Network Security - Terminology and abbreviations

Terminology and abbreviations

Terminology

Throughout this unit I shall use the terms ‘vulnerability’, ‘threat’ and ‘attack’. It is worthwhile clarifying these terms before proceeding:

  • A vulnerability is a component that leaves a system open to exploitation (e.g. a network cable or a protocol weakness).

  • A threat indicates the potential for a violation of security.

  • The term attack is applied to an attempted violation.

When you have finished studying this unit you should be able to explain the meaning of all the terms listed below:

active attack

application layer encryption

application level gateway

asymmetric key system

attack

authentication

availability

bastion host

block cipher

brute force attack

Caesar cipher

certification authority

ciphertext

circuit level gateway

collision-free

confidentiality

cryptanalysis

cryptography

cryptosystem

decryption

demilitarised zone

denial-of-service attacks

digital signature

encryption

end-to-end encryption

filtering rules

firewall

freshness

hash value

integrity

key

keyspace

keystream

link layer encryption

masquerade attack

message authentication code

message digest

message modification

message replay

network layer encryption

nonce

one-time pad

one-way hash function

passive attack

password

password cracker

plaintext

private key

protocol analyser

proxy server

public key

public key infrastructure

public key system

registration authority

screened sub-net

sequence number

session key

shared key system

sniffer

stream cipher

symmetric key system

threat

time stamp

traffic analysis

Trojan

virus

vulnerability

worm

Abbreviations

The table below shows the abbreviations that are used throughout this unit, and their meanings.

Table 1 Abbreviations

ADSL asymmetric digital PGP Pretty Good Privacy
  subscriber line PING packet internet groper
DES Data Encryption Standard PSTN public switched telephone
DMZ demilitarised zone   network
DNS domain name system RC2 Rivest cipher 2
DSS Digital Signature Standard RC4 Rivest cipher 4
FTP file transfer protocol RSA Rivest, Shamir and
IANA Internet Assigned Numbers   Adleman block cipher
  Authority S-HTTP secure hypertext transfer
ICMP internet control message   protocol
  protocol S/MIME secure/multipurpose internet
IDEA International Data   mail extensions
  Encryption Algorithm SET secure electronic transaction
IP internet protocol SHA secure hash algorithm
IPSec internet protocol security SIM subscriber identity module
ISDN integrated services digital SMTP simple mail transfer
  network   protocol
ISO International Organization TCP transmission control
  for Standardization   protocol
LAN local area network UDP user datagram protocol
MD5 message digest 5 VPN virtual private network
MSP message security protocol XOR exclusive-OR
NSA National Security Agency 3DES Triple Data Encryption
OSI open systems   Standard
  interconnection    

Source: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/computing-and-ict/systems-computer/network-security/content-section-1.1