Definition
What is Security? | Definition from TechTarget
Security for information technology (IT) refers to the methods, tools and personnel used to defend an organization’s digital assets. The goal of IT security is to protect these assets, devices and services from being disrupted, stolen or exploited by unauthorized users, otherwise known as threat actors. These threats can be external or internal and malicious…
What is Compliance Risk? | Definition from TechTarget
Compliance risk is an organization’s potential exposure to legal penalties, financial forfeiture and material loss, resulting from its failure to act in accordance with industry laws and regulations, internal policies or prescribed best practices. Compliance risk is also known as integrity risk. Organizations of all types and sizes are exposed to compliance risk, whether they…
What is business resilience? | Definition from TechTarget
Business resilience is an organization’s ability to adapt quickly to disruptions while maintaining continuous business operations and safeguarding people, assets and overall brand equity. Transcending disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC), business resilience offers post-disaster strategies to avoid costly downtime, shore up vulnerabilities and maintain business operations in the face of additional, unexpected outages…
What are the top 10 spyware threats? | Definition from TechTarget
The top 10 spyware list describes the most common spyware threats behind famous spyware attacks and is frequently identified by leading antispyware tools from vendors like Webroot, Norton and Malwarebytes. What is spyware? Spyware refers to malicious software purposely designed to access a computer and record its activity. Spyware can track and record a user’s…
What is a certificate authority (CA)? | Definition from TechTarget
A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues digital certificates to authenticate content sent from web servers. These certificates are data files used to cryptographically link an entity with a public key. Web browsers use them to authenticate content sent from web servers, ensuring trust in content delivered online and facilitating more trustworthy…
What is the NSA and how does it work? | Definition from TechTarget
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a federal government surveillance and intelligence agency that’s part of the U.S. Department of Defense and is managed under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). Led by the NSA director, the agency performs global electronic monitoring, collection and processing of information and data from its headquarters…
What are Network Packets and How Do They Work? | Definition from TechTarget
A network packet is a basic unit of data that is transferred over a computer network, typically a packet-switched network, such as the internet. Before data like files, images, videos or emails are transmitted over a network, they are first divided into packets. Upon arrival at their destination, the packets are reassembled to form the…
What is the Nessus vulnerability scanning platform? | Definition from TechTarget
Nessus is a platform developed by Tenable that scans for security vulnerabilities in devices, applications, operating systems, cloud services and other network resources. Originally launched as an open source tool in 1998, its enterprise edition became a commercial product in 2005. Nessus is now available in two enterprise versions: Nessus Professional and Nessus Expert. Both…
What is Information Security Management System (ISMS)? | Definition from TechTarget
An information security management system (ISMS) is a set of policies and procedures for systematically managing an organization’s sensitive data. The goal of an ISMS is to minimize risk and ensure business continuity by proactively limiting the impact of a security breach. An ISMS typically addresses employee behavior and processes as well as data and…
What is a cyberthreat hunter (cybersecurity threat analyst)? | Definition from TechTarget
A cyberthreat hunter, also called a cybersecurity threat analyst, proactively identifies security incidents that might go undetected using automated security tools, such as malware detectors and firewalls. Cyberthreat hunting involves monitoring network traffic, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, endpoints, data sets and insider threats — often in real time — to uncover potential security incidents that…
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