Wilson Mar bio photo

Wilson Mar

Hello!

Calendar YouTube Github

LinkedIn

It’s often difficult to know the context of an acronym. So here are all 900+ in one page to cover Business, Finance, Marketing as well as: AI/Quantum IT, Security, Networking, Amazon, Azure, GCP, OMG!

US (English)   Norsk (Norwegian)   Español (Spanish)   Français (French)   Deutsch (German)   Italiano   Português   Estonian   اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ (Egypt Arabic)   Napali   中文 (简体) Chinese (Simplified)   日本語 Japanese   한국어 Korean

Overview

NOTE: Content here are my personal opinions, and not intended to represent any employer (past or present). “PROTIP:” here highlight information I haven’t seen elsewhere on the internet because it is hard-won, little-know but significant facts based on my personal research and experience.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


#

  • 2FA = Two-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • 2SA = Two-Step Authentication
  • 3DES = Triple Digital Encryption Standard
  • 5IR = Fifth Industrial Revolution

A

  • a11y = accessibility (numeronym of 11 letters between a and y)
  • AAC = Azure Architecture Center (Microsoft)
  • AAI = Autonomous Agent Interface (operating system instead of CLI or GUI)
  • ABAC = Attribute-Based Access Control
  • ABI = Application Binary Interface (on Apple operating systems)
  • AC = Alternating Current (as in electrical wall plugs)
  • ACI = Azure Container Instance (Microsoft)
  • ACL = Access Control List (defines CRUD permissions for an identity)
  • ACM = AWS Certificate Manager (Amazon)
  • ACR = Azure Container Registry (substitute for GitHub within Microsoft Azure cloud)
  • ACS = Azure Communication Service (to send emails)
  • AD = Active Directory (Microsoft’s branding for technologies that control access by users and groups)
  • ADC = Analog to Digital Converter
  • ADC = AWS Direct Connect (Amazon)
  • ADE = Automated Device Enrollment (Microsoft 365 Intune auto configuration of macOS)
  • ADF = Azure Data Factory (part of Microsoft Fabric)
  • ADLS = Azure Data Lake Storage (Microsoft cloud Fabric storage)
  • AEAD = Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (cipher used in TLS)
  • AES = Advanced Encryption Standard (symmetric encryption algorithm)
  • AFAIK = As Far As I Know (internet slang)
  • AFK = Away From Keyboard (gamer slang)
  • AFR = Annual Failure Rate
  • AGI = Artificial General Intelligence
  • AHOD = All Hands On Deck
  • AI = Artificial Intelligence
  • AIB = Azure Image Builder (to run within Azure VMs)
  • AIS = Automated Indicator Sharing (of threats, from cisa.gov)
  • AICPA = Association of International Certified Professional Accountants
  • AISIC = AI Safety Institute Consortium
  • AJAX = Asynchronous Javascript and XML
  • AKA = Also Known As (common vernacular)
  • AKE = Authenticated Key Exchange
  • AKS = Azure Kubernetes Service (Microsoft)
  • AKV = Azure Key Vault
  • ALB = Application Load Balancer (Amazon)
  • ALE = Annualized Loss Expectancy
  • ALEER = Adopt Land Ex pand Extend Renew
  • ALM = Application Lifecycle Management (all that goes into managing building and maintaining software applications)
  • ALZ = Azure Landing Zones (Microsoft)
  • AM = Account Manager
  • AMA = Ask Me Anything (slang)
  • AMA = Azure Marketplace Application (such as HashiCorp Consul Service)
  • AMA = Azure Monitoring Agent (Microsoft)
  • AMBA = Azure Monitor Baseline Alerts (Microsoft)
  • AMI = Amazon Machine Image (Amazon and Azure image containing operating system and apps)
  • AMO = Atomic, Molecular, and Optical physics (Quantum IT)
  • AMQP = Advanced Message Queuing Protocol
  • AMSI = Antimalware Scan Interface (Windows logging mechanism)
  • AMZN = (Amazon corporation stock market symbol and URL shortener host name)
  • AO = Authorizing Official (in RMF)
  • API = Application Programming Interface
  • APJ = Asia + Pacific + Japan
  • APM = Application Performance Monitoring
  • APT = Advanced Persistent Threat
  • ARG = Azure Resource Graph (of Microsoft Container Registry)
  • ARM = Advanced RISC Machine (type of computer chip)
  • ARM = Azure Resource Manager (Microsoft)
  • ARN = Amazon Resource Name (Amazon)
  • ARO = Annual Rate of Occurrence
  • ARP = Address Resolution Protocol (Networking)
  • ARR = Annual Recurring Revenue
  • ASAP = As Soon As Possible (slang)
  • ASB = Azure Security Benchmarks (Microsoft)
  • ASC = Azure Security Center (Microsoft)
  • ASG = Auto Scaling Group (AWS)
  • ASG = Application Security Group (Azure)
  • ASI = Artificial Super-Intelligence (sentient prioritizing of its own needs and desires)
  • ASIC = Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
  • ASIM = Advanced Security Information Model (schemas by Microsoft Sentinel)
  • ASM = AWS Secrets Manager (Amazon)
  • ASN = Autonomous System Number (AWS unique endpoint identifier)
  • ASO = Application Security Orchestration and Correlation (integrated security tools and processes)
  • ASOC = Azure Service Operator
  • ASPM = Application Security Posture Management
  • ASR = Automated System Recovery
  • ATA = Advanced Threat Analytics (Microsoft)
  • ATARC = Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (non-profit collaborative forum on emerging technology challenges like zero trust)
  • ATO = Authority To Operate (FEDRAMP designation for production-ready state)
  • AUP = Acceptable Use Policy (for using company assets)
  • AuthN = Authentication (contraction)
  • AuthZ = Authorization (contraction)
  • AVM = Azure Verified Module (meets standards for good IaC)
  • AWS = Amazon Web Services (cloud services provider)
  • AZ = Availability Zone

B

  • B2B = Business to Business (marketing)
  • B2C = Business to Consumer (marketing)
  • BANT = Budget + Authority + Need + Timeframe (framework for buyer readiness)
  • BAU = Business Administration Unit
  • BAU = Business As Usual (pejorative slang)
  • BBS = BitBucket Server (self-managed edition of BitBucket source version manager from Atlassian)
  • BCDR = Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
  • BCI = Brain Computer Interface
  • BCP = Business Continuity Plan
  • BDM = Business Decision Maker
  • BDR = Business Development Representative
  • BEC = Business Email Compromise (spoofing emails to impersonate managers, vendors, customers, govt)
  • BERT = Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (Google GenAI)
  • BFLA = Broken Function Level Authorization
  • BFP = Bi-Directional Forwarding Detection (networking)
  • BGP = Border Gateway Protocol (networking)
  • BHAG = Big Hairy Audacious Goal
  • BIA = Business Impact Assessment
  • BIOS = Basic Input Output System
  • BKM = Best Known Method
  • BLE = Bluetooth Low Energy
  • BLF = Business Logic Flaw
  • BOD = Board of Directors
  • BOLA = Broken Object Level Authorization
  • BOPLA = Broken Object Property Level Authorization
  • BOM = Bill of Material
  • BPCS = Basic Process Control System (responsible for process control and monitoring of the industrial infrastructure)
  • BPMN = Business Process Model Notation
  • BPT = Business Process Technology (OutSystems workflow engine)
  • BRB = Be Right Back (internet slang)
  • BRM = Business Requirements Management
  • BSI = Business-Sensitive Informatioin (used in TPM)
  • BSM = Basic Security Module (used in TPM)
  • BSON = Binary JSON (used only within MongoDB)
  • BTP = Behavioral Threat Protection
  • BTP = Business Technology Platform (previously SAP Cloud Platform)
  • BTW = By The Way (internet slang)
  • BU = Business Unit
  • BVA = Business Value Assessment
  • BYOD = Bring Your Own Device
  • BYOK = Bring Your Own Key
  • BYOIP = Bring Your Own IP address
  • BYOK = Bring Your Own Key

C

  • C2 = Command and Control
  • C&C = Command and Control
  • C2E = Commercial Cloud Enterprise
  • C2PA = Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (c2pa.org)
  • CA = Certificate Authority (issues cryptographic certificates)
  • CaaS = Container as a Service (such as AWS ECS or Azure AKS or Docker Cloud)
  • CaC = Configuration as Code
  • CAF = Cloud Adoption Framework (multi-cloud)
  • CAGR = Compound Annual Growth Rate
  • CAI = Cloud Asset Inventory (Google)
  • CAIQ = Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire
  • CAM = Corporate Account Manager (role)
  • CARML = Common Azure Resource Modules Library (Open Source project)
  • CAP = Common Alerting Protocol (XEP-127)
  • CAP = Cybersecurity Assessment Plan (FISMA)
  • CAPEX = Capital Expenditures (impacts Asset Balance Statements and can be amortized over time)
  • CAPTCHA = Completely Automated Public Turing (test) to tell Computers and Humans Apart
  • CASB = Cloud Access Security Broker (provides IAM services to mediate cloud service access)
  • CBC = Cipher Block Chaining (used by AES openssl encryption)
  • CBK = Common Body of Knowledge
  • CCB = Change Control Board (organization)
  • CCE = Critical Customer Escalation
  • CCM = Cloud Controls Matrix (from CSA)
  • CCM = Continuous Controls Monitoring
  • CCM = Customer Communications Management
  • CCMP = Cipher block Chaining Message authentication code Protocol (AES-based encryption mode with strong security)
  • CCP = Common Control Provider (per RMF)
  • CCP = Crisis Communication Plan
  • CCS = Complete Corresponding Source (code)
  • CCTV = Closed-circuit TeleVision
  • CD = Continuous Deployment (into Production for Productive use)
  • CDK = Cloud Development Kit (AWS)
  • CDM = Common Data Model (Microsoft Dataverse for their Power apps)
  • CDM = Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation
  • CDN = Content Delivery Network (Amazon)
  • CDPI = Control Data-Plane Interface (between SDN Datapath and Controller)
  • CE = Community Edition
  • CEO = Chief Executive Officer
  • CF = CloudFormation (AWS IaC)
  • CFAA = Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (of 1986)
  • CfCT = Customizations for Control Tower (Amazon)
  • CFS = Completely Fair Scheduler (Kubernetes CPU allocation among cgroups)
  • CFT = Cloud Foundation Toolkit (Google Forseti Config Validator managed by Scorecard CLI utility)
  • CFT = CloudFormation Templates (Amazon)
  • CG = Customer Gateway
  • CI = Continuous Integration
  • CIAN = Customer Identity and Access Management
  • CIDR = Classless Inter-Domain Routing (networking)
  • CIEM = Cloud Infrastructure and Entitlement Management (invented by Gartner)
  • CIM = Common Information Model (Splunk)
  • CIP = Critical Infrastructure Protection (plan)
  • CIRP = Cyber Incident Response Plan
  • CIS = Center for Internet Security
  • CISA = Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (US government organization)
  • CISO = Chief Information Security Officer
  • CKL = Compromised Key List
  • CKMS = Cryptographic Key Management System
  • CLI = Command Line Interface (used to run Linux shell scripts)
  • CLU = Conversational Language Understanding (Azure AI Language)
  • CMDB = Configuration Management Database (ITIL term for where all aspects of the system is defined)
  • CMK = Customer-Managed Key (for encryption)
  • CMP = Cloud Management Platform (for easier use of multiple clouds)
  • CN = Common Name (a human-readable name of the subject in certificates)
  • CNAME = Canonical Name Record (DNS)
  • CNI = Container Network Interface (Kubernetes)
  • CNN = Convolutional Neural Networks (Machine Learning)
  • CNSS = Committee on National Security Systems
  • COGS = Cost of Goods Sold (Financial Accounting)
  • COMINT = Command Intelligence (from intercepted SIGINT)
  • COOP = Continuity of Operations (plan)
  • CORS = Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (used by browsers to allow web apps to access resources from other origins)
  • COSO = Committee of Sponsoring Organization (of the Treadway Commission)
  • COTS = Commercial Off-The-Shelf (Software vs. custom-built)
  • CPA = Certified Public Accountant
  • CPIC = Capital Planning Investment Controls
  • CPS = Customer Profitability Score
  • CPRA = California Privacy Rights Act
  • CPSM = Cloud Security Posture Management
  • CPU = Central Processing Unit
  • CQL = Cassandra Query Language
  • CRA = Cyber Resilience Act (EU security law that requires companies to report breaches and puts liability on software flaws)
  • CRD = Custom Resource Definition (Extends Kubernetes API)
  • CRDTs = Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (resolves concurrent changes in collaborative apps)
  • CRI = Container Runtime Interface (Kubernetes)
  • CRR = Cross-Region Replication
  • CRL = Certificate Revocation List
  • CRM = Customer Relationship Management
  • CRR = Cross-Region Replication (AWS S3 capability)
  • CRR = Cyber Resilience Review (defined by DHS)
  • CRT = Common Release Tooling (built on top of GitHub Actions CI/CD)
  • CRUD = Create Read Update Delete (basic operations)
  • CS = Customer Success (organization)
  • CSA = Cloud Security Alliance
  • CSAF = Common Security Advisory Framework (defined by OASIS)
  • CSB = Cloud Service Broker
  • CSC = Cloud Service Customer
  • CSC = Critical Security Controls
  • CSE = Customer Success Engineer
  • CSF = Cyber Security Framework (NIST ISO 27018)
  • CSI = Container Storage Interface (Kubernetes)
  • CSIRC = Computer Incident Response Center
  • CSIRT = Computer Incident Response Team
  • CSM = Customer Success Manager
  • CSO = Cloud Security Officer
  • CSP = Cloud Service Provider
  • CSP = Content Security Policy (defines which origins browsers are allowed to load resources)
  • CSP = Cryptographic Service Provider
  • CSPM = Cloud Security Posture Management (Azure Defender, Palo Alto Prisma Cloud, Qualys CloudView, Trend Micro Cloud One Conformity)
  • CSQL = Customer Success Qualified Lead (HashiCorp internal term)
  • CSR = Certificate Signing Request
  • CSRF = Cross-Site Request Forgery
  • CTA = Call To Action (marketing)
  • CTAP = Client To Authenticator Protocol
  • CTF = Capture The Flag (in a cybersecurity tournament)
  • CTF = Cyber Threat Framework
  • CTI = Cyber Threat Intelligence
  • CTO = Chief Technology Officer
  • CTS = Consul-Terraform Sync (HashiCorp product)
  • CVD = Color Vision Deficiency (aka Color Blindness)
  • CVE = Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (identified through the US CISA database)
  • CVRF = Common Vulnerability Reporting Framework (defined by OASIS)
  • CVSS = Common Vulnerability Scoring System
  • CWE = Common Weakness Enumerations (known in programming source code)
  • CWPP = Cloud Workload Protection Platform (Microsoft, Palo Alto)

D

  • DaaS = Data as a Service
  • DA = Developer Advocate
  • DAC = Discretionary Access Control (for Security)
  • DAG = Directed Acyclic Graph
  • DAO = Decentralized Autonomous Organization
  • DART = Detection and Response Team (Microsoft)
  • DAX = Data Analysis Expressions (Microsoft formula language)
  • DAX = DynamoDB Accelerator (Amazon)
  • DB = Database
  • DBMS = DataBase Management System
  • DC = Data Center (in the context of Consul - a set of Consul nodes within a region)
  • DC = Domain Controller (Microsoft server that authenticates user identities and authorizes their access to resources)
  • DCAP = Data-Centric Audit Protection
  • DCL = Data Control Language (to GRANT, REVOKE SQL data)
  • DDP = Dual Data Plane (Cisco Digital Twin running CI/CD blue/green patching)
  • DDD = Domain Driven Design
  • DDL = Data Definition Language (to CREATE, ALTER, DROP SQL data)
  • DDoS = Distributed Denial of Service Attack
  • DDPM = Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (Generative AI)
  • DEI = Diversity + Equity + Inclusion
  • DEK = Data Encryption Key (secret generated from Customer Managed keys to protect data)
  • DES = Digital Encryption Standard (56 bits)
  • DEX = Decentralized Exchanges (Blockchain)
  • DFC = Distributed Fragments Cryptography (by AKeyless.io)
  • DFIR = Digital Forensics and Incident Response
  • DGO = Data Governance Organization/Officer (for security)
  • DHCP = Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (automatically assigns IP addresses to devices on a network)
  • DHS = Department of Homeland Security (US government organization)
  • DIR = Detection and Incident Response (security workflow)
  • DKIM = DomainKeys Identified Mail (provides public keys for signing of emails to prevent spoofing)
  • DLP = Data Loss Prevention
  • DMARC = Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (policies about what to do when SPF and DKIM fails)
  • DMCA = Digital Millennium Copyright Act
  • DML = Data Manipulation Language (to INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE SQL data)
  • DMS = Database Migration Service (AWS & Microsoft Azure)
  • DMZ = Demilitarized Zone (networking)
  • DMV = Dynamic management views (Microsoft SQL query lifecycle insights monitoring)
  • DNC = Do Not Connect
  • DNS = Domain Name Service (networking
  • DoD = Definition of Done
  • DOD = Department of Defense (US government organization)
  • DODAF = Department of Defense Architecture Framework
  • DoR = Definition of Ready
  • DPIA = Data Protection Impact Assessment (required by EU GDPR)
  • DPL = Data Protection Officer (job role required by GDPR)
  • DQL = Data Query Language (to SELECT SQL data)
  • DR = Disaster Recovery
  • DRI = Directly Responsible Individual (Coined by Apple for the person to make sure that a task is completed)
  • DRP = Disaster Recovery Plan (to transition from alternative business processes back to regular processes.)
  • DRPO = Defense Research & Development Organization
  • DRY = Don’t Repeat Yourself
  • DRDoS = Distributed Reflection Denial-of-Service
  • DSC = Digital Signature Algorithm (algorithm for signatures)
  • DSC = Desired State Configuration (declarative DevOps)
  • DSL = Domain-Specific Language (used to control Apache Kafka stream processing)
  • DSL = Domain-Specific Language (used to control Apache Kafka stream processing)
  • DSSE = Dead Simple Signing Envelope (signing methods and formats used by Secure Systems Lab)
  • DSSS = Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum
  • DTLS = Datagram Transport Layer Security
  • DUT = Device Under Test
  • DWaaS = Data Warehouse as a Service
  • DWBH = Don’t Worry Be Happy (internet slang)
  • DX = Developer eXperience

E

  • E2E = End-to-End
  • E2EE = End-to-End Encryption
  • EA = Enterprise Architect
  • EAL = Evaluation Assurance Level (1-7 of Common Criteria)
  • EAM = Externalized Authorization Management
  • EAP = Extensible Authentication Protocol (a framework for port-based access control that uses the same three primary components that are used in the RADIUS standard)
  • EAR = Export Administration Regulations (US)
  • EBS = Elastic Block Storage (Amazon)
  • ECDSA = Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (algorithm for signatures)
  • ECU = Electronic Control Unit (Embedded system in autos)
  • EDA = Exploratory Data Analysis (Microsoft MLOps)
  • EDR = Endpoint Detection and Response (security)
  • EDI = Electronic Data Interchange
  • EE = Enterprise Edition
  • EIN = Employer Identification Number
  • EC2 = Elastic Cloud Compute (AWS)
  • ECR = Elastic Container Registry (Amazon service)
  • ECS = Elastic Container Service (Amazon service)
  • ECU = EC2 compute unit (Amazon)
  • EDA = Event Driven Architecture (Serverless)
  • EDM = External Dependency Management (NIST)
  • EDPB = European Data Protection Board (EU GDPR)
  • EDR = Endpoint Detection and Remediation
  • EFA = Elastic Fabric Adapter (AWS)
  • EFF = Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • EFS = Elastic File System (Amazon file storage service for EC2 instances)
  • EFT = Electronic Funds Transfer
  • EiB = Exbibyte (exa binary byte)
  • EIP = Elastic IP
  • ELA = Enterprise License Agreement
  • ELB = Elastic Load Balancer (AWS)
  • EMR = Elastic Map Reduce (AWS)
  • EKM = Extensible Key Management (HashiCorp Vault feature)
  • EKS = Elastic Kubernetes Service (AWS)
  • ELB = Elastic Load Balancer
  • ELT = Extract Load Transform
  • EMCOMM = Emergency Communications
  • EMEA = Europe + Middle East + Africa
  • EMI = Electro-Magnetic Interference
  • EMP = Electro-Magnetic Pulse
  • EMR = Elastic Map Reduce (AWS ETL)
  • EMRFS = EMRFS (on AWS S3 encryption at rest)
  • ENA = Enhanced Networking Adapter (in AWS EC2 AMI instances)
  • ENI = Elastic Network Interface (AWS)
  • EPS = Earnings Per Share
  • ETL = Extract Transform and Load
  • EOF = End of File
  • EOQ = End of Quarter
  • EOM = End of Month
  • EO = Executive Order (from US White House)
  • EOP = Exchange Online Protection (Microsoft)
  • EOY = End of Year
  • EPSS = Exploit Prediction Scoring System (to predict the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited)
  • ERM = Enterprise Risk Management
  • ERP = Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP does this)
  • ETDR = Endpoint Threat Detection and Response (security)
  • ETW = Event Tracing for Windows (Microsoft EventPipe)
  • EU = European Union
  • EV = Extended Validation (certificate)

F

  • FaaS = Functions as a Service
  • FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions
  • FBL = Feedback Loop
  • FCEB = Federal Civilian Executive Branch (US government departments and agencies)
  • FCI = Failover Cluster Instance (Microsoft SQL Server)
  • FDE = Full Disk Encryption
  • FEA = Federal Enterprise Architecture (by OMB)
  • FEDRAMP = Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program
  • FGAC = Fine-grained Access Control (AWS)
  • FHRP = First Hop Redundancy Protocol (for shared IP routing redundancy)
  • FIDO2 = Fast IDentity Online (Spec for web authorization using devices with PKI instead of passwords)
  • FIFO = First In - First Out
  • FIM = Federated Identity Management
  • FIM = File Integrity Monitoring (for Intrusion Detection)
  • FISMA = Federal Information Security Management Act (US government)
  • FM = Foundation Model (LLM for Generative AI)
  • FMCG = Fast-Moving Consumer Goods
  • FN = False Negative (test result that missed catching a bad/malicious sample)
  • FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out
  • FP = False Positive (test result that identified a legitimate sample as bad/malicious)
  • FQDN = Fully-Qualified Domain Name
  • FPS = Flexible Payments Service
  • FRAP = Facilitated Risk Analysis Process (analyze impact of each individual org unit)
  • FTE = Full Time Employee/Equivalent
  • FTK = Forensic ToolKit (drive imager tool from AccessData to preserve evidence)
  • FQDN = Fully Qualified Domain Name
  • FSM = Finite State Machine
  • FYE = Fiscal Year End
  • FYI = For Your Information
  • FUD = Fear Uncertainty and Doubt

G

  • GAPP = Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (developed by accountants)
  • GA = General Availability
  • GAI = Generative Artificial Intelligence
  • GAM = Global Account Manager (job role)
  • GANS = Generative Adversarial Networks (Generative AI)
  • GAR = Geoogle Artifact Registry (in GCP)
  • GB = Gigabytes (173741824 bytes or 1024 megabytes)
  • GCE = Google Compute Engine
  • GCP = Google Cloud Platform
  • GCM = Galois/Counter Mode (mode of operation for symmetric-key cryptographic block ciphers)
  • GDPR = General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679)
  • GEOINT = Geospatial Intelligence (from analysis and visualization of security activities on a map)
  • GG = Good Game (gamer digital handshake to convey sportsmanship)
  • GGML = GPT-Generated Model Language (Early Tensor library designed for machine learning large models at high performance)
  • GGUF = GPT-Generated Unified Format (for sharing LLMs)
  • GHA = GitHub Actions (SVM cloud purchased by Microsoft)
  • GID = Group Identifier (used in Kubernetes)
  • GKE = Google Kubernetes Engine (manages container images within Google cloud)
  • GKS = Google Kubernetes Service (runs container images within Google-managed Kubernetes)
  • GLB = Global Load Balancing
  • GNM = Global Network Manager (HashiCorp product feature)
  • GNU = GNU is Not Unix (a recursive acronym for the set of commands in Linux Bash scripts)
  • GPG = GNU Privacy Guard (software program to handle encryption)
  • GPO = Group Policy Object
  • GPS = Global Positioning System
  • GPT = Generative Pre-trained Transformer (OpenAI GenAI)
  • GPT = GUID Partition Table (used with UEFI)
  • GRC = Governance and Risk and Compliance
  • gRPC = Global Remote Procedure Call (a protocol to connect services)
  • GRS = Geo-Redundant Storage (replication of 3 copies in an Availability Zone in each of two Azure regions)
  • GSI = Global Secondary Index (AWS DynamoDB)
  • GSI = Global System Integrator
  • GTM = Go To Market
  • GUI = Graphical User Interface
  • GUID = Globally Unique Identifier (a code generated to be unique across space and time for use as an object identifier)
  • GW = Gateway
  • GZRS = Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage (replication synchronously to 3 Availability Zones in a primary and 3 copies asynchronously in one Availability within a secondary Azure region accessed only after a failover)

H

  • H2M = Human to Machine (interface)
  • HA = High Availability
  • HADR = High Availability Disaster Recovery
  • HAML = HTML Abstraction Markup Language (a template used in Ruby Rails views to simplify writing HTML)
  • HANA = High-performance ANalytic Application (SAP’s in-memory column-oriented relational DBMS)
  • HBI = High Business Impact (flag for Azure to add encryption and limit diagnostics collection on sensitive data)
  • HC = HashiCorp
  • HCL = HashiCorp Configuration Language
  • HD = High Definition
  • HDFS = Hadoop Distributed File System
  • HEC = HTTP Event Collector (Splunk)
  • HCM = Human Capital Management (system for HR processes)
  • HCP = HashiCorp Cloud Provider
  • HCS = HashiCorp Consul Service (SaaS on Azure)
  • HIDS = Host-Based Intrusion Detection System
  • HIPAA = Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
  • HiPPO = Highest Paid Person‚Äôs Opinions
  • HLS = HTTP Live Streaming (Apple video streaming protocol)
  • HMI = Human-Machine Interface
  • HPA = Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (Kubernetes)
  • HPC = High-Performance Compute
  • HQL = Hibernate Query Language (object-oriented ORM SQL with inheritance polymorphism used by Java)
  • HR = Human Resources
  • HRMS = Human Resource Management System
  • HRU = High-Risk User(s)
  • HSM = Hardware Security Module
  • HSTS = HTTP Strict Transport Security (web security policy that protects HTTPS websites against MITM attacks)
  • HTAP = Hybrid Transaction and Analytics Processing (Microsoft Azure Synapse Link capability)
  • HTML = HyperText Markup Language
  • HTTPS = HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (the protocol that uses port 443)
  • HUMINT = Human Intelligence (from human sources such as interviews or spying)
  • HVA = High-Value Asset
  • HVP = Hybrid Vault Platform (AKeyless Encryption as a Service)
  • HVM = Hardware Virtual Machine
  • HVN = HashiCorp Virtual Network
  • HXM = Human Management (SAP SuccessFactors HRMS suite)

I

  • i18n = Internationalization (numeronym - 18 letters between i and n)
  • IA = Interoperability Agreement (between enterprises)
  • IaaS = Infrastructure as a Service
  • IaC = Infrastructure as Code
  • IAB = Internet Architecture Board (maintains an ethics-related statement concerning the use of the Internet. A technical advisory group of researchers and technical professionals responsible for Internet growth and management strategy and standards oversight.)
  • IAM = Identity and Access Management
  • IAP = Identity-Aware Proxy (Google Cloud)
  • IASAE = Information Assurance Security Architecture and Engineering
  • IAST = Interactive Application Security Testing
  • IBN = Internet-based Networking (for SDN)
  • IC = Integrated Circuit
  • ICFR = Internal Control over Financial Reporting
  • ICMP = Internet Control Message Protocol (used by the Linux ping command)
  • ICS = Industrial Control System (aka Operational Technologies)
  • ICT = Information and Communication Technology
  • ICYMI = In Case You Missed It
  • ID = Identifier
  • IDaaS = Identity as a Service
  • IDE = Integrated Development Environment
  • IDOR = Insecure Direct Object Reference
  • IdP = Identity Provider (such as Okta)
  • IDP = Internal Developer Platform
  • IDS = Intrusion Detection System (A detective control used to detect attacks after they occur. A signature-based IDS (also called definition-based) uses a database of predefined traffic patterns. An anomaly-based IDS (also called behavior-based) starts with a performance baseline of normal behavior and compares network traffic against this baseline. An IDS can be either host-based (HIDS) or network-based (NIDS)
  • IDS = Influencer Dynamics Simulator (predicts how followers react to influencers)
  • IEM = Infrastructure Event Management (AWS service to ensure high traffic can be accommodated)
  • IETF = Internet Engineering Task Force
  • IYDMMA = If you don’t mind me asking (chat slang)
  • IFS = Internal Field Separator (to define character used to split strings in Bash shell scripts)
  • IGA = Identity Governance and Administration
  • IGW = Internet Gateway
  • IIoT = Industrial Internet of Things
  • IKE = Internet Key Exchange
  • ILB = Internal Load Balancer (Microsoft)
  • ILT = Instructor-Led Training
  • IM = Internet Messaging
  • IMINT = Imagery (Photography) Intelligence (from satellite or drone photos)
  • IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
  • IMO = In My Opinion
  • IOA = Indicator of Attack
  • IOC = Indicator of Compromise
  • IOPS = Input Output Per Second (AWS)
  • iOS = (Mobile operating system for Apple iPhone)
  • IOT = Internet of Things
  • IP = Internet Protocol
  • IPAM = IP Address Manager (AWS feature that manages CIDR ranges)
  • IPC = Inter-Process Communication
  • IPE = Information Produced by the Entity
  • IPS = Intrusion Protection System (detect or prevent brute force & other attacks on security)
  • IPsec = Internet Protocol security
  • IPO = Initial Public Offering
  • IR = Integration Runtime (compute infrastructure used by Microsoft’s Azure Data Factory)
  • IR = Incident Response (Security)
  • IRDP = ICMP Router Discovery Protocol
  • IRL = In Real Life (internet slang)
  • IRM = Information Rights Management
  • IRM = Insider Risk management (Microsoft 365 compliance solution)
  • IRT = Incident Response Team
  • ISAC = Information Analysis Sharing Centres (for threat intelligence)
  • ISCP = Information System Contingency Plan
  • ISBN = Intelligent Spend and Business Network (SAP offering)
  • ISD = Internet Service Provider PDW* ISMS = Information Security Management System (ISO 27001)
  • ISO = International Standards Organization
  • ISSO = Information System Security Officer (in RMF)
  • ISP = Internet Service Provider (company providing access to the internet)
  • ISV = Independent Software Vendor
  • IT = Information Technologies
  • ITAR = International Traffic in Arms Regulations (US)
  • ITIL = Information Technology Infrastructure Library
  • ITSM = IT Service Management (implemented of Service Now)
  • ITU = International Telecommunication Union (defined X.509 certificate format)

J

  • J2EE = Java Enterprise Edition
  • JIT = Just-In-Time (access for Zero Trust)
  • JEA = Just-Enough-Access (for Zero Trust)
  • JOSE = Javascript Object Signing and Encryption (standard)
  • JSON = JavaScript Notation (data format)
  • JWT = JSON Web Token (Internet standard for creating data with optional signature and/or optional encryption whose payload holds JSON that asserts some number of claims)

K

  • k8s = Kubernetes (numeronym of 8 letters between k and s)
  • kanban = Japanese word for visual signal (adopted for managing software workflow)
  • KCL = Kinesis Client Library (AWS)
  • KDC = Key Distribution Center
  • KEDA = Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaler
  • KEK = Key Encryption Key (key to encrypt the DEK)
  • KMIP = Key Management Interoperability Protocol
  • KMS = Key Management Service (AWS)
  • KNOB = Key Negotiation of Bluetooth (MITM attack on paired Bluetooth devices’ security mechanisms)
  • KPI = Key Performance Indicator
  • KPL = Kinesis Python Library (AWS)
  • KPU = Kinesis Processing Units (AWS streaming memory and compute)
  • KQL = Kusto Query Language (to access Microsoft Azure Data Explorer)
  • KTLO = Keep/Keeping The Lights On (minimal necessary effort and income)
  • KTS = Kubernetes Threat Detection (Google service)
  • KRI = Key Recovery Information
  • KSAs = Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (Work Roles)
  • KV = Key-Value (data storage format)
  • KYC = Know Your Customer

L

  • l18n = Localization (numeronym of 18 letters between l and n)
  • LAM = Large Action Models (multihop & multimodal data type for agentic/action on LLMs)
  • LAMP = Linux OS + Apache web server + MySQL DB + PHP/Perl/Python (open-source web development technology stack)
  • LAN = Local Area Network
  • LDAP = Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (used by Linux to manage user and group access)
  • LF-TBAC = Lake Formation tag-based access control (AWS)
  • LGPD = Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais (privacy/data protection law in Brazil)
  • LGTM = Looks Good To Me
  • LGTM = Loki + Grafana + Tempo + Mimir (Grafana’s integrated stack for logs, metrics, and traces to be collected and visualized)
  • LI = Lead Implementer
  • LIFO = Last In - Last Out
  • LLC = Limited Liability Company
  • LLM = Large Language Model (such as GPT-x for Generative AI)
  • LLMNR = Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution (Microsoft protocol for name resolution)
  • LMS = Learning Management System
  • LOL = Laughing Out Loud (internet slang)
  • LoRA = Low-Rank Adaptation (reducing the number of trainable parameters and enabling efficient adaptations by decomposing weight matrices into low-rank matrices)
  • LotL = Living off the Land (type of attack)
  • LPU = Language Processing Unit (AI Agent OS component)
  • LRS = Locally-Redundant Storage (within same Azure Availability Zone)
  • LSI = Local Secondary Index (AWS DynamoDB)
  • LTM = Last Twelve Months
  • LUKS = Linux Unified Key Setup (root + boot + swap partition encryption)
  • LUN = Logical Unit Number (within a physical storage device volume manager)
  • LVM = Large Vision Model (such as Stable Difussion for Generative AI)
  • LWE = Learning with errors (cryptographic algorithm)

M

  • m8g = Monitoring (numeronym - 8 letters between m and g)
  • M&A = Mergers and Acquisitions (business)
  • MAC = Media Access Control (address of NIC card)
  • MAC = Message Authentication Code (a tag appended to a message to verify its authenticity)
  • MAP = Minimum Acceptable Product
  • MASINT = Measurement and Signatures Intelligence (of weapons capabilities and industrial activities)
  • MBR = Master Boot Record
  • MCSB = Microsoft Cybersecurity Security Benchmark (best-practice framework using Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Successor of Azure Security Benchmark v3)
  • MCR = Microsoft Container Registry
  • MCRA = Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architectures
  • MDFC = Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • MDT = Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (to install Windows 11 from file shares)
  • MDTI = Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence
  • MDM = Master Data Management (for a single source of truth about critical corporate data)
  • MDM = Mobile Device Management (for security)
  • MDW = Modern Data Warehouse (Microsoft)
  • MDR = Managed Detection and Response (for security)
  • MDX = Multidimensional Expressions (multi-axis formula language for Microsoft SSAS to retrieve OLAP cubes)
  • MEF = Mission Essential Functions
  • MELT = Metrics + Errors + Traces + Logs (for Observability)
  • MFA = Multi-Factor Authentication (security)
  • MGT = Microsoft Graph Toolkit (to read the Outlook calendars and log of actions by each Microsoft user)
  • MIG = Managed Instance Group (for autoscaling within Google Cloud)
  • MIP = Microsoft Information Protection (sensitivity labels)
  • MIT = Most Important Task
  • MitC = Man-in-the-Cloud (performed by abusing cloud file synchronization services such as Google Drive or DropBox for Data compromise, command and control (C&C), data exfiltration, and remote access)
  • MitB = Man-in-the-Browser (attack vector such as Port stealing that exploits the binding between a port and a media access control (MAC) address)
  • MitM = Man-in-the-Middle (an attack in the form of active interception allowing an attacker to intercept traffic and insert malicious code sent to other clients. Kerberos provides mutual authentication and helps prevent MITM attacks)
  • MISP = Malware Information Sharing Platform (open-source threat intelligence platform)
  • ML = Machine Learning
  • MLDR = Machine Learning Detection and Response
  • MLM = Masked Language Model (such as BERT for Natural Language Processing)
  • MLLP = Minimal Lower Layer Protocol (the leading and trailing delimiter HL7v2 healthcare data is transmitted using TCP/IP within VPNs)
  • MNC = Multi-National Corporation
  • MOD = Manager on Duty (incident manager - security and hospitality industry)
  • MPP = Massively Parallel Processing (on databases)
  • MS = Microsoft
  • MSA = Master Service Agreement
  • MSK = Managed Streaming for Kafka (AWS)
  • MSI = Managed Service Identity
  • MTD = Month-To-Date
  • mTLS = Mutual TLS
  • MOR = Minimum Operating Requirements (describes the minimum environmental and connectivity requirements in order to operate computer equipment)
  • MSI = Microsoft Software Installer (file extension for Microsoft Windows installer files)
  • MTD = Maximum Tolerable Downtime
  • MQTT = MQ Telemetry Transport
  • MSAL = Microsoft Authentication Libraries
  • MSK = Managed Streaming for Kafka (AWS using Apache)
  • MSP = Managed Service Provider
  • MSSP = Managed Security Service Provider (A provider of outsourced SOC services)
  • MTA = Mail Transfer Agent
  • MTBF = Mean Time Between Failures
  • MTTA = Mean Time To Acknowledge
  • MTTD = Mean Time To Detect (anomaly)
  • MTTI = Mean Total Time of Impact (to operations)
  • MTTR = Mean Time To Restore/Remediate
  • MTU = Maximum Transmission Unit (networking)
  • MVP = Minimum Viable Product
  • MVP = Most Valuable Professional (Microsoft)
  • MY = Multi-Year
  • MYOB = Mind Your Own Business (internet slang)

N

  • NA = Not Applicable
  • NA = North America (United States)
  • NAC = Network Access Control
  • NAC = Network Admission Control/Controller (Cisco)
  • NAD = Network Access Devices
  • NAS = Network Attach Storage (device)
  • NAT = Network Address Translation (allows devices on a private network to communicate with a public network through a networking gateway)
  • NB = No Problem
  • NDA = Non-Disclosure Agreement
  • NDAA = National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 and 2021
  • NDE = Net Dollar Expansion
  • NDRR = Net Dollar Retention Rate
  • NFR = Non-Functional Requirements
  • NFS = Network File System
  • NFV = Network Function Virtualization
  • NGC = NVIDIA GPU Cloud
  • NGFW = Next-Generation firewall (Originally from Palo Alto - it examines application data to filter traffic at the highest application layer of networks)
  • NIA = Network Interface (HashiCorp product feature)
  • NIACAP = National Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process
  • NIAP = National Information Assurance Partnership (Common Criteria)
  • NIC = Network Interface Card
  • NISQ = Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (device)
  • NIST = National Institute of Standards and Technology (US)
  • NLB = Network Load Balancer (Amazon)
  • NLU = Natural Language Understanding (Alexa & Generative AI)
  • NOC = Network Operations Center
  • NoSQL = (Nonrelational database system such as key-value pair document storage in DynamoDB)
  • NPD = Non-Production (vs PRD for production in keeping with a consistent number of letters)
  • NPS = Net Promoter Score (rating by customers willing to promote to others)
  • NPU = Neuro Processing Unit (powers Microft’s AI laptops)
  • NSA = National Security Agency (conducts SIGINT)
  • NSFW = Not Safe For Work (chat slang)
  • NSG = Network Security Group (Azure)
  • NSP = Next Sentence Prediction (GenAI for BERT Natural Language Processing)
  • NTA = Network Traffic Anomaly
  • NTM = Next Twelve Months
  • NTP = Network Time Protocol
  • NVIDIA = (the corporation which produces GPUs for AI and graphics)

O

  • o11y = Observability (numeronym - 11 letters between o and y)
  • O3DE = Open 3D Engine (open-source 3D game development engine from Amazon. Successor to Amazon Lumberyard)
  • OAC = Origin Access Control (for AWS CloudFront)
  • OAI = OpenAI (Microsoft’s partner in AI ChatGPT)
  • OAI = Origin Access Identity (virtual identity used to require users to access content via AWS CloudFront URl instead of S3 URL)
  • OASIS = Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (defined CSAF and CVRF)
  • OCI = Container Open Initiative (to replace Docker Compose and Docker containers)
  • OCSP = Online Certificate Status Protocol
  • OCM = Organizational Change Management
  • ODNI = Office of the Director of National Intelligence
  • OECD = Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (published trans-border privacy guidelines in 1980)
  • OEL = Oracle Enterprise Linux
  • OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer
  • OEP = Occupant Emergency Plan
  • OFDM = Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (method of digital modulation of data in which a signal, at a chosen frequency, is split into multiple carrier frequencies at right angles to each other)
  • OG = Original Gangster (slang to praise someone as exceptional, authentic, or old-school)
  • OIDC = OpenID Connect
  • OKR = Objectives and Key Results
  • OODA = Objective and Key Results
  • OLA = Observe - Orient - Decide - Act (acrostic for the rapid decision-making strategy used by US fighter pilots during aerial combat)
  • OLAP = OnLine Analytical Processing (A business intelligence approach that allows users to analyze large amounts of data from different points of view)
  • OLTP = OnLine Transaction Processing
  • OMS = Operations Management Suite (Microsoft product for datacenter administration)
  • OOM = Out of Memory
  • OOP = Object Oriented Programming
  • OPA = Open Policy Agent (Policy as Code agent from Styra used in Kubernetes Admission Controller and Terraform)
  • OPEX = Operating Expenditures (impacts Profit and Loss statement for current periods)
  • ORC = Optimized Row Columnar (data format used within Apache Hadoop databases)
  • ORM = Object-Relational Mapping (to simplify interaction between OOP CRUD apps and SQL databases)
  • OS = Operating System
  • OSCAL = Open Security Controls Assessment Language (NIST-defined format for communicating CVEs)
  • OSCP = Online Certificate Status Protocol (used to obtain the revocation status of X.509 digital certificates)
  • OSI = Open Systems Interconnection
  • OSINT = Open Source Intelligence (from social media)
  • OSS = Open Source Software
  • OT = Operational Technology
  • OTCSA = Operational Technology Cyber Security Alliance
  • OTOH = On the Other Hand (chat slang)
  • OTP = One-Time Password (for security)
  • OTR = Off The Record (privacy)
  • OVAL = Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language
  • OU = Organizational Unit
  • OWASP = Open Web Application Security Project

P

  • P2P = Person to Person or Point to Point
  • PaC = Policy as Code
  • PaaS = Platform as a Service
  • PAM = Privileged Access Management
  • PAN = Primary Account Number (PCI DSS)
  • PAP = Permissible Actions Protocol (defines actions to avoid attackers detecting investigation - RED for non-detectable actions, AMBER for passive, GREEN for active, WHITE for no restrictions)
  • PASTA = Process for Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis
  • PAT = Port Address Translation (networking)
  • PAW = Privileged Access Workstation (Microsoft)
  • PAYG = Pay-As-You-Go (such as for cloud services billing)
  • PNAC = Port-Based Network Attack
  • PBC = Provided By Client (SOC term)
  • PC = Personal Computer (refers to a Microsoft Windows machine)
  • PCI = Peripheral Components Interconnect
  • PCI DSS = Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (private regulation by credit card processors to prevent identity theft)
  • PDD = Project Delivery Document (containing IS project scope prerequisites scheduling info etc.)
  • PDF = Portable Document Format (the format created by Adobe to create a universally accessible file containing graphics and text)
  • PDW = Parallel Data Warehouse (Microsoft SQL 2012 Analytics Platform System that became Azure SQL Data Warehouse)
  • PE = Pre-installed Environment (a bootable image of Microsoft Windows used to automate install)
  • PEFT = Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (techniques for updating a small subset of an ML model’s parameters)
  • PEM = Privacy Enhanced Mail (AWS private key certificate encoding file type)
  • PEP = Policy Enforcement Point (filters requests and makes eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) to a Policy Decision Point (PDP)
  • PETM = Parameter-Efficient Tuning Methods (in Generative AI)
  • PF = Privacy Framework
  • PFS = Perfect Forward Secrecy
  • PHD = Personal Health Dashboard
  • PHI = Protected Health Information
  • PHP = (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. A web scripting language used in WordPress)
  • PHS = Password Hash Synchronization (Microsoft Azure AD Connect)
  • PIA = Privacy Impact Assessment
  • PID = Process Identifier
  • PII = Personally Identifiable Information
  • PIM = Privileged Identity Management
  • PIN = Personal Identification Number (a secret consisting of a small number)
  • PIOPS = Provisioned Input Output Operations Per Second
  • PIV = Personal Identity Verification
  • PKE = Public Key Encryption
  • PKI = Public Key Infrastructure (manages cryptographic certificates)
  • PM = Product Management/Manager
  • PLC = Programmable Logic Controller
  • P&L = Profit and Loss
  • PMM = Product Marketing Manager (organizational role)
  • PMO = Program Management Office
  • POA&M = Plan of Action and Milestones
  • PoC = Proof of Concept
  • POLP = Principle of Least Privilege
  • POM = Production Operations Management
  • POR = Process of Record
  • PPG = Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (networking)
  • PPG = Proximity Placement Group (Azure VMs)
  • PPK = Putty Private Key (AWS private key certificate encoding file type for Windows PuTTY SSH client)
  • HNDL = Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (store encrypted data for decrypting later using post-quantum computers)
  • PPTP = Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
  • PQC = Post-Quantum Cryptography (encryption resistant to fast quantum computers)
  • PR = Pull Request (GitHub feature for suggesting code changes and integrating them into the main code base)
  • PRD = Production (vs NPD for non-production in keeping with a consistent number of letters)
  • PS = Professional Services
  • PSE = Professional Services Engineer
  • PSIRT = Product Security Incident Response Team (protects customers of products)
  • PSK = Pre-Shared Key
  • PTA = Pass-Through Authentication (agents in Microsoft Azure AD Connect)
  • PTAL = Please Take A Look
  • PTES = Penetration Testing Execution Standard
  • PUA = Potentially Unwanted Application
  • PV = Persistent Volume (Kubernetes)
  • PV = Paravirtual Virtualization (type of Linux AMI boot loader)
  • PVC = Persistent Volume Claim (Kubernetes)
  • PWA = Progressive Web Application (application intended to work on any platform with a standards-compliant browser, including desktop and mobile devices)
  • PWC = Price Waterhouse Coopers (International Global Integrator Consulting firm)

Q

  • QA = Quality Assurance
  • QBR = Quarterly Business Review
  • QEC = Quantum Error Correction (IT)
  • QIR = Quantum Intermediate Representation (Microsoft)
  • QKD = Quantum Key Distribution (secures communication using a cryptographic protocol involving quantum computing with lasers)
  • QLDB = Quantum Ledger Database (AWS)
  • QML = Quantum Ledger Database (Microsoft)
  • QoQ = Quarter on Quarter
  • QoS = Quality of Service
  • QPU = Query Processing Unit (to bill CPU capacity in Microsoft Azure Analytics Services)
  • QPU = Quantum Processing Unit (Quantum IT)

R

  • RACI = Responsible + Accountable + Consulted + Informed (Responsibility Assignment Matrix)
  • RAD = Rapid Application Development (methodology)
  • RAG = Retrieval Augmented Generation (extension such as PostgreSQL pgvector to add proprietary knowledge to foundation models without retraining)
  • RAID = Redundant Array of Independent Disks
  • RAM = Random Access Memory
  • RAM = Resource Access Manager (AWS)
  • RAN = Radio Access Network
  • RASP = Runtime Application Self-Protection
  • RAT = Remote Access Trojan (malware)
  • RBAC = Role-Based Access Control
  • RBG = Random Bit Generator
  • RBVM = Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
  • RCA = Root Cause Analysis
  • RCS = Rich Communication Services (messaging, voice, video)
  • RCE = Root Code Execution
  • RDD = Resilient Distributed Dataset (native data structure underlying Apache Spark Dataframes used by Pandas)
  • RDF = Resource Description Language (W3C standard for graph databases)
  • RDL = Report Definition Language (XML representation of a paginated report definition from Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services)
  • RDP = Remote Desktop Protocol (Microsoft technology for users to access a Windows computer remotely)
  • RDS = Relational Database Service (AWS cloud SQL service to host databases)
  • REST = Representational State Transfer
  • RFI = Request for Information
  • RFP = Request for Proposal
  • RFQ = Request for Quote
  • RGB = Red Green Blue (colors)
  • RGDD = Reliable Group Data Delivery (SDN)
  • RRA = Rapid Risk Assessment (NIST )
  • RIP = Rest In Peace
  • RISC = Reduced Instruction Set Computing
  • RLAIF = Reinforcement Learning with AI/LLM Feedback (Anthropic’s Constitutional AI)
  • RLHF = Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (to fine-tune ML rates after initial training)
  • RLS = Row-Level Security (in SQL database tables)
  • RMF = Risk Management Framework (from Mozilla)
  • RNG = Random Number Generator
  • RNN = Recurrent Neural Network (in Deep Learning)
  • ROA = Return on Assets
  • ROC = Report on Compliance (issued by DCS PSI auditors)
  • ROE = Return on Equity
  • ROI = Return on Investment
  • ROM = Read-only Memory
  • ROS = Return on Sales
  • ROSA = Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (containers)
  • RoT = Root of Trust
  • RPA = Robotic Process Automation
  • RPC = Remote Procedure Call
  • RPO = Recovery Point Objective
  • RPS = Requests Per Second
  • RRA = Rapid Risk Assessment
  • RRS = Reduced Redundancy Storage (AWS)
  • RSA = Resident System Engineer (role within HashiCorp)
  • RSA = Rivest + Shamir + Adleman (an encryption algorithm and company name based on the initials of its inventors)
  • RSS = Real Simple Syndication (web feed format)
  • RTC = Real Time Clock
  • RTFM = Read The Fine Manual (slang)
  • RTO = Recovery Time Objective
  • RTOS = Real-Time Operating System
  • RTSP = Real-Time Streaming Protocol (AWS Kinesis)
  • RUM = Resources Under Management (HashiCorp Terraform at scale)
  • RUP = Rational Unified Process (phased software development methodology from 2003 using object UML)
  • RaMP = Rapid Modernization Plan (Microsoft Zero Trust)

S

  • S3 = Simple Storage Service (AWS file object service)
  • SaaS = Software as a Service
  • SAIF = Secure AI Framework (Google)
  • SAM = Serverless Application Model (Amazon CLI)
  • SAML = Security Assertion Markup Language (XML-based standard for authentication and authorization)
  • SAN = Storage Area Network
  • SAP = Systems Applications and Product (large German ERP software company)
  • SAP = System Assessment Plan
  • SAQ = Self-Assessment Questionaire (of DSS PCI)
  • SAR = Security Assessment Report
  • SARIF = Static Analysis Results Interchange Format (standard by OASIS for sharing static vulnerability analysis results)
  • SARs = System Assessment Results
  • SAS = Shared Access Signature (secure token URI to Azure accounts and storage resources)
  • SASE = Secure Access Service Edge (Microsoft & Trust Broker SaaS by Palo Alto Prisma zScaler Cato Cloudfare)
  • SAST = Static Application Security Testing
  • SBI = Service-Based Interface
  • SBOM = Software Bill of Materials
  • SCA = Software Composition Analysis (identify vulnerable components in containers)
  • SCADA = Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition
  • SCAP = Security Content Automation Protocol
  • SCC = Security Command Center (Google’s SOC service)
  • SCEP = Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol
  • SCF = Secure Controls Framework (SEC)
  • SCIM = System for Cross-Domain Identity Management (IT security)
  • SCM = Source Control Manager (such as GitHub)
  • SCP = Service Control Policy (in AWS to govern the use of other IAM policies)
  • SCSS = Sidecar Container Security Stack
  • SCT = Schema Conversion Tool (AWS)
  • SDE = Standardized Development Environment
  • SDK = Software Development Kit
  • SDN = Software-Defined Networking (used by AWS - an advancement to BGP used on public networks)
  • SDLC = System Development Life Cycle
  • SDMN = Software-defined Mobile Network (for SDN)
  • SDP = Software Defined Perimeter
  • SEB = Secure Enterprise Browsers
  • SEC = Security and Exchange Commission (regulates US financial markets)
  • SES = Simple Email Service (AWS)
  • SF = Service Fabric (Azure)
  • SG = Security Group
  • SGD = Stochastic Gradient Descent (AI technique to iteratively optimize)
  • SHA = Secure Hash Algorithm (a method to identify whether a file has been altered - also used by GitHub to create an index)
  • SHD = Service Health Dashboard (AWS)
  • SI = Systems Integrator
  • SIA = Storage Infrequent Access (AWS)
  • SIEM = Security Information and Event Management
  • SIG = Special Interest Group
  • SIGINT = Signals Intelligence (of electronic transmissions)
  • SIRP = Security Incident Response Plan (for SOC2)
  • SIRT = Security Incident Response Team (work in a SOC department)
  • SIS = Safety Instrumented System (automated control system that safeguards manufacturing environment in case of any hazardous incident in the industry)
  • SKSKSKSK = (internet slang expressing excitement)
  • SLA = Service Level Agreement
  • SLE = Single Loss Expectancy
  • SLI = Service Level Indicator
  • SLO = Service Level Objective
  • SLR = Service Linked Role (in IAM for Amazon Lightsail)
  • SLSA = Supply chain Levels for Software Artifacts (framework of standards and controls for a secure supply chain to build secure resilient software)
  • SMB = Server Message Block (storage)
  • SMB = Small or Mid-sized Business
  • SME = Subject Matter Expert
  • SMF = Session Management Function
  • SMI = Service Mesh Interface
  • SNMP = Simple Network Management Protocol
  • SMaaS = Service Mesh as a Service
  • SMTP = Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
  • SNI = Server Name Indication (SSL)
  • SNS = Simple Notification Service (to send and receive notifications in AWS)
  • SOA = Service Oriented Architecture
  • SOAP = Simple Object Access Protocol (uses XML)
  • SOAR = Security Orchestration Automation and Response
  • SOW = Statement of Work
  • SOC = Security Operations Center
  • SOC2 = Systems and Organization Controls (AICPA ISO 27701)
  • SOP = Standard Operating Procedure
  • SORN = System of Record Notice
  • SOX = Sarbanes-Oxley Act
  • SOX = Sarbanes-Oxley Act
  • SPA = Single Page Application
  • SPF = Sender Policy Framework (lists IP address of servers allowed to send email for a domain - for email authentication)
  • SPI = Service Provider Interface
  • SPI = Secure Personal Information
  • SPICE = Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine (used in AWS QuickSight)
  • SPIFFE = Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone (spec used by Consul Connect service mesh for establishing service identities)
  • SPOC = Single Point of Contact
  • SPOF = Single Point of Failure
  • SPLK = Splunk’s stock ticker symbol
  • SPN = Service Principal Name (Unique identifier for a service instance within Kerberos)
  • SPSCR = Security, Privacy, and Supply Chain Risks (in RMF)
  • SPAN Port = Port configured to receive a copy of every packet that passes through a switch.
  • SQL = Structured Query Language
  • SQS = Simple Queue Service (AWS hosted queues of messages)
  • SRA = Security Reference Architecture
  • SRE = Site Reliability Engineer (job role)
  • SRUM = System Resource Utilization Monitor (on Windows machines)
  • SSAE = Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements
  • SSAS = SQL Server Analysis Services (from Microsoft)
  • SSD = Solid-State Drive (data storage)
  • SSDT = SQL Server Data Tools (Microsoft SQL Server)
  • SSE = Security Service Edge (Microsoft conditional access mechanisms for Zero Trust)
  • SSE = Server-Side Encryption
  • SSDLC = Secure Software Development Lifecycle
  • SSH = Secure Shell (a Linux feature to enable remote access of computers)
  • SSI = Sensitive Security Information
  • SSIS = SQL Server Integration Services (Microsoft)
  • SSL = Secure Sockets Layer (deprecated by TLS networking protocol)
  • SSML = Speech Synthesis Markup Language
  • SSMS = SQL Server Management Studio (Microsoft app)
  • SSN = Social Security Number (issued by the US government to unique identify an individual for taxes)
  • SSO = Single Sign On (IAM MFA)
  • SSoT = Single Source of Truth
  • SSP = System Security Plan
  • SSPR = Self-Service Password Reset (Security)
  • SSRF = Server Side Request Forgery
  • SSRM = Shared Security Responsibility Model
  • SSRS = SQL Server Reporting Services (Microsoft)
  • STA = State of The Art (most modern)
  • STAR = Security Test Audit Report
  • STIG = ecurity Technical Implementation Guide (from US DoD)
  • STIX = Structured Threat Information eXpression (XML API to share threat models by OASIS)
  • STRIDE = Spoofing of user identity; Tampering; Repudiation; Information disclosure (privacy breach or data leak); Denial of service (DoS); Elevation of privilege
  • STS = Security Token Service (AWS)
  • STS = StatefulSets (Kubernetes)
  • SUT = System Under Test
  • SVID = SPIFFE Verifiable Identity Document (cryptographic file used by a workload to prove its identity to a resource or caller)
  • SWF = Simple Workflow (service from AWS for developers to run tasks in parallel or sequentially)
  • SWG = Secure Web Gateway

T

  • TAM = Technical Account Manager
  • TAM = Total Addressable Market (marketing)
  • TaS = Test as Service
  • TAXII = Trusted Automated eXchange of Intelligence Information (how to share)
  • TB = TerraByte
  • TBD = To Be Decided (common vernacular)
  • TBH = To Be Honest
  • TCC = Trusted Cloud Computing (Microsoft)
  • TCC = Transparency, Consent, and Control (for user data protection within Apple OS)
  • TCO = Total Cost of Ownership
  • TDE = Transparent Data Encryption (HashiCorp Vault feature to substitute encrypted values in databases instead of HSMs)
  • TDIR = Threat Detection and Incident Response (security workflow)
  • TDP = Thermal Design Power (avg. max. power a processor dissipates heat while running)
  • TDM = Technical Decision Maker (vs. Business Decision Maker)
  • TFC = Terraform Cloud (SaaS Terraform offering)
  • TFE = Terraform Enterprise (self-installed/managed Terraform)
  • TIA = Thanks In Advance (chat slang)
  • TIC = Trusted Internet Connection
  • TIN = Tax Identification Number
  • TIP = Threat Intelligence Platform
  • TCSEC = Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria
  • TCO = Total Cost of Ownership
  • TDD = Test-Driven Development
  • TDM = Technical Decision Maker
  • TDS = Tabular Data Stream (network protocol for communication between Microsoft SQL Server and its clients)
  • TFE = Terraform Enterprise
  • TLP = Traffic Light Protocol (defines levels of information sharing with contractors - CLEAR, GREEN, AMBER, RED)
  • TTFN = Ta Ta For Now (chat)
  • TGW = Transit GateWay (in AWS cloud)
  • TH = Threat Hunting
  • TIP = Threat Intelligence Platform
  • TLD = Top Level Domain (the letters after the last dot on URLs processed by DNS)
  • TLS = Transport Layer Security
  • TMI = Too Much Information (common vernacular)
  • TOE = Target of Evaluation (what is being evaluated by the Common Criteria EAL)
  • TOFU = Trust On First Use
  • TOML = Tom’s Obvious Minimal Language (config text file format)
  • TOTP = Time-based One Time Password
  • TPISRM = Third Party Information Security Risk Management
  • TPM = Trusted Platform Module
  • TPRM = Third Party Risk Management
  • TSC = Trust Service Criteria
  • TSI = Trustworthy Software Initiative (UK)
  • TTE = Trusted Execution Environments (Microsoft Azure)
  • TTL = Time To Live
  • TTP = Trusted Third Party
  • TTP = Tactics + Techniques + Procedures (of security attack)
  • TTS = Text To Speech
  • TTV = Time to Value (marketing term)
  • TTX = TableTop eXercise (for security resilience)
  • TVM = Threat and Vulnerability Management (Microsoft)

U

  • U = yoU (chat slang)
  • UAC = User Account Control (on Windows)
  • UAT = User Acceptance Test
  • UCS = User
  • UDF = User-Defined Function
  • UDM = Unified Data Management
  • UDR = User-Defined Routes (used by Azure)
  • UDS = Unified Diagnostic Services (use in vehicles)
  • UEBA = User and Entity Behavior Analytics (detect any anomalous behavior - deviations from normal patterns of usage which have security implications)
  • UEFI = Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (spec. replaces BIOS to boot-up disks larger than 2TB)
  • UEM = Unified Endpoint Management/Manager (Microsoft Intune and Config. Manager)
  • UDP = User Datagram Protocol (networking)
  • UML = Unified Modeling Language
  • UPF = User Plane Function
  • UPN = User Principal Name (Microsoft)
  • URI = Universal Resource Identifier
  • URL = Universal Resource Locator
  • URM = Under-Represented Minority
  • USB = Universal Service Bus
  • UTC = Coordinated Universal Time (the new compromise term for GMT)
  • UTF = Unicode Transformation Format
  • UUID = Universally Unique Identifier (to identify information objects)
  • UVM = Unified Vulnerability Management (Armorcode: aggregate, correlate and prioritize findings from security tools)
  • UX = User eXperience

V

  • v12n = Virtualization (numeronym of 11 letters between v and n)
  • VAR = Value-Added Reseller
  • VAT = Value-Added Tax
  • VBO = Value-Based Outcome
  • VCS = Version Control System
  • VDI = Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (from Citrix)
  • VDP = Vulnerability Disclosure Program
  • VEX = Vulnerability Exploitability Exchange
  • VGW = Virtual Gateway (Amazon AWS)
  • VHD = Virtual Hard Drive (holds Page Blobs in Azure Storage of up to 8TB in size)
  • VIF = Virtual InterFace (networking)
  • VIM = Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (AWS)
  • VIP = Virtual IP (address)
  • VLAN = Virtual Local Area Network
  • VM = Virtual Machine
  • VMSS = Virtual Machine Scale Set (Azure)
  • VMM = Virtual Machine Manager (aka Hypervisor)
  • VNC = Virtual Network Computing
  • VNF = Virtual Network Function
  • VoIP = Voice over Internet Protocol
  • VRRP = Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
  • VRM = Vendor Risk Management
  • VPA = Vertical Pod Autoscaler (Kubernetes)
  • VPC = Virtual Private Cloud (AWS)
  • VPG = Virtual Private Gateway (AWS)
  • VPS = Virtual Private Server (AWS)
  • VPN = Virtual Private Network
  • VSM = Value Stream Mapping
  • VSTS = Visual Studio Team Services (Microsoft)
  • VTL = Virtual Tape Library
  • VUI = Voice User Interface (Amazon Alexa & Google Home)
  • vTPM = Virtual Trusted Platform Module
  • VUCA = Volatile + Uncertain + Complex + Ambiguous

W

  • w/o = without (common vernacular)
  • W3C = World Wide Web Consortium (defines standards for JavaScript, HTML, XML, RDF, OWL, etc.)å
  • WAAP = Web application and API protection (a comprehensive security approach as an enhancement over web application firewalls)
  • WABD = Well Architected By Design
  • WAF = Web Application Firewall (AWS)
  • WAF = Well-Architected Framework
  • WAL = Write-Ahead Log
  • WAN = Wide Area Network
  • Wasm = WebAssembly (binary instruction coding for a stack-based virtual machine in browsers)
  • WBS = Work Breakdown Structure
  • WDYM = What Do You Mean? (chat slang)
  • WEP = Wired Equivalent Privacy (mobile security)
  • WFH = Work From Home
  • WIP = Work In Process
  • WMI = Windows Management Instrumentation (Microsoft)
  • WOT = Web of Trust (security)
  • WPA = Wi-Fi Protected Access
  • WPF = Windows Presentation Foundation (Microsoft)
  • WS = Workspace
  • WSDL = Web Services Description Language
  • WSFC = Windows Server Failover Clustering/Cluster (Microsft)
  • WTF = What The F*ck (internet slang)
  • WVD = Windows Virtual Desktop (Microsoft VDI)

X

  • X.509 = (certificate format used for HTTPS on web servers digitally sign application code secure email and authenticate devices to corporate networks)
  • XaaS = Anything as a Service
  • XKX = External Key Store (Amazon service to store secrets outside of AWS)
  • XDR = Extended Detection and Response (formerly Microsoft Security Center)
  • XML = Extensible Markup Language
  • XMPP = Extensible Message and Presence Protocol
  • XOR = Exclusive-Or (Assembly language instruction and symmetric encryption algorithm)

Y

  • YAML = YAML Ain’t Markup Language (Human-readable data-serialization text format)
  • YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary (chat slang)
  • YOLO = You Only Live Once (slang)
  • YTD = Year-To-Date

Z

  • ZRS = Zone-Redundant Storage (across 3 Azure Availability Zones)
  • ZT = Zero Trust
  • ZTA = Zero Trust Architecture
  • ZTDA = Zero Trust Data Access
  • ZTNA = Zero Trust Network Access/Architecture
  • ZTS = Zero Trust Security

Other Glossaries provide definitions:

  • https://www.acronymfinder.com/
  • https://github.com/mikepound/tls-exercises/blob/master/glossary.pdf
  • https://docs.aws.amazon.com/glossary/latest/reference/glos-chap.html

More about Security

This is one of a series about cyber security:

  1. Security actions for teamwork and SLSA
  2. DevSecOps

  3. Code Signing on macOS
  4. Transport Layer Security

  5. Git Signing
  6. GitHub Data Security
  7. Encrypt all the things

  8. Azure Security-focus Cloud Onramp
  9. Azure Networking

  10. AWS Onboarding
  11. AWS Security (certification exam)
  12. AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management)
  13. AWS Networking

  14. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
  15. Intrusion Detection Systems (Goolge/Palo Alto)
  16. Chaos Engineering

  17. SOC2
  18. FedRAMP
  19. CAIQ (Consensus Assessment Initiative Questionnaire) by cloud vendors

  20. AKeyless cloud vault
  21. Hashicorp Vault
  22. Hashicorp Terraform
  23. OPA (Open Policy Agent)

  24. SonarQube
  25. WebGoat known insecure PHP app and vulnerability scanners
  26. Test for OWASP using ZAP on the Broken Web App

  27. Security certifications
  28. Details about Cyber Security

  29. Quantum Supremecy can break encryption in minutes
  30. Pen Testing
  31. Kali Linux

  32. Threat Modeling
  33. WebGoat (deliberately insecure Java app)