES-256: Advanced Encryption Standards 256-bit
• AH: Authentication Header
• AI: Artificial Intelligence
• AIS: Automated Indicator Sharing
• ALE: Annualized Loss Expectancy
• AP: Access Point
• API: Application Programming Interface
• APT: Advanced Persistent Threat
• ARO: Annualized Rate of Occurrence
• ARP: Address Resolution Protocol
• ASLR: Address Space Layout Randomization
• ATT&CK: Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge
• AUP: Acceptable Use Policy
• AV: Anti-Virus

B

• Bash: Born Again Shell
• BCP: Business Continuity Planning
• BGP: Border Gateway Protocol
• BIA: Business Impact Analysis
• BIOS: Basic Input Output System
• BPA: Business Partners Agreement
• BPDU: Bridge Protocol Data Unit
• BYOD: Bring Your Own Device

C

• CA: Certificate Authority
• CAPTCHA: Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart
• CAR: Corrective Action Report
• CASB: Cloud Access Security Broker
• CBC: Cipher Block Chaining
• CCMP: Counter Mode CBC-MAC Protocol
• CCTV: Closed-Circuit Television
• CERT: Computer Emergency Response Team
• CFB: Cipher Feedback
• CHAP: Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
• CIA: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
• CIO: Chief Information Officer
• CIRT: Computer Incident Response Team
• CMS: Content Management System
• COOP: Continuity of Operation Planning
• COPE: Corporate Owned Personally Enabled
• CP: Contingency Planning
• CRC: Cyclical Redundancy Check
• CRL: Certificate Revocation List
• CSO: Chief Security Officer
• CSP: Cloud Service Provider
• CSR: Certificate Signing Request
• CSRF: Cross-Site Request Forgery
• CSU: Channel Service Unit
• CTM: Counter Mode
• CTO: Chief Technology Officer
• CVE: Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
• CVSS: Common Vulnerability Scoring System
• CYOD: Choose Your Own Device

D

• DAC: Discretionary Access Control
• DBA: Database Administrator
• DDoS: Distributed Denial of Service
• DEP: Data Execution Prevention
• DES: Digital Encryption Standard
• DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
• DHE: Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral
• DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail
• DLL: Dynamic Link Library
• DLP: Data Loss Prevention
• DMARC: Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance
• DNAT: Destination Network Address Translation
• DNS: Domain Name System
• DoS: Denial of Service
• DPO: Data Privacy Officer
• DRP: Disaster Recovery Plan
• DSA: Digital Signature Algorithm
• DSL: Digital Subscriber Line

E

• EAP: Extensible Authentication Protocol
• ECB: Electronic Codebook
• ECC: Elliptic Curve Cryptography
• ECDHE: Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral
• ECDSA: Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm
• EDR: Endpoint Detection and Response
• EFS: Encrypted File System
• ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning
• ESN: Electronic Serial Number
• ESP: Encapsulated Security Payload

F

• FACL: File System Access Control List
• FDE: Full Disk Encryption
• FIM: File Integrity Monitoring
• FPGA: Field-Programmable Gate Array
• FRR: False Rejection Rate
• FTP: File Transfer Protocol
• FTPS: Secured File Transfer Protocol

G

• GCM: Galois/Counter Mode
• GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation
• GPG: GNU Privacy Guard
• GPO: Group Policy Object
• GPS: Global Positioning System
• GPU: Graphics Processing Unit
• GRE: Generic Routing Encapsulation

H

• HA: High Availability
• HDD: Hard Disk Drive
• HIDS: Host-based Intrusion Detection System
• HIPS: Host-based Intrusion Prevention System
• HMAC: Hashed Message Authentication Code
• HOTP: HMAC-based One-Time Password
• HSM: Hardware Security Module
• HTML: HyperText Markup Language
• HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol
• HTTPS: HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure
• HVAC: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

I

• IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
• IaC: Infrastructure as Code
• IAM: Identity and Access Management
• ICMP: Internet Control Message Protocol
• ICS: Industrial Control Systems
• IDEA: International Data Encryption Algorithm
• IDF: Intermediate Distribution Frame
• IDP: Identity Provider
• IDS: Intrusion Detection System
• IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• IKE: Internet Key Exchange
• IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol
• IoC: Indicators of Compromise
• IoT: Internet of Things
• IP: Internet Protocol
• IPS: Intrusion Prevention System
• IPsec: Internet Protocol Security
• IR: Incident Response
• IRC: Internet Relay Chat
• IRP: Incident Response Plan
• ISO: International Organization for Standardization
• ISP: Internet Service Provider
• ISSO: Information Systems Security Officer

J - L

• KDC: Key Distribution Center
• KEK: Key Encryption Key
• L2TP: Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
• LAN: Local Area Network
• LDAP: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
• LEAP: Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol
• MaaS: Monitoring as a Service

M

• MAC: Mandatory Access Control / Media Access Control / Message Authentication Code
• MAN: Metropolitan Area Network
• MBR: Master Boot Record
• MD5: Message-Digest Algorithm 5
• MDF: Main Distribution Frame
• MDM: Mobile Device Management
• MFA: Multi-factor Authentication
• MFD: Multi-Function Device
• MFP: Multi-Function Printer
• ML: Machine Learning
• MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service
• MoA: Memorandum of Agreement
• MoU: Memorandum of Understanding
• MPLS: Multiprotocol Label Switching
• MSA: Master Service Agreement
• MsCHAP: Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
• MSP: Managed Service Provider
• MSSP: Managed Security Service Provider
• MTBF: Mean Time Between Failures
• MTTF: Mean Time to Failure
• MTTR: Mean Time to Recovery
• MTU: Maximum Transmission Unit

N

• NAC: Network Access Control
• NAT: Network Address Translation
• NDA: Non-Disclosure Agreement
• NFC: Near Field Communication
• NGFW: Next-Generation Firewall
• NIDS: Network-based Intrusion Detection System
• NIPS: Network-based Intrusion Prevention System
• NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology
• NTFS: New Technology File System
• NTLM: New Technology LAN Manager
• NTP: Network Time Protocol

O

• OAuth: Open Authorization
• OCSP: Online Certificate Status Protocol
• OID: Object Identifier
• OS: Operating System
• OSINT: Open Source Intelligence
• OSPF: Open Shortest Path First
• OT: Operational Technology
• OTA: Over-the-Air
• OVAL: Open Vulnerability Assessment Language

P

• P12: PKCS #12
• P2P: Peer-to-Peer
• PaaS: Platform as a Service
• PAC: Proxy Auto-Configuration
• PAM: Privileged Access Management / Pluggable Authentication Modules
• PAP: Password Authentication Protocol
• PAT: Port Address Translation
• PBKDF2: Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2
• PBX: Private Branch Exchange
• PCAP: Packet Capture
• PCI DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
• PDU: Power Distribution Unit
• PEAP: Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol
• PED: Personal Electronic Device
• PEM: Privacy-Enhanced Mail
• PFS: Perfect Forward Secrecy
• PGP: Pretty Good Privacy
• PHI: Personal Health Information
• PII: Personally Identifiable Information
• PIV: Personal Identity Verification
• PKCS: Public Key Cryptography Standards
• PKI: Public Key Infrastructure
• POP: Post Office Protocol
• POTS: Plain Old Telephone Service
• PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol
• PPTP: Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
• PSK: Pre-Shared Key
• PTZ: Pan-Tilt-Zoom
• PUP: Potentially Unwanted Program

R

• RA: Recovery Agent / Registration Authority
• RADIUS: Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service
• RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks
• RAS: Remote Access Server
• RAT: Remote Access Trojan
• RBAC: Role-Based Access Control / Rule-Based Access Control
• RC4: Rivest Cipher 4
• RDP: Remote Desktop Protocol
• RFID: Radio Frequency Identification
• RIPEMD: RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest
• ROI: Return on Investment
• RPO: Recovery Point Objective
• RSA: Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman
• RTBH: Remotely Triggered Black Hole
• RTO: Recovery Time Objective
• RTOS: Real-Time Operating System
• RTP: Real-Time Transport Protocol

S

• S/MIME: Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
• SaaS: Software as a Service
• SAE: Simultaneous Authentication of Equals
• SAML: Security Assertion Markup Language
• SAN: Storage Area Network / Subject Alternative Name
• SASE: Secure Access Service Edge
• SCADA: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
• SCAP: Security Content Automation Protocol
• SCEP: Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol
• SD-WAN: Software-Defined Wide Area Network
• SDK: Software Development Kit
• SDLC: Software Development Life Cycle
• SDLM: Software Development Life Cycle Methodology
• SDN: Software-Defined Networking
• SELinux: Security-Enhanced Linux
• SED: Self-Encrypting Drive
• SEH: Structured Exception Handler
• SFTP: Secure File Transfer Protocol
• SHA: Secure Hash Algorithm
• SHTTP: Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• SIEM: Security Information and Event Management
• SIM: Subscriber Identity Module
• SLA: Service-Level Agreement
• SLE: Single Loss Expectancy
• SMS: Short Message Service
• SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
• SMTPS: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Secure
• SNMP: Simple Network Management Protocol
• SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol
• SOAR: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response
• SoC: System on a Chip
• SOC: Security Operations Center
• SOW: Statement of Work
• SPF: Sender Policy Framework
• SPIM: Spam over Internet Messaging
• SQL: Structured Query Language
• SQLi: SQL Injection
• SRTP: Secure Real-Time Protocol
• SSD: Solid State Drive
• SSH: Secure Shell
• SSL: Secure Sockets Layer
• SSO: Single Sign-On
• STIX: Structured Threat Information eXpression
• SWG: Secure Web Gateway

T

• TACACS+: Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus
• TAXII: Trusted Automated Exchange of Indicator Information
• TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
• TGT: Ticket Granting Ticket
• TKIP: Temporal Key Integrity Protocol
• TLS: Transport Layer Security
• TOC: Time of Check
• TOTP: Time-based One-Time Password
• TOU: Time of Use
• TPM: Trusted Platform Module
• TTP: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures
• TSIG: Transaction Signature
• UAT: User Acceptance Testing
• UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
• UDP: User Datagram Protocol
• UEFI: Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
• UEM: Unified Endpoint Management
• UPS: Uninterruptible Power Supply
• URI: Uniform Resource Identifier
• URL: Uniform Resource Locator
• USB: Universal Serial Bus
• USB OTG: USB On-The-Go
• UTM: Unified Threat Management
• UTP: Unshielded Twisted Pair

V

• VBA: Visual Basic for Applications
• VDE: Virtual Desktop Environment
• VDI: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
• VLAN: Virtual Local Area Network
• VLSM: Variable Length Subnet Masking
• VM: Virtual Machine
• VoIP: Voice over IP
• VPC: Virtual Private Cloud
• VPN: Virtual Private Network
• VTC: Video Teleconferencing

W

• WAF: Web Application Firewall
• WAP: Wireless Access Point
• WEP: Wired Equivalent Privacy
• WIDS: Wireless Intrusion Detection System
• WIPS: Wireless Intrusion Prevention System
• WO: Work Order
• WPA: Wi-Fi Protected Access
• WPS: Wi-Fi Protected Setup
• WTLS: Wireless Transport Layer Security

X

• XDR: Extended Detection and Response
• XML: Extensible Markup Language
• XOR: Exclusive OR
• XSRF: Cross-Site Request Forgery
• XSS: Cross-Site Scripting