Glossary- F

Question 1

alse accept rate (FAR)

Answer 1

The rate at which invalid subjects are accepted as valid. This occurs when the biometric system has too large a margin of error. See also biometrics.

Question 2

false reject rate (FRR)

Answer 2

The rate at which valid subjects are rejected. This occurs when the biometric system has too small a margin of error. See also biometrics.

Question 3

feasibility study

Answer 3

An activity that seeks to determine the expected benefits of a pro- gram or project.

Question 4

fence

Answer 4

A structure that prevents or deters passage by unauthorized personnel.

Question 5

fiber distributed data interface (FDDI)

Answer 5

A local area network technology that con- sists of a “dual ring” with redundant network cabling and counter-rotating logical tokens.

Question 6

fiber optics

Answer 6

A cabling standard that uses optical fiber instead of metal conductors.

Question 7

Fibre Channel

Answer 7

A standard protocol for assembling a stream of data into frames for transport over a physical medium from one station to another on a local area network. Fibre Channel is most often found in storage area networks. See also storage area network.

Question 8

field

Answer 8

A unit of storage in a relational database management system (rDBMS) that consists of a single data item within a row. See also relational database management sys- tem, table, and row.

Question 9

file

Answer 9

A sequence of zero or more characters that is stored as a whole in a file system. A file may be a document, spreadsheet, image, sound file, computer program, or data that is used by a program. See also file system.

Question 10

file allocation table (FAT)

Answer 10

A file system used by the MS-DOS operating system as well as by early versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Question 11

file server

Answer 11

A server that is used to store files in a central location, usually to make them available to many users.

Question 12

file system

Answer 12

A logical structure that facilitates the storage of data on a digital storage medium such as a hard drive, CD/DVD-ROM, or flash memory device.

Question 13

file transfer protocol (FTP)

Answer 13

An early and still widely used TCP/IP application layer protocol that is used for the batch transfer of files or entire directories from one system to another.

Question 14

file transfer protocol secure (FTPS)

Answer 14

A TCP/IP application layer protocol that is an extension of the FTP protocol where authentication and transport are encrypted using SSL or TLS. See also File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and Transport Layer Security (TLS).

Question 15

financial audit

Answer 15

An audit of an accounting system, accounting department processes, and procedures to determine if business controls are sufficient to ensure the integrity of financial statements.

Question 16

financial management

Answer 16

Management for IT services that consists of several activities, including budgeting, capital investment, expense management, project accounting, and project ROI. See also IT service management, return on investment.

Question 17

fire extinguisher

Answer 17

A hand-operated fire suppression device used for fighting small fires.

Question 18

fire sprinkler system

Answer 18

A fire suppression system that extinguishes a fire by spraying water on it.

Question 19

firewall

Answer 19

A device that controls the flow of network messages between networks. Placed at the boundary between the Internet and an organization’s internal network, firewalls enforce security policy by prohibiting all inbound traffic except for the spe- cific few types of traffic that are permitted to a select few systems.

Question 20

firmware

Answer 20

A computer’s special-purpose storage that is usually used to store the in- structions required to start the computer system. Firmware is usually implemented in ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, or flash.

Question 21

first in first out (FIFO)

Answer 21

A backup media rotation scheme where the oldest backup volumes are used next. See also backup media rotation.

Question 22

flash

Answer 22

A form of permanent memory that can be rewritten by the computer that it is installed on. Flash memory is used by several types of devices, including SD (Secure Digital) cards, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, and USB drives.

Question 23

foreign key

Answer 23

A field in a table in a relational database management system (rDBMS) that references a field in another table. See also relational database management system, table, row, and field.

Question 24

forensic audit

Answer 24

An audit that is performed in support of an anticipated or active legal proceeding.

Question 25

forensics

Answer 25

The application of procedures and tools during an investigation of a com- puter or network-related event.

Question 26

fourth-generation language (4GL)

Answer 26

A variety of tools that are used in the develop- ment of applications, or that are parts of the applications themselves.

Question 27

Frame Relay

Answer 27

A common carrier standard for transporting packets from one network to another. Frame Relay is being replaced by MPLS. See also multiprotocol label switching (MPLS).

Question 28

fraud

Answer 28

The intentional deception made for personal gain or for damage to another party.

Question 29

function point analysis (FPA)

Answer 29

A method for estimating software development proj- ects based on the number of user inputs, outputs, queries, files, and external interfaces.

Question 30

functional testing

Answer 30

The portion of software testing where functional requirements are verified.