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:
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A vulnerability is a component that leaves a system open to exploitation (e.g. a network cable or a protocol weakness).
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A threat indicates the potential for a violation of security.
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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 |
