Glossary

74 entries

IR hardening acsc-glossary

3-2-1 backups

Three copies, two media, one off-site. Immutable or offline beats a snapshot the ransomware also encrypted.

au-compliance frameworks acsc-glossary

ACSC

The Australian Cyber Security Centre, part of ASD. Alerts, advice, assistance. cyber.gov.au and 1300 CYBER1.

au-compliance acsc-glossary

ASD

Australian Signals Directorate. Foreign signals intelligence and, through the ACSC, national cyber security.

frameworks au-compliance hardening acsc-glossary

ASD's framework series, launched on 15 October 2026 to replace the Essential Eight, according to iTnews and techpartner.news. It covers enterprise IT, cloud and operational technology, and uses principles, actions and domains instead of maturity levels.

concepts acsc-glossary

Advanced persistent threat (APT)

A campaign with a pattern, not a single file. Often patient, often aimed, sometimes state-linked. The persistence is the point.

malware acsc-glossary

Adware

Software that pushes ads. Sometimes you agreed. Sometimes the installer lied. Either way it is extra code on the box.

network hardening acsc-glossary

Air gap

Physically isolated. No cable, no Wi-Fi, no 'just this jump host' to the internet. Removable media is still a path if you let it be.

detection hardening acsc-glossary

Antivirus

Software that looks for known-bad and obvious malice, then tries to stop and clean it. Necessary. Not sufficient.

concepts hardening acsc-glossary

Attack surface

Everything a hostile party can reach: apps, IT, OT, services. Bigger surface, more raffle tickets.

identity acsc-glossary

Authentication

Prove who is knocking. Users, services, and devices all count. A username is a claim, not a proof.

identity acsc-glossary

Authorisation

What the proven identity is allowed to do. Authn is who. Authz is how far.

concepts acsc-glossary

Availability

Authorised users can actually use the system when the work needs it. Uptime theatre without backups is a bet.

IR hardening acsc-glossary

Backup

A copy stored somewhere else so you can restore after loss. If ransomware can reach it with the same credentials, it is not a backup.

malware network acsc-glossary

Botnet

A herd of hijacked devices taking orders. Spam, floods, miners, and stuffing logins all rent the same cattle.

identity acsc-glossary

Brute force

Try all the guesses until one works. Rate limits, MFA, and long secrets make this expensive. Shame is free.

identity IR acsc-glossary

Business email compromise

Email fraud aimed at an organisation's money or data. Invoice redirection is the local dialect.

concepts acsc-glossary

CIA triad

Confidentiality, integrity, availability. Lose one and the system is already failing, even if the dashboard is green.

concepts acsc-glossary

Confidentiality

The right eyes only. Encryption, access control, and not leaving copies in the wrong tray.

identity acsc-glossary

Credential stuffing

Reuse leaked username/password pairs on other sites. Your 'unique' login was the same as the breach last year.

identity hardening acsc-glossary

DMARC, DKIM, and SPF

Three DNS records. Receivers use them together so your domain is harder to wear.

IR au-compliance acsc-glossary

Data breach

Data lost, peeked, changed, or leaked without authorisation. In Australia the NDB clock may also be running.

identity hardening acsc-glossary

Default passwords

The password the vendor shipped. Fine for unboxing. Malpractice if it is still there at go-live.

hardening concepts acsc-glossary

Defence in depth

Stacked controls so one failure is not game over. Redundancy, not twelve dashboards of the same alert.

identity acsc-glossary

Dictionary attack

Guessing with a list of likely passwords instead of every possible string. 'Password1' is in the book. Yours should not be.

network IR acsc-glossary

Distributed denial of service (DDoS)

Many compromised machines, one target, a flood. Availability dies; the data may still be fine. That is not comfort during checkout.

malware acsc-glossary

Drive-by download

Hostile code lands because you visited. No attachment required. The click was the URL.

cloud concepts acsc-glossary

Encryption

Turn readable data into ciphertext with an algorithm and a key. The keys are the asset. A key taped to the data is theatre.

network hardening acsc-glossary

Firewall

A filter on the way in and out, driven by rules. Default allow is a very expensive switch.

detection acsc-glossary

Honeypot

A decoy built to attract hostile attention so you can study it. Not a substitute for patching production.

identity acsc-glossary

Identity and access management

Join, move, leave. Who you are, how you prove it, what you may do, and how that ends when the job does.

identity acsc-glossary

Identity theft

Someone uses your personal details to commit fraud. The cleanup outlasts the incident ticket.

practitioner frameworks au-compliance acsc-glossary

Information Security Manual (ISM)

ASD's control catalogue for Australian government systems — and the shared dialect for anyone who needs to speak the same language. Applicability, tailoring, and dated exceptions are the work.

identity IR acsc-glossary

Insider threat

Harm from someone who already had the keys — malice, negligence, or a very bad accident. The badge was valid.

concepts acsc-glossary

Integrity

The record is what authorised people made it. Quiet alteration is still a breach.

detection network acsc-glossary

Intrusion detection system (IDS)

Watches for unwanted activity and tells someone. Host or network. Alert without an owner is a screensaver.

detection network acsc-glossary

Intrusion prevention system (IPS)

IDS with a fist. Identifies unwanted traffic and can block it in the moment. Mis-tune it and you become the outage.

malware identity acsc-glossary

Keylogger

Software (or hardware) that records typing. Credentials and payments are the usual prize. This desk does not document how to build one.

identity hardening acsc-glossary

Least privilege

Only the access required, only for as long as required. Standing admin is standing blast radius.

logging detection IR acsc-glossary

Logging

Time-stamped records of what happened. Collect what can answer a question. If it never gets queried, it is storage spend.

malware acsc-glossary

Malvertising

The ad network is the delivery path. A 'legitimate' page, a hostile creative.

malware concepts acsc-glossary

Malware

Software that is there to harm you: steal, lock, spy, or hitch a ride. Virus, worm, Trojan, ransomware — different delivery, same job.

identity acsc-glossary

Multi-factor authentication

Two or more different factor types: know, have, or are. SMS counts. So does intercepting it. Aim for phishing-resistant.

identity hardening acsc-glossary

Need-to-know

Access only to the data the role actually requires. Broad file shares are a rumour mill with NTFS.

network hardening acsc-glossary

Network segmentation

Cut the network into smaller pieces. Segregation is the rule set between them. Flat is a gift.

identity acsc-glossary

Passphrase

A string of words used as a secret. Longer beats clever. Unique beats reused.

identity acsc-glossary

Password

A character string used as a secret. Reuse is how one breach becomes twelve logins.

identity acsc-glossary hardening

Password manager

Generates unique secrets and stores them in a vault. One strong unlock. Not a spreadsheet called passwords_final.

identity acsc-glossary

Password spraying

A few common passwords, a lot of accounts. Misses lockout, hits whoever used SeasonYear!.

vulnerability hardening acsc-glossary

Patch

A vendor fix for a hole or a defect. Installing it is patching. Explaining why you did not is an exception with an expiry date.

identity acsc-glossary

Pharming

Traffic sent to a fake site by tampering, not by a clicked lure. The URL bar can still lie if DNS or the host file does.

identity concepts acsc-glossary

Phishing

A bulk lure: fake message, urgency, a credential or a hostile file. Training helps. Phishing-resistant MFA and mail authentication help more.

identity hardening acsc-glossary

Privileged user

Someone who can change or sidestep security controls. Developers who can bypass a guardrail count.

IR malware acsc-glossary

Ransomware

Hostile software that locks your data or systems and bills you to get them back. Often also steals a copy first. Restore beats negotiation as a control.

network identity acsc-glossary

Remote access

Coming in from outside the organisation's network, usually through a gateway. Treat it as privileged even when the user is not.

malware acsc-glossary

Rootkit

Tooling that grabs high privilege and then hides. If you only look where it wants you to look, you will miss it.

hardening detection acsc-glossary

Sandbox

A paddock for untrusted code. If it explodes, the paddock takes it. Production is not a paddock.

identity acsc-glossary

Smishing (SMS scam)

Phishing that arrives as a text. Postage, ATO, missed-parcel energy. The link is the problem.

identity concepts acsc-glossary

Social engineering

Manipulate a person, skip the software flaw. Phishing, vishing, BEC, and the helpdesk reset are all this family.

concepts acsc-glossary

Spam

Unsolicited bulk messages, usually ads. Not all spam is phishing. Plenty of phishing rides in the same tray.

identity acsc-glossary

Spear phishing

Phishing with a name on it. Aimed at a person or a small group, usually with enough context to look like Tuesday.

identity network acsc-glossary

Spoofing

A message or identity dressed as a trusted source. Email, SMS, caller ID, and websites all do this cheaply.

malware acsc-glossary

Spyware

Software that watches what you do without a real yes. Sometimes bundled. Sometimes smuggled.

network concepts crypto acsc-glossary

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

The S in HTTPS. Stops eavesdropping, tampering, and forgery on the wire. TLS 1.3 is the current protocol.

malware acsc-glossary

Trojan

Hostile software dressed as something you meant to run. The gift is the rest of the program.

identity acsc-glossary

Two-factor authentication (2FA)

MFA with exactly two proofs. Better than a password. Still not the ceiling.

network acsc-glossary

Virtual private network (VPN)

A tunnel plus some discipline. Encryption is common. A full-trust badge on the far side is optional and usually a mistake.

malware acsc-glossary

Virus

Hostile software that hitchhikes: it attaches to other programs or copies itself across systems. Needs a host. Still not a metaphor for every pop-up.

identity acsc-glossary

Vishing

Social engineering on a phone call. They are not Microsoft, the ATO, or your bank's fraud team.

vulnerability concepts acsc-glossary

Vulnerability

A weakness in requirements, design, build, or operations that can be tripped or abused and break the security policy.

vulnerability hardening acsc-glossary

Vulnerability management

Find, rank, fix, check. Known-exploited and exposure beat a 400-page scanner PDF.

malware concepts acsc-glossary

Watering hole

Poison a site your targets already visit. The prey comes to the water. Patching and isolation still apply.

identity acsc-glossary

Whaling

Spear phishing aimed at senior executives. The invoice looks like their job. The bank details do not.

malware acsc-glossary

Worm

Self-copying hostile software that uses the network as a tram. Often no click required once it is inside.

vulnerability acsc-glossary

Zero-day

A usable flaw the vendor has not disclosed or patched yet. Your window is not a blog post. It is exposure.

Definitions informed by ASD's ACSC glossary. cyber.gov.au glossary