CPM Dictionary: B
Backdoor: Hidden software or hardware mechanism
that can be triggered to bypass system protection mechanisms; often provides
high, or even full, access to the system either without an account or from a
normally restricted account; typically activated in an innocent-appearing manner,
such as a key sequence at a terminal. Backdoors are often left in fully developed
systems either by design or accident; also called trap door.
Background Task: Task executed by a system that generally remains invisible
to users. Most processes in advanced or multi-user systems operate in the background.
Some malware is executed by a system in the background so users are unaware
unwanted actions are occurring.
Backlog: The effect on the business of a build-up of work that occurs as the
result of a system or process being unavailable for an unacceptable period.
A situation whereby a backlog of work requires more time to action than is available
through normal work processes.
Backup: A process by which data, whether electronic or hard-copy, is copied
or duplicated to be available and used if the original data from which it originated
is lost, destroyed or corrupted; also the process of creating duplicate data.
Backups are not considered secure unless they are stored a distance away from
the original.
Backup Generator: An independent source of power, usually fueled by diesel or
natural gas
Backup Plan: Procedure for maintaining backups of system and user data. See
also Contingency Plan, Differential Backup, Full Backup, Incremental Backup
Backup Regime: A group of settings that determines which computer to include
in a backup task, as well as other details such as scheduling
Bacterial Agent: A live pathogenic organism that can cause disease, illness,
or death
Bacterium: Specialized form of virus that does not attach to a specific file
Bait: In virus detection, a file that is deliberately exposed for the purpose
of being infected; usually used in reference to a file, this refers to a virus
infection target of initially known characteristics. In order to trap file infectors
that insist on larger files, a string of null characters of arbitrary length
is often used.
Bandwidth: Commonly used to mean the capacity of a communication channel to
pass data through the channel in a given amount of time; usually expressed in
bits per second
Banner: Information displayed to a remote user trying to connect to a service;
may include version information, system information, or a warning about authorized
use
Banner Grab: This readable string is sent to a client immediately following
connection to a server; identifies the operating systems and server types
Base: The location at an incident at which primary logistics functions for an
incident are coordinated and administered. There is only one base per incident.
The Incident Command Post may be collocated with the base.
Base Camp: Designated location under local or State control within a disaster
area that is equipped and staffed to provide sleeping facilities, food, water,
and sanitary services for response personnel
Baseline Risk: Risk that exists before safeguards are considered
Basic Authentication: Simplest web-based authentication scheme; works by sending
username and password with each request
Bastion Host: Host that has been hardened in anticipation of vulnerabilities
that have not yet been discovered; often components of firewalls; may be web
servers or public access systems connected to an untrusted or public network.
A honeypot is often a bastion host with additional audit and alerting functions.
Battle Box: A container, often literally a box or brief case, where data and
information (e.g., BCP, emergency plan) is stored so it is immediately available
to those responding to an incident.
Becquerel (Bq): A unit of nuclear activity. For example, 1 Bq represents the
amount of radioactive substance that disintegrates in one second. This unit
replaces the curie.
Behavior Blocker: See also Operation Restrictor
Behavior Monitor: See also Activity Monitor
Behavioral Epidemic: An epidemic attributable to the power of suggestion or
to culturally determined behavioral patterns, as opposed to invading microorganisms
or physical agents. The process depends not only on person-to-person transmission
of the behavior but also on group reinforcement, as with drug use. See also
Epidemic
Bell-La Padula Model: A formal state transition model of computer security policy
that describes a set of access control rules. In this formal model, the entities
in a computer system are divided into abstract sets of subjects and objects.
The notion of a secure state is defined, and it is proven that each state transition
preserves security by moving from secure state to secure state, thereby inductively
proving that the system is secure.
Benefit: Effectiveness of a safeguard in terms of vulnerability measure. If
the safeguard is applied by itself, it lowers the danger that the vulnerability
poses by the amount specified.
Benign: Describes a virus that appears not to be intentionally malicious in
that it does not carry an obviously damaging "payload" code section
Benign Environment: Non-hostile environment that may be protected from external
hostile elements by physical, personnel, and procedural security countermeasures
Beta Virus Definitions: These are most valuable during a high-level virus outbreak
when users are unable to wait for virus definitions to undergo full quality
assurance testing.
Between-the-Lines Entry: Unauthorized access obtained by tapping the temporarily
inactive terminal of a legitimate user. See also Hijacking, Piggyback
Beyond A1: Trust level defined by the DoD Trusted Computer System Evaluation
Criteria (TCSEC) that is beyond the technology available at the time the criteria
were developed; includes all A1-level features plus additional ones not required
at the A1 level.
Bimodal Virus: See also Multipartite
BIND: Berkeley Internet Name Domain, an implementation of DNS, which is used
for domain name to IP address resolution
Bioassay: Quantitative evaluation of the potency of a substance by assessing
its effects on tissues, cells, live experimental animals, or humans. See also
Assay
Biological Contamination: Presence of an infectious agent on a body surface
or environmental surface. See also Contamination
Biological Warfare: Intentional use of viruses, bacteria, other microorganisms,
or toxins derived from living organisms to cause death or disease in humans,
animals, or plants (US Army). See also Biological Warfare Agent
Biological Warfare Agent: Pathogen (microorganism capable of causing disease)
or toxin derived from a living organism that is deliberately used to produce
disease or death in humans, animals, or plants. See also Biological Warfare;
Bioterrorism
Biological Warfare Agent Classifications: 1) Effects (e.g., lethal agents produce
death in all or most victims, or incapacitating agents, which produce severe
disease, but not death); 2) taxonomy; 3) mode of delivery (aerosol, food- or
waterborne, vector borne, or injection); or 4) clinical syndrome produced (such
as pneumonia agents and systemic disease agents)
Biological Warfare Agent Identification Methods: Isolation of etiologic agent
by culture; detection of agents by enzyme immunoassay, mass spectometry, animal
inoculation, or other methods; antibody detection (specific immunoglobulin [IgM]
may appear within three days); genome detection by PCR; detection of metabolic
products of the infectious or toxic agent in clinical specimens
Biometrics: Security authentication technology that uses human physical characteristics
to grant access; based on patterns unique to an individual's body, e.g., fingerprints,
voiceprint, retinal patterns, and other physical measures
BIOS: Basic Input/Output System, firmware programming used to launch the boot
process in most PCs. Since boot sector infectors run before the operating systems
starts, and require only the BIOS programming, they are sometimes called BIOS
viruses, although the term can create confusion and should be avoided.
Bioterrorism: 1) The unlawful release of biologic agents or toxins with the
intent to intimidate or coerce a government or civilian population to further
political or social objectives. Humans, animals, and plants are often targets;
2) use of microorganisms or toxins to kill or sicken people, animals or plants.
The main difference between biological terrorism and conventional terrorism
(i.e. bombs, hijackings, etc.) is the duration from the time of attack to the
presentation of victims of the attack. See also Terrorism
Bit: The smallest unit of information storage; a contraction of the term "binary
digit;" one of two symbols – "0" (zero) and "1"
(one) – that are used to represent binary numbers.
Bits per Second (bps): A measure of the speed at which a device, such as a modem,
can transfer bits of data.
Black Hat: Communities or individuals who either attempt to break into computer
systems without prior authorization, or who explore security primarily from
an attack perspective. See also White Hat
Blank: To clear or not show an image on a computer screen
Blended Threat: Blended threats combine the characteristics of viruses, worms,
Trojan Horses, and malicious code with server and Internet vulnerabilities to
initiate, transmit, and spread an attack. By using multiple methods and techniques,
blended threats can rapidly spread and cause widespread damage.
Block Cipher: Crypto-algorithm that encrypts data in discrete blocks of a given
size, rather than as a continuous stream of bits. See also Stream Cipher
Blue Light Services: Refers to the civil services of police, fire, ambulance,
and emergency medical technicians. See also Emergency Services, Statutory Services.
Boise Interagency Fire Center (BIFC): The BIFC is under the control of both
the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior; coordinates
operations in forest and grassland fire emergencies occurring within CONUS (Continental
United States)
Boot: To start (a cold boot) or reset (warm boot) a computer
Boot Package: A file, bootable disk, or other suitable medium required to start
a computer
Boot Record: The program recorded in the first physical or logical sector mounted
on the disk drive, and containing programming to be used to help get the computer
to a usable state; includes two boot records: the master boot record (dealing
with disk and hardware structure), and the system boot record (containing pointers
to operating system files). See also Boot Sector.
Boot Record Infector: Malware that inserts malicious code into the boot sector
of a disk
Boot Sector: Initial sector, or sectors, on any disk, usually containing programming
necessary for the boot process When dealing with security, it is best to refer
specifically to the master boot record or system boot record.
Boot Sector Infector (BSI): A virus that places its starting code in the boot
sector, thus being run before any programming, including the operating system;
takes control of interrupts and machine functions, and may be able to subvert
some protection and detection measures, and is also considered to be a virus
of the base computer hardware, rather than the operating system. See also Boot
Sector Virus
Boot Sector Virus: See also Boot Sector Infector
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP): System routing protocol used to exchange routing
information for the Internet and the protocol used between Internet service
providers (ISP)
Brain: Early virus written for MS-DOS which became widespread among normal computer
users, an example of a "strict" boot sector infector and the earliest
known use of stealth virus programming
Branch: SEMS Field Level that has functional or geographic responsibility for
major parts of incident operations; positioned organizationally between Section
and Division/Group in the Operations Section, and between Section and Units
in the Logistics Section
Branch Director: ICS title for individuals responsible for supervision of a
Branch at the Field Level; in SEMS environments, the title Branch Coordinator
is preferred Bridge: Product that connects a local area network (LAN) to another
local area network using the same protocol (for example, Ethernet or token ring)
British Standard 7799: Code of practice and guidance on how to secure information
systems; includes management framework, objectives, and control requirements;
corresponding international standard is ISO 17799
Broadcast: Simultaneously send the same message to multiple recipients
Broadcast Address: Address used to broadcast a datagram to all hosts on a given
network using UDP or ICMP protocol
Broadcast Alert Action: Alert response in which a message is sent to all computers
logged onto the server that generates the alert
Bronze Control (UK): Civil Emergency Services term for Operational Control.
See also Operational Control, Level 3 Controls
Browser: Client program that can retrieve and display information from servers
on the World Wide Web
Browsing: Searching through storage to locate or acquire information without
necessarily knowing of the existence or format of information being sought
Brush Patrol Unit: Any light, mobile unit, having limited pumping and water
capacity for off-road operations
Brute Force: Cryptanalysis technique or other kind of attack method involving
an exhaustive procedure that tries all possibilities, one-by-one
BS 7799: See also British Standard 7799
BSI: See also Boot Sector Infector
BSV: See also Boot Sector Infector
Buffer Overflow: Occurs when a program or process tries to store more data in
a buffer (temporary data storage area) than it was intended to hold
Buffer Overrun: Program logic error in which input is not checked for length;
results in a situation where program can be forced to execute arbitrary code
or switch operation control to an arbitrary location
Bug: An unintentional fault, generally in program logic, which may make a system
fail or behave in unexpected ways, and, in any case, causes actions that neither
the programmer nor the user planned
Building Denial: See Denial of Access
Business Activity: Group of activities/processes undertaken by a business or
government agency to produce a product and/or service and/or in pursuit of a
common goal
Business Continuity Institute (BCI): International organization of professional
business continuity managers; also provides professional certification. www.thebci.org
Business Continuity Management (BCM): A holistic management process that identifies
potential impacts that threaten a business or government agency and provides
a framework for building resilience with the capability for an effective response
that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and
value creating activities.
Business Continuity Management Activity: Action, process or series of activities
organized into a BCM process
Business Continuity Management Coordinator: Person assigned overall responsibility
for coordinating an organization(s)/business unit(s) BCM program. See also: Business Recovery Planner, Disaster Recovery Planner, Business Recovery Coordinator,
and Disaster Recovery Administrator
Business Continuity Management Life Cycle: Complete set of activities and processes
divided into various stages that are necessary to develop, manage and measure
business continuity
Business Continuity Management Maturity: The level and degree to which BCM activities
have become standardized and confirmed business practices within an organization.
See also Maturity
Business Continuity Management Plan: Clearly defined and documented plan for
use at the time of a business emergency, event, incident or crisis; covers key
personnel, resources, services and actions required to manage the BCM process.
See also Business Continuity Plan
Business Continuity Management Planning: Advance planning and preparations needed
to identify the impact of potential losses; to formulate and implement viable
recovery strategies; to develop recovery plan(s) which ensure continuity of
business and government services in the event of an emergency or other incident;
and to deliver comprehensive training, plan testing and maintenance. See also
Contingency Planning, Disaster Recovery Planning, Business Recovery Planning
Business Continuity Management Policy: Defines an organization’s aims,
principles and approach to BCM, what and how it will be delivered, key roles
and responsibilities and how BCM will be governed, measured, and reported
Business Continuity Management Process: As defined by the BCI, a six-element
process that includes: 1) understanding your business 2) continuity strategies
3) developing a BCM response 4) establishing a continuity culture 5) exercising,
rehearsal and testing, and 6) the BCM management process. See also Business
Continuity Lifecycle
Business Continuity Management Program: An ongoing management and governance
process supported by senior management and resourced to ensure that the necessary
steps are taken to identify the impact of potential losses, maintain viable
recovery strategies and plans, and ensure continuity of products/services through
exercising, rehearsal, testing, training, maintenance and assurance. See also
Disaster Recovery Program, Business Recovery Program, Contingency Planning
Business Continuity Management Team: Individuals with defined roles and responsibilities
for designing, developing, implementing and measuring a BCM plan. See also Business
Recovery Team
Business Continuity Plan (BCP): Documented step-by-step plan for emergency response,
backup operations, and post-disaster recovery steps that will ensure the availability
of critical resources and facilitate the continuity of operations in an emergency
situation
Business Continuity Planning (BCP): Process of developing advance arrangements
and procedures that enable an organization to respond to an event in such a
manner that critical business functions continue with planned levels of interruption
or essential change. See also Contingency Planning, Disaster Recovery Planning
Business Continuity Program: An ongoing program supported and funded by executive
staff to ensure business continuity requirements are assessed, resources are
allocated and, recovery and continuity strategies and procedures are completed
and tested
Business Continuity Steering Committee: A group of senior-level decision makers,
business owners, technology experts and continuity professionals, tasked with
making strategic business continuity and recovery planning decisions for an
organization
Business Critical Functions: Operational or support activities that are deemed
critical to the continued operations of an organization. See also Mission Critical
Activities
Business Critical Point: Latest possible moment in which the business can afford
to be without a mission critical activity or dependency
Business Function: Business unit within an organization, e.g., a branch/division
Business Impact Analysis (BIA): Process in which all business
functions and the effect that a specific disaster may have upon them is analyzed.
This involves determining the type or scope of difficulty that results from
a potential event identified by a risk analysis. The BIA should quantify, where
possible, the loss impact from both a business interruption (number of days)
and a financial standpoint. See also Risk Analysis
Business Impact Resource Recovery Analysis: Assessment of the minimum level
of assets, e.g. personnel, workstations, technology, telecommunications needed,
over time, following an event, to maintain continuity of the organization’s
mission critical activities at a minimally acceptable level of service/production.
See also Business Impact Analysis
Business Interruption: An event, whether anticipated (e.g., union grievance,
job action) or unanticipated (e.g., blackout, earthquake) which disrupts normal
course of business operations at an organization’s location
Business Interruption Costs: Costs or lost revenue associated with interruption
of normal business operations
Business Interruption Insurance: Insurance coverage for disaster related expenses
that may be incurred until operations are fully recovered after a disaster
Business Recovery: See also Business Continuity Management (BCM)
Business Recovery Coordinator: An individual or group designated to coordinate
or control designated recovery processes and/or testing
Business Recovery Plan: See also BCM Plan, Business Continuity Plan, Disaster
Recovery Plan
Business Recovery Planner: See also BCM Coordinator, Business Recovery Coordinator,
Disaster Recovery Planner, Disaster Recovery Administrator
Business Recovery Planning: See also BCM Planning, Contingency Planning, Disaster
Recovery Planning
Business Recovery Program: See also BCM Program, Disaster Recovery Program,
Disaster Recovery Planning, and Contingency Planning
Business Recovery Team: See also BCM Team
Business Risk: The risk that external factors, such as a fall in demand for
an organization’s products or services, will result in an unexpected loss.
Business risk, if managed well, can also result in a competitive advantage.
Business Recovery Timeline: Chronological sequence of recovery activities, or
critical path, that must be followed to recover and resume an acceptable level
of operations following a business interruption
Business Resumption Planning (BRP): Operational aspect of business continuity
planning; 1) a specific segment of the overall recovery process focusing on
those items between the recovered environment and the actual processing of business
in recovery mode; 2) process of developing advance arrangements and procedures
that help an organization respond to an event that lasts for an unacceptable
period of time. The process typically addresses all activities from the event
to performing its critical business functions after an interruption and may
include steps indicating how to return home. See also Business Continuity Planning,
Disaster Recovery Planning
Business Recovery Team: Individuals responsible for maintaining the business
recovery program, including the procedures for recovery of business functions
and processes. See also Disaster Recovery Team
Business Unit Recovery: Addresses relocation and reactivation of key functions
or departments following a disaster, including personnel, essential records,
equipment supplies, work space, telecommunications, work station technology,
fax, copy machines, mail services, etc. See also Work Group Recovery
Byte: A fundamental unit of computer storage; the smallest addressable unit
in a computer's architecture; holds one character of information and usually
means eight bits
CPM Dictionary
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