M-Z Flashcards
IT Support Certificate glossary M-Z
MAC(Media Access Control) address:
MAC(Media Access Control) address: A globally unique identifier attached to an individual network interface. It’s a 48-bit number normally represented by six groupings of two hexadecimal numbers
MAC address:
MAC address: A globally unique identifier attached to an individual network interface. It’s a 48-bit number normally represented by six groupings of two hexadecimal numbers
MAC filtering:
MAC filtering: Access points are configured to only allow for connections from a specific set of MAC addresses belonging to devices you trust
Mac OS:
Mac OS: Apple’s operating system
MACs (Message Authentication Codes):
MACs (Message Authentication Codes): A bit of information that allows authentication of a received message, ensuring that the message came from the alleged sender and not a third party masquerading as them
Maintenance:
Maintenance: Where software is updated and hardware issues are fixed if, and when, they occur
Malware:
Malware: A type of malicious software that can be used to obtain your sensitive information or delete or modify files
Manifest:
Manifest: A library used if an application needs to use a shared library
Master boot record (MBR):
Master boot record (MBR): a traditional partition table within a storage disk that lets you have volume sizes of 2 terabytes or less and is mostly used in the Windows OS
Master file table (MFT):
Master file table (MFT): A way NTFS stores and represents the files you?re working with on your operating system
Mb/s:
Mb/s: megabit per second, which is a unit of data transfer rate
MD5:
MD5: A popular and widely used hash function designed in the early 1990s as a cryptographic hashing function
MDM policy:
MDM policy: The profiles that contains settings for the device
MDM profile:
MDM profile: The policies that contains settings for the device
Meddler in the middle (formerly known as Man in the Middle):
Meddler in the middle (formerly known as Man in the Middle): An attack that places the attacker in the middle of two hosts that think they’re communicating directly with each other
Memory controller chip (MCC):
Memory controller chip (MCC): A bridge between the CPU and the RAM
Memory management:
Memory management: One of the functions that a kernel performs; it optimizes memory usage and make sure our applications have enough memory to run
Memory manager:
Memory manager: A Windows OS program that helps manage virtual memory
Memory usage:
Memory usage: The amount of memory available in your system as well as what memory is currently being used by other applications
Mesh networks:
Mesh networks: Like ad-hoc networks, lots of devices communicate with each other device, forming a mesh if you were to draw lines for all the links between all the nodes
Metadata:
Metadata: Tells us everything we need to know about a file, including who created it, when it was last modified, who has access to it, and what type of file it is
Metered connection:
Metered connection: An internet connection where all data transfer usage is tracked. Cell phone plans that have a limit on data usage per month or that charge based on usage are examples of metered connections
MIC (Message Integrity Check):
MIC (Message Integrity Check): It is essentially a hash digest of the message in question
Micro display port:
Micro display port: One of the standard power, data and display connector types used in mobile devices
Micro HDMI:
Micro HDMI: One of the standard power, data and display connector types used in mobile devices
Microsoft Install Package(.msi) and MSI files:
Microsoft Install Package(.msi) and MSI files: Microsoft Install Package is a file extension used to guide a program called Windows Installer in the installation, maintenance, and removal of programs of the windows operating systems. MSI files are a combination of of databases that contain installation instructions in different tables along with all the files
Microsoft Terminal Services Client:
Microsoft Terminal Services Client: A client program used to create RDP connections to remote computers
Micro USB:
Micro USB: One of the standard power, data and display connector types used in mobile devices
Mini HDMI:
Mini HDMI: One of the standard power, data and display connector types used in mobile devices
Mini USB:
Mini USB: One of the standard power, data and display connector types used in mobile devices
Mobile applications:
Mobile applications: Software that is distributed on mobile OS devices
Mobile device management:
Mobile device management: A system used to apply and enforce rules about how the device has to be configured and used
Modify:
Modify: An umbrella permission that includes read and execute and write
Modulation:
Modulation: A way of varying the voltage of a constant electrical charge moving across a standard copper network cable
Monitor mode:
Monitor mode: It allows to scan across channels to see all wireless traffic being sent by APs and clients
Motherboard:
Motherboard: The body or circulatory system of the computer that connects all the pieces together
Mounting:
Mounting: Making a file or hard disk accessible to the computer
Multicast
Multicast: A way of addressing groups of hosts all at once
Multicast frame:
Multicast frame: If the least significant bit in the first octet of a destination address is set to one, it means you’re dealing with a multicast frame. A multicast frame is similarly set to all devices on the local network signal, and it will be accepted or discarded by each device depending on criteria aside from their own hardware MAC address
Multifactor authentication (MFA):
Multifactor authentication (MFA): A system where users are authenticated by presenting multiple pieces of information or objects
Multilingual user interface:
Multilingual user interface: Interface that offers and support different languages
Multiplexing:
Multiplexing: It means that nodes on the network have the ability to direct traffic toward many different receiving services
MX record:
MX record: It stands for mail exchange and this resource record is used in order to deliver email to the correct server
Name resolution:
Name resolution: This process of using DNS to turn a domain name into an IP address
NAS device:
NAS device: A network attached storage device that has hard drives to automatically create backups and store data
Network:
Network: The interconnection of computers
Network Address Translation (NAT):
Network Address Translation (NAT): A mitigation tool that lets organizations use one public IP address and many private IP addresses within the network
Network Address Translation (NAT):
Network Address Translation (NAT): A mitigation tool that lets organizations use one public IP address and many private IP addresses within the network
Network file system:
Network file system: A protocol that enables files to be shared over a network
Network hardening:
Network hardening: Is the process of securing a network by reducing its potential vulnerabilities through configuration changes, and taking specific steps
Networking:
Networking: Managing, building and designing networks
Networking protocols:
Networking protocols: A set of rules for how we transfer data in a network
Network layer:
Network layer: It’s the layer that allows different networks to communicate with each other through devices known as routers. It is responsible for getting data delivered across a collection of networks
Network port:
Network port: The physical connector to be able to connect a device to the network. This may be attached directly to a device on a computer network, or could also be located on a wall or on a patch panel
Network separation (network segmentation):
Network separation (network segmentation): A good security principle for an IT support specialists to implement. It permits more flexible management of the network, and provides some security benefits. This is the concept of using VLANs to create virtual networks for different device classes or types
Network software hardening
Network software hardening: Includes things like firewalls, proxies, and VPNs
Network stack:
Network stack: A set of hardware or software that provides the infrastructure for a computer
Network switch:
Network switch: It is a level 2 or data link device that can connect to many devices so they can communicate. It can inspect the contents of the Ethernet protocol data being sent around the network, determine which system the data is intended for and then only send that data to that one system
Network time protocol (NTP):
Network time protocol (NTP): A network protocol used to synchronize the time between the authenticator token and the authentication server
Next header field:
Next header field: Defines what kind of header is immediately after this current one
Next hop:
Next hop: The IP address of the next router that should receive data intended for the destination networking question or this could just state the network is directly connected and that there aren’t any additional hops needed. Defined as part of the routing table
NIST:
NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Node:
Node: Any device connected to a network. On most networks, each node will typically act as a server or a client
Non-metered connection:
Non-metered connection: A connection where your data usage is not tracked or limited, instead you are charged a flat fee for unlimited and unrestricted usage. A Wi-Fi connection is an example of a non-metered connection
Non-routable address space:
Non-routable address space: They are ranges of IPs set aside for use by anyone that cannot be routed to
Normalization:
Normalization: It’s the process of taking log data in different formats and converting it into a standardized format that’s consistent with a defined log structure
Northbridge:
Northbridge: interconnects stuff like RAM and video cards
NS record:
NS record: It indicates other name servers that may also be responsible for a particular zone
NTP:
NTP: Network Time Protocol, keeping clocks synchronized on machines connected to a network
NTP servers
NTP servers: Used to keep all computers on a network synchronized in time
NVMe (NVM Express):
NVMe (NVM Express): interface standard which allows greater throughput of data and increased efficiency
OAuth:
OAuth: An open standard that allows users to grant third-party websites and applications access to their information without sharing account credentials
Octet:
Octet: Any number that can be represented by 8 bits
One-time password (OTP):
One-time password (OTP): A short-lived token, typically a number that’s entered along with a username and password
One-time password (OTP) tokens
One-time password (OTP) tokens: Another very common method for handling multifactor
One-way cryptographic hash:
One-way cryptographic hash: The method used by AD to store passwords
OpenID:
OpenID: An open standard that allows participating sites known as Relying Parties to allow authentication of users utilizing a third party authentication service
OpenLDAP (lightweight directory access protocol):
OpenLDAP (lightweight directory access protocol): An open source and free directory service
Open source:
Open source: This means the developers will let other developers share, modify, and distribute their software for free
Open SSH:
Open SSH: The most popular program to use SSH within Linux
Operating system:
Operating system: The whole package that manages our computers resources and lets us interact with it
Optical Network Terminator:
Optical Network Terminator: Converts data from protocols the fiber network can understand to those that are more traditional twisted pair copper networks can understand
Options field:
Options field: It is sometimes used for more complicated flow control protocols
Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI):
Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI): The first three octets of a MAC address
Organizational units (OU):
Organizational units (OU): A hierarchical model of objects and containers that can contain objects or more organizational units
Organizational units (OUs):
Organizational units (OUs): Folders that let us group related objects into units like people or groups to distinguish between individual user accounts and groups that accounts can belong to
OSI model:
OSI model: A model used to define how network devices communicate. This model has seven layers that stack on top of each other: Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, and Application
OTA update:
OTA update: A type of update that is installed by the mobile device itself
Overclocking:
Overclocking: it increases the rate of your CPU clock cycles in order to perform more tasks
Packaged archives:
Packaged archives: The core or source software files that are compressed into one file
Packaged managers:
Packaged managers: An application that makes package installation and removal easier
Packet sniffing (packet capture):
Packet sniffing (packet capture): the process of intercepting network packets in their entirety for analysis
Padding field:
Padding field: A series of zeros used to ensure the header is the correct total size
Pairing:
Pairing: When a wireless peripheral connects to a mobile device, and the two devices exchange information, sometimes including a PIN or password, so that they can remember each other
Pairwise Transient Key (PTK):
Pairwise Transient Key (PTK): It is generated using the PMK, AP nonce, Client nonce, AP MAC address, and Client MAC address
Parameter:
Parameter: A value that is associated with a command
Parent directory & child directories:
Parent directory & child directories: A parent directory is a directory that houses all subsequent child directories
Parent group:
Parent group: Groups that are principal groups and contain other groups
Partition:
Partition: A logical division of a hard disk that is treated as a separate unit by operating systems and file systems
Partition table:
Partition table: How the disk is partitioned on an OS
Password attacks:
Password attacks: Utilize software like password crackers that try and guess your password
Password salt:
Password salt: Additional randomized data that’s added into the hashing function to generate the hash that’s unique to the password and salt combination
Patch panel:
Patch panel: A device containing many physical network ports
Paths:
Paths: A main directory that branches off and holds other directories and files
Payload:
Payload: The actual data being transported, which is everything that isn’t a header
Payload length field:
Payload length field: 16-bit field that defines how long the data payload section of the datagram is
PBKDF2 (Password Based Key Derivation Function 2):
PBKDF2 (Password Based Key Derivation Function 2): Password Based Key Derivation Function 2
PC:
PC: Personal computer, which technically means a computer that one person uses
PCI DSS:
PCI DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
PCI Express:
PCI Express: Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
PDA (Personal Digital Assistant):
PDA (Personal Digital Assistant): Allows computing to go mobile
Penetration testing:
Penetration testing: The practice of attempting to break into a system or network to verify the systems in place
Peripherals:
Peripherals: the external devices which we connect to our computer that add functionality, like: a mouse, a keyboard, and a monitor
Permission denied:
Permission denied: An error message you might find when accessing a protected file
Personal package archives:
Personal package archives: A software repository for uploading source packages to be built and published
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption:
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption: An encryption application that allows authentication of data along with privacy from third parties relying upon asymmetric encryption to achieve this
Phishing attack:
Phishing attack: It usually occurs when a malicious email is sent to a victim disguised as something legitimate
PHPLDAPadmin:
PHPLDAPadmin: A tool to manage OpenLDAP
Physical layer:
Physical layer: It represents the physical devices that interconnect computers
Physical tokens:
Physical tokens: They take a few different forms, such as a USB device with a secret token on it, a standalone device which generates a token, or even a simple key used with a traditional lock
PIN authentication method:
PIN authentication method: It uses PINs that are eight-digits long, but the last digit is a checksum that’s computed from the first seven digits
Ping flood:
Ping flood: It sends tons of ping packets to a system. If a computer can’t keep up with this, then it’s prone to being overwhelmed and taken down
Pin Grid Array (PGA):
Pin Grid Array (PGA): CPU socket where the pins are located on the processor itself
PKI system:
PKI system: A system that defines the creation, storage and distribution of digital certificates
Platform as a service:
Platform as a service: A subset of cloud computing where a platform is provided for customers to run their services
Platform key:
Platform key: It’s the public key corresponding to the private key used to sign the boot files
Platform services:
Platform services: A platform for developers to completely build and deploy software applications, without having to deal with OS maintenance, server hardware, networking or other services that are needed to use the platform tools
Plink (PuTTY Link):
Plink (PuTTY Link): A tool built into the command line after PuTTY is installed that is used to make remote SSH connections
Pointer resource record:
Pointer resource record: It resolves an IP to a name
Point-To-Point VPN:
Point-To-Point VPN: Establishes a VPN tunnel between two sites but VPN tunneling logic is handled by network devices at either side, so that users don’t all have to establish their own connections
Policies:
Policies: Settings that are reapplied every few minutes, and aren?t meant to be changed even by the local administrators
Port:
Port: It is a 16-bit number that’s used to direct traffic to specific services running on a networked computer
Portable Executable (PE) format:
Portable Executable (PE) format: Windows unique version of .exe
Port forwarding:
Port forwarding: A technique where specific destination ports can be configured to always be delivered to specific nodes
Port mirroring:
Port mirroring: Allows the switch to take all packets from a specified port, port range, or the entire VLAN and mirror the packets to a specified switch port
Port preservation
Port preservation: A technique where the source port chosen by a client, is the same port used by the router
Ports:
Ports: Connection points that we can connect devices to that extend the functionality of our computer
POST (Power On Self Test):
POST (Power On Self Test): It figures out what hardware is on the computer
Post-fail analysis:
Post-fail analysis: Investigating how a compromise happened after the breach is detected
Post mortem:
Post mortem: A way for you to document any problems you discovered along the when recovering data, and the ways you fixed them so you can make sure they don’t happen again
Powershell:
Powershell: A shell (program that interprets text commands) for Windows
Power supply:
Power supply: Converts electricity from our wall outlet onto a format that our computer can use
Power user:
Power user: Above average computer users
Preamble:
Preamble: The first part of an Ethernet frame, it is 8 bytes or 64 bits long and can itself be split into two sections
Precedence:
Precedence: When computers are processing the Group Policy Objects that apply to them, all of these policies will be applied in a specific order based on a set of precedents rules
Presentation layer:
Presentation layer: It is responsible for making sure that the unencapsulated application layer data is actually able to be understood by the application in question
Pre-shared key:
Pre-shared key: It’s the Wi-Fi password you share with people when they come over and want to use your wireless network
Preventative measures:
Preventative measures: Any procedures or systems in place that will proactively minimize the impact of a disaster
Primary account:
Primary account: The initial account you made during setup
Principle of least privilege:
Principle of least privilege: Helps to ensure that sensitive data is only accessed by people who are authorized to access it
Privacy policies:
Privacy policies: Oversees the access and use of sensitive data
Private cloud:
Private cloud: When a company owns the services and the rest of the cloud infrastructure, whether on-site or in a remote data center
Processes:
Processes: Help the computer run programs
Process Explorer:
Process Explorer: A utility Microsoft created to let IT support specialists and system administrators look at running processes
Process ID:
Process ID: Unique identifier for processes on your computer
Process management:
Process management: The capacity to manage the many programs in a system - when to run them, the order they run in, how many resources they take up, how long they run, et cetera
Process monitoring:
Process monitoring: A way of monitoring what processes are happening during installation
Process scheduler:
Process scheduler: The part of the kernel that makes multitasking possible
Procurement:
Procurement: Hardware is purchased or reused for an employee
Production:
Production: The parts of the infrastructure where certain services are executed and serve to its users production
Programming:
Programming: Coding in a programming language
Programming language:
Programming language: Special languages that software developers use to write instructions for computers to execute
Programs: ,
Programs: Basic instructions that tell the computer what to do, The applications that we can run
Promiscuous mode:
Promiscuous mode: A type of computer networking operational mode in which all network data packets can be accessed and viewed by all network adapters operating in this mode
Prompt:
Prompt: A prompt shows you which directory you?re currently in
Protocol:
Protocol: A defined set of standards that computers must follow in order to communicate properly is called a protocol
Protocol field:
Protocol field: A protocol field is an 8-bit field that contains data about what transport layer protocol is being used
Proxy:
Proxy: Can be useful to protect client devices and their traffic. They also provide secure remote access without using a VPN
Proxy server:
Proxy server: An intermediary between a company’s network and the Internet, receiving network traffic and relaying that information to the company network
Proxy service
Proxy service: A server that acts on behalf of a client in order to access another service
Pseudo-random:
Pseudo-random: Something that isn’t truly random
PSH flag:
PSH flag: One of the TCP control flags. PSH is short for push. This flag means that the transmitting device wants the receiving device to push currently- buffered data to the application on the receiving end as soon as possible
Public cloud:
Public cloud: The cloud services provided by a third party
Public cloud:
Public cloud: The cloud services provided by a third party
Public DNS servers
Public DNS servers: Name servers specifically set up so that anyone can use them for free
Public key authentication:
Public key authentication: A key pair is generated by the user who wants to authenticate
Public key signatures:
Public key signatures: Digital signature generated by composing the message and combining it with the private key
Punch cards:
Punch cards: A sequence of cards with holes in them to automatically perform calculations instead of manually entering them by hand
Quad A (AAAA) record:
Quad A (AAAA) record: It is very similar to an A record except that it returns in IPv6 address instead of an IPv4 address
Qwiklabs:
Qwiklabs: An online platform which provides training in cloud services
RA (Registration Authority):
RA (Registration Authority): It is responsible for verifying the identities of any entities requesting certificates to be signed and stored with the CA
RAID (redundant array of independent disks):
RAID (redundant array of independent disks): A method of taking multiple physical disks and combining them into one large virtual disk
Rainbow table attacks:
Rainbow table attacks: To trade computational power for disk space by pre-computing the hashes and storing them in a table
Rainbow tables:
Rainbow tables: A pre-computed table of all possible password values and their corresponding hashes
RAM:
RAM: Random Access Memory
Random numbers:
Random numbers: A very important concept in encryption because it avoids some kind of pattern that an adversary can discover through close observation and analysis of encrypted messages over time
Ransomware:
Ransomware: A type of attack that holds your data or system hostage until you pay some sort of ransom
RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4):
RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4): Asymmetric stream cipher that gained widespread adoption because of its simplicity and speed