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    Glossary

    The language of Identity and Access Management (IAM) can be complex. Our glossary is designed to make it accessible to everyone. 

    Access and Identity Management

    The methods and processes used to manage subjects and their authentication and authorizations to access specific objects

     

    Access control

    The process of granting or denying specific requests for or attempts to: 1) obtain and use information and related information processing services; and 2) enter specific physical facilities

     

    Air gap

    To physically separate or isolate a system from other systems or networks (verb)

     

    AppSec

    The process of finding, fixing, and preventing security vulnerabilities at the application level, as part of the software development processes

     

    API (Application Processing Interface)

    A set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other

     

    API Gateway

    A server that acts as an intermediary between clients and backend services, providing features such as authentication, authorization, rate limit, monitoring, and logging

     

    API Key

    A unique identifier used to authenticate and authorize access on an API

     

    Attack surface

    The set of ways in which an adversary can enter a system and potentially cause damage

     

    Attestation

    The process of formally verifying or confirming the accuracy, authenticity, or compliance of a statement, document, or assertion

     

    Attribute Assertion

    Information about a user's identity or attributes provided by an identity to service provider during the authentication process

     

    Authentication

    The process of verifying the identity or other attributes of an entity (user, process, or device)

     

    Authorization

    A process of determining, by evaluating applicable access control information, whether a subject is allowed to have the specified types of access to a particular resource

    Backup and Recovery

    The process of creating and maintaining backups of password manager data to prevent data loss

     

    Basic Authentication

    Basic Authentication is the simplest web-based authentication scheme that works by sending the username and password with each request

     

    Bearer Token

    An access token used by non-human clients to access or authenticate protected resources or APIs

     

    Bot

    A computer connected to the Internet that has been surreptitiously / secretly compromised with malicious logic to perform activities under remote the command and control of a remote administrator

     

    Bot Identity

    An identity assigned to a software robot or bot, typically used to automate tasks or interactions with systems

     

    Browser Extension

    A software component that extends the functionality of a web browser by adding features or capabilities

     

    Byte

    A fundamental unit of computer storage; the smallest addressable unit in a computer's architecture. Usually holds one character of information and usually means eight bits

    CI/CD

    Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) represents a modern software development and deployment practice aimed at streamlining the development process and ensuring the efficient, high-quality delivery of software applications

     

    Client Credentials

    Credentials used by non-human clients, such as applications or services, to authenticate and access protected resources

     

    CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing)

    A security mechanism that allows web browsers to request resources from a different origin domain

     

    Critical Infrastructure

    The systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to society that the incapacity or destruction of such may have a debilitating impact on the security, economy, public health or safety, environment, or any combination of these matters

     

    Cyber Infrastructure

    An electronic information and communications systems and services and the information contained therein

     

    Cyberattack

    A malicious and deliberate attempt to breach the information system

    Daemon Identity

    An identity associated with a background process or service running on a computer system, often used for system maintenance, monitoring, or other administrative tasks

     

    Data Breach

    The unauthorized movement or disclosure of sensitive information to a party, usually outside the organization, that is not authorized to have or see the information

     

    DataOps

    A collaborative data management practice focused on improving the communication, integration and automation of data flows between data managers and data consumers across an organization

     

    DDoS

    Distributed Denial-of-Service - a cybercrime in which the attacker floods a target with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites

     

    Deauthentication

    To revoke the authentication of; to cause no longer to be authenticated

     

    Decryption

    The process of transforming ciphertext into its original plaintext

     

    Denial of Service

    An attack that prevents or impairs the authorized use of information system resources or services

     

    DevOps

    The combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization's ability to deliver applications and services

     

    DevSecOps

    An approach to culture, automation, and platform design that integrates security as a shared responsibility throughout the entire IT lifecycle

     

    Distributed Denial of Service

    A denial of service technique that uses numerous systems to perform the attack simultaneously

     

    Digital Certificate

    A digital document used to certify the authenticity of a machine or identity, typically issued by a trusted certificate authority

     

    DoS

    Denial of Service

     

    Dynamic Attack Surface

    The automated, on-the-fly changes of an information system's characteristics to thwart actions of an adversary

     

    Dynamic Secrets

    Temporary credentials or keys generated on-demand by secrets managers in response to authentication questions

    Encryption

    The process of encoding data in such a way that only authorized parties can access and decrypt it

     

    Enterprise Risk Management

    A comprehensive approach to risk management that engages people, processes, and systems across an organization to improve the quality of decision making for managing risks that may hinder an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives

     

    Exfiltration

    The unauthorized transfer of information from an information system

     

    Exploit

    A technique to breach the security of a network or information system in violation of security policy

    Federated Identity

    A mechanism that enables users to access multiple systems or services using a single set of credentials, typically managed by an identity provider

     

    Firewall

    A capability to limit network traffic between networks and/or information systems

    Geo-redundancy

    The distribution of mission-critical components or infrastructures across multiple geographic locations

     

    Governance

    Refers to the processes and policies used to manage identities, ensure compliance with regulations, and maintain control over user access and privileges

     

    Granularity

    The level of detail in access control. Granular access control policies allow organizations to define fine-grained permissions for users and machines

    Hashing

    Used to store and verify credentials like passwords by converting them into a fixed-size string of characters

    IaC

    The process of managing and provisioning an organization’s IT infrastructure using machine-readable configuration files, rather than employing physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.

     

    Identity and Access Management (IAM)

    A framework for managing and controlling access to resources systems, and data based on the identities of users, machines, or services

     

    Identity Broker

    An intermediary service that facilitates federated authentication and authorization between identity and service providers

     

    Identity Federation

    The process of establishing trust relationships between identity and service providers to enable federated identity management

     

    Identity Mapping

    The process of correlating user identities across different domains or systems

     

    Identity Provider (IdP)

    A trusted entity responsible for authenticating users and issuing tokens or assertions that can be used across various services

     

    IIoT

    Industrial Internet of Things - the collection of sensors, instruments and autonomous devices connected through the internet to industrial applications

     

    Industrial Control System

    An information system used to control industrial processes such as manufacturing, product handling, production, and distribution or to control infrastructure assets

     

    InfoSec

    The processes and tools designed and deployed to protect sensitive business information from modification, disruption, destruction, and inspection

     

    Integration

    The process of connecting secrets managers with other systems, applications, or cloud services to automate the retrevial or use of secrets

     

    Integrated Risk Management

    The structured approach that enables an enterprise or organization to share risk information and risk analysis and to synchronize independent yet complementary risk management strategies to unify efforts across the enterprise

     

    Intrusion Detection

    The process and methods for analyzing information from networks and information systems to determine if a security breach or security violation has occurred

    JWT (JSON Web Token)

    A compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties, commonly used for secure authentication

    Key Rotation

    The process of regularly changing cryptographic keys or credentials to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access and improve security

    Least Privilege

    The principle of providing users, machines, or services with only minimal level of access necessary to perform their tasks

    Machine Identity

    A unique identifier attached to a machine or a device, typically consisting of cryptographic keys

     

    Machine Learning Identity

    An identity associated with a machine learning algorithm or model, used to authenticate or authorize access to data, resources, or computational resources

     

    Machine-to-Machine Communication (M2M)

    Communication between non-human entities, such as machines, devices, or applications, without direct human intervention

     

    Master Password

    A single, strong password used to encrypt and unlock the contents of a password manager or vault

     

    MitM

    A man-in-the-middle attack is a cyberattack where the attacker secretly relays and possibly alters the communications between two parties who believe that they are directly communicating

     

    Multi-Factor Authentication

    A security method that requires users or machines to provide two or more forms of authentication to access a system or application

    NIST

    National Institute of Standards and Technology

     

    Non-human Identity (NHI)

    A non-human identity refers to digital identities assigned to machines, applications, services, or other automated processes rather than individual users. These identities allow machines to authenticate and access resources securely, as in microservices or cloud applications

    OAuth (Open Authorization)

    Open Authorization standard - an open-standard authorization protocol or framework that provides applications the ability for secure designated access

     

    OAuth 2.0

    An authorization framework that enables secure access to resources over HTTP

     

    On-prem (on-premises)

    Refers to software that is installed and run on computers on the premises of the person or organization using the software, rather than at a remote facility such as a server farm or cloud

     

    Operations Technology

    The hardware and software systems used to operate industrial control devices

     

    OpenID Connect

    An identity layer built on top of OAuth 2.0 that provides authentication services for web and mobile applications

     

    Over-provisioned Account

    An over-provisioned account has more access privileges than necessary for its role or function. This creates a security risk, as the excess privileges could be exploited by attackers or lead to unintentional access to sensitive systems

    Password Generator

    A tool provided by password managers to create strong, randomized passwords that are difficult to guess or crack

     

    Password Manager

    A software tool or service designed to securely store, manage, and retrieve passwords or other sensitive information

     

    Pen Test

    A colloquial term for penetration test or penetration testing.

     

    Proxy

    A proxy is an intermediary that routes requests between a client and a server, often used for security, logging, or anonymization

     

    Public Key

    A cryptographic key that may be widely published and is used to enable the operation of an asymmetric (public key) cryptographic algorithm

     

    Public Key Infrastructure

    A framework consisting of standards and services to enable secure, encrypted communication and authentication over potentially insecure networks such as the Internet

    Quota

    In workload management, a quota refers to the predefined limits set on resources that a user, machine, or application can access. For instance, quotas may restrict the number of API calls, storage usage, or the number of machines a user can provision within a cloud environment

    Rate Limiting

    A mechanism used to restrict the number of API requests a client can make within a specific time period

     

    RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)

    A method of access controls where permissions are assigned to roles, and users or entities are assigned to their roles

     

    Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Identity

    An identity assigned to a software robot or bot used for automating repetitive tasks or workflows

    SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)

    An XML based standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between identity providers and service providers

     

    SBIR

    A federal program that encourages small businesses to engage in research and development for solutions that could help the government and have potential for commercialization

     

    SecDevOps

    A software development methodology that places security concerns first in planning and development

     

    Secret

    Any sensitive piece of information that should be protected from unauthorized access

     

    Secret Rotation

    The process of periodically updating secrets to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access or misuse

     

    Secrets Manager

    A centralized service or tool used to store, manage, or distribute sensitive information

     

    Secret Versioning

    The practice of maintaining multiple versions of secrets to facilitate rollback, auditing, and compliance requirements

     

    Security Automation

    The use of information technology in place of manual processes for cyber incident response and management

     

    Service Account

    An identity used by applications or services to authenticate and authorize their interactions with other services

     

    Service Identity

    A unique identifier assigned to a service platform or workload, typically associated with control policies

     

    Service Provider

    A system, application, or service that relies on an identity provider for authentication and authorization

     

    Service-to-Service Authentication

    Authentication mechanism used between services or applications to establish trust and securely exchange information

     

    Single Sign-On (SSO)

    A mechanism that allows users to authenticate once and gain access to multiple systems or services without needing to re-authenticate

     

    SoC

    Security Operations Center - an intelligence hub for the company, gathering data from across the organization's networks, servers, endpoints and other digital assets and using intelligent automation to identify, prioritize and respond to potential cybersecurity threats

     

    SSH Key

    Secure Shell (SSH) keys are cryptographic keys used for secure remote access to machines or systems

     

    Syncing

    The process of synchronizing data between multiple devices or platforms to ensure consistency or accessibility

    TLS (Transport Layer Security)

    A cryptographic protocol that provides secure communication over a computer network

     

    TLS / SSL Certificate

    Transport Layer Security or Secure Sockets Layer certificates provide secure communication over a network by encrypting data transmitted between machines

     

    Token

    A piece of data used for authentication or authorization, typically issued by an identity provider or authentication service

     

    Trust Relationship

    A mutual agreement or configuration between identity providers and service providers that establish trust and enables federated identity management

     

    Two-Factor Authentication

    An authentication method that requires user to provide two forms of verification to access an account or system

    Universal Identity and Access Management (IAM)

    A unified approach to identity and access management that spans multiple environments, platforms, and services. This can also unify user and non-human identities. It enables organizations to manage identities and access controls consistently across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, providing seamless identity lifecycle management and access governance

    Vault

    A secure repository or container used to store and manage sensitive information, such as passwords, cryptographic keys, certificates, and API tokens

     

    Vulnerability Assessment and Management

    In the NICE Framework, cybersecurity work where a person conducts assessments of threats and vulnerabilities, determines deviations from acceptable configurations, enterprise or local policy, assesses the level of risk, and develops and/or recommends appropriate mitigation countermeasures in operational and non-operational situations.

    Workload

    A specific task, application, or process running on a machine or within a computing environment, often associated with cloud based or distribution systems

    X.509

    A standard defining the format of public key certificates. These certificates are used in cryptographic systems (like SSL/TLS) to securely verify identities through a trusted certificate authority (CA)

     

    X.509 Certificate

    A digital certificate that uses the X.509 standard to authenticate the identity of machines, applications, or users. It contains a public key, identity information, and is signed by a trusted certificate authority (CA)

    Zero Trust

    A cybersecurity approach that assumes no trust by default, requiring continuous verification and authentication of users, devices, and applications before granting access to resources