CPM Dictionary: F

Facilities Management: Function that manages all aspects of an organization’s real estate assets and infrastructure

Facilities Unit: Functional unit within Support Branch of the Logistics Section at the SEMS Field Response Level that provides fixed facilities for the incident; may include Incident Base, feeding areas, sleeping areas, and sanitary facilities

Faded Giant: Term used to identify and report a nuclear incident or accident involving a DOD nuclear reactor

Fail Safe: Automatic protection of programs and/or processing systems to maintain safety when a hardware or software failure is detected in a system

Fail Soft: Selective termination of affected nonessential processing when a hardware or software failure is detected in a system

Failure Access: Unauthorized and usually inadvertent access to data resulting from a hardware or software failure in the system

Failure Control: Procedures used to detect and provide fail safe or fail soft recovery from hardware and software failures in a system

Fallback: Alternate site/building that can be use when original site/building is unusable or unavailable

False Acceptance: Error condition where a subject, object, or operation is accepted as valid, when it should have been rejected as invalid, incorrect, or a compromise of the security policy. See also False Rejection, False Negative, and Crossover Error Rate

False Acceptance Rate (FAR): Accuracy measure of a security safeguard, expressed as a proportion or percentage of the number of false acceptance errors against the total number of events. See also Crossover Error Rate

False Alarm: See also False Rejection, False Positive

False Negative: Situation when an antiviral product reports no viral activity or presence, when a virus is actually present; generally known in the security community as a false acceptance, or a Type II error

False Positive: Situation in which an antiviral products reports the activity or presence of a virus when there is actually no virus; generally known in the security community as a false rejection, or a Type I error

False Rejection: Error condition where a subject, object, or operation which should be accepted as valid, is rejected as invalid, incorrect, or a compromise of the security policy; a Type I error. See also False Acceptance, False Positive, and Crossover Error Rate

False Rejection Rate (FRR): Accuracy measurement of a security safeguard, expressed as a proportion or percentage of the number of false rejection, or Type I, errors against the total number of events. See also Crossover Error Rate

False Rejects: Situation when an authentication system fails to recognize a valid user

Famine Early Warning: Process of monitoring conditions in areas known to be particularly vulnerable to effects of droughts, crop failures, or changes in economic conditions, to enable remedial measures to be initiated before hardship becomes acute

Famine Early Warning System: Monitoring system established by the US agency for International Development to examine factors that predict famine, including climate, availability of food, and nutrition related morbidity

Fan Out: For incident response, a system whereby each person notified of an incident is responsible for calling additional personnel, thus speeding the contact process

FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization

Far-Field: Outlying region of a nuclear accident; located from 2 to 20 kilometers outside accident site, depending on strength of radiation source; area closest to nuclear accident is called the near-field

Fast Burner: Virus, usually distributed by email or networks, that spreads globally within hours; examples include Melissa, Loveletter, original Internet Worm and Code Red

Fast File System: Major revision to Unix file system, providing faster read access and faster (delayed, asynchronous) write access through a disk cache and better file system layout on disk; uses inodes (pointers) and data blocks

FAT Virus: See also Cluster Virus

Fatality Rate: Death rate observed in a designated series of persons affected by a simultaneous event, e.g., victims of a disaster. See also Case Fatality Rate

Fault: 1) Condition that causes a device or system component to fail to perform in a required manner; 2) disruption to geological structures that sets the stage for an earthquake

Fault Line Attacks: Security breaches that use weaknesses between interfaces of systems to exploit gaps in coverage

Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. App 2251 et. seq., as amended): Statutory provisions that affect civil defense planning and operations; provide complete text of all Executive Orders (EOs) assigning civil defense functions to Federal Agencies Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO): 1) Individual person appointed by the President to coordinate Federal assistance in a Presidential emergency or major disaster (FEMA definition); 2) initiates immediate action to assure that federal assistance is provided in accordance with the disaster declaration, any applicable laws or regulations, and the FEMA-site agreement; 3) senior Federal official appointed in accordance with the provisions of Public Law 93-288, as amended (the Stafford Act), to coordinate the overall consequence management response and recovery activities; 4) represents the President as provided by Section 303 of the Stafford Act by coordinating administration of federal relief activities in designated disaster area; 5) performs duties for FEMA Director as outlined in Executive Order 12148 and responsibilities delegated to FEMA Regional Director in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 44, Part 205

Federal Disaster Assistance: Aid to disaster victims or State and local governments by Federal agencies under provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Part of the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA is the lead Federal Agency for civil emergency and civil defense preparation, planning, and operations

Federal Fire Focus: Consolidated process, managed by FEMA, that consolidates and coordinates Federal fire programs; National Fire Academy, the U.S. Fire Administration, and Regional Offices are Federal units working with state and local fire services nationwide for prevention and safety

Federal Function: Any function, operation, or action carried out under the laws of the U.S. by any department, agency, or instrumentality of the U.S., or by its officers or employees

Federal On-Scene Commander (OSC): Official designated upon activation of Joint Operations Center that ensures appropriate coordination of U.S. government's overall response with Federal, state and local authorities; maintains this role until U.S. Attorney General transfers Lead Federal Agency role to FEMA

Federal Preparedness Circular: Broad policy guidance for emergency mobilization preparedness to Federal departments and agencies

Federal Preparedness Guidance Documents: System of documents used for dissemination of emergency mobilization preparedness guidance to Federal departments and agencies and, as appropriate to the given topic, state and local governments and other interested parties

Federal Preparedness Guide: Instructions, information, and procedures that supplement the broad policy guidance in the FPC

Federal Property: Property that is owned, leased, possessed, or occupied by the Federal Government

Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan (FRERP): Document used by Federal agencies in peacetime radiological emergencies; primarily concerns off-site Federal response in support of State and local governments with jurisdiction for an emergency

Federal Region: Grouping of States and territories of the U.S. through which FEMA coordinates responsibilities of state governments with those of Federal departments and agencies, for disaster relief, civil defense, and planning for both civil and national emergencies; referred to as "FEMA Regions"; currently ten Federal Regions in place

Federal Resource Agencies: Federal departments and agencies with emergency preparedness responsibility for evaluating specific resources and for regulating, or providing direction on incentives to specified sectors of the economy to achieve national objectives in emergency production, distribution, and use of resources

Federal Response Center (FRC): Temporary facility established by FEMA at a location identified in conjunction with the state that serves as a focal point for Federal response team interactions with the state in an extraordinary situation

Federal Response Plan (FRP): Interdepartmental planning arrangements, developed by FEMA, through which the Federal Government prepares for and responds to the consequences of catastrophic disasters; coordinated on a functional group basis, with designated lead and support agencies for each identified functional area

FEMA: See also Federal Emergency Management Agency

FEMA National Auxiliary Voice System: Wireline voice communications system using dedicated circuits between FEMA regions and their respective states; connectivity achieved through AUTOVON, FTS, commercial telephone, and FNARS

FEMA National Radio System: High frequency radio system designed to provide emergency communications between Federal and state agencies; currently 9 networks in use FEMA National Teletype System: Leased, dedicated, full period, full duplex, store and forward, 100-word per minute teletype system; links FEMA headquarters and all 10 regions

Fetch Protection: System-provided restriction to prevent a program from accessing data in another user's segment of storage

Field Assessment Team: Small joint Federal/state team of pre-identified technical experts who conduct an assessment of response needs immediately post-disaster; team is drawn from FEMA and other agencies and organizations, such as U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, American Red Cross, and affected State(s)

Field Operations Guide: Pocket-size manual of instructions on application of Incident Command System

File Allocation Table (FAT): MS-DOS area of system information on disk which refers to the physical areas of the disk which are taken up by files or portions of files; some viral programs take over a file pointer without affecting directory information by manipulating FAT information

File Infector: Virus that attaches itself to, or associates itself with, a file, usually a program file; typically append or prepend themselves to regular program files, or overwrite program code. See also System Virus, Companion Virus.

File Protection: Aggregate of all processes and procedures in a system designed to prevent or inhibit unauthorized access, contamination, or elimination of a file

File Security: Means by which access to computer files is limited to authorized users only

File Shadowing: Asynchronous duplication of production database on separate media to ensure data availability, currency and accuracy; can be used for disaster recovery if performed remotely, to improve both the recovery time and recovery point objectives. See also Data Replication, Journaling, Disk Mirroring

File Transfer: Using communications to send a file from one computer to another

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): TCP/IP protocol specifying the transfer of text or binary files across the network

Filter: Used to specify which packets will or will not be used; can be used in sniffers to determine which packets get displayed, or by firewalls to determine which packets get blocked

Filtering Router: Inter-network router that selectively prevents passage of data packets according to a security policy; may be used as a firewall or part of a firewall; policy is implemented by rules (packet filters) loaded into the router

Finance/Administration Section: One of five primary functions found at all SEMS levels which is responsible for all costs and financial considerations; can include Time Keeping Unit, Procurement Unit, Compensation/Claims Unit and Cost Unit

Financial Impact: Operating expenses that continue following an interruption or disaster, which as a result of the event cannot be offset by income and directly affects the financial position of the organization

Finger: Protocol used to look up user information on a given host; also a Unix program that takes an e-mail address as input and returns information about the user who owns that e-mail address

Fingerprinting: Sending strange packets to a system in order to gauge how it responds to determine the operating system

Fire Marshal: See also Emergency Marshal

Fire Suppression Assistance: Authorized in response to a forest or grassland fire on private or public property which threatens such destruction as would constitute a major disaster; typically requested by a Governor, processed by appropriate FEMA region, and forwarded to the Director, FEMA, for further action and decision

FIREMOD: Computer application which, with given information, can predict hourly rate of fire spread from a specific reference point Firestorm: Stationary mass fire, generally in built-up urban areas, generating strong, in-rushing winds from all sides; winds keep fires from spreading while adding oxygen to increase intensity

Firewall: Logical or physical point in a network that prevents unauthorized access to data or resources; secured system passing and examining traffic between an internal trusted network and an external untrusted network such as the Internet; can be used to detect, prevent, or mitigate certain network attacks. See also Application Level Gateway, Proxy Server

Firewall Rules: Security system that uses rules to block or allow connections and data transmission between a computer and the Internet

Firmware: Computer programs and data stored in hardware – typically in read-only memory (ROM) or programmable read-only memory (PROM) – such that programs and data cannot be dynamically written or modified during program execution. See also BIOS

FIRST: See also Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams

First Responder: Local police, fire, and emergency medical personnel who arrive first on the scene of an incident and take action to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs; may also include bystanders who perform search and rescue, transportation, and communication during the incident

Five-Hundred Year Flood Plain (or 0.2 percent chance flood plain): Area which includes a base flood plain which is subject to inundation from a flood having a 0.2 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year

Flash Flood: Effect from rainfall that is so intense and severe, along with rapid runoff, that it precludes recording and relating it to stream stages and other information in time to forecast a flood state (FEMA). See also Flood

Flash Flood Warning: Issued when a flash flood is reported or is imminent Flash Flood Watch: Issued when flash flooding is possible in the area

Flaw Hypothesis Methodology: Systems analysis and penetration technique in which system specifications and documentation are analyzed and then flaws in the system are developed; list of hypothesized flaws is then prioritized on basis of estimated probability that a flaw exists and, assuming a flaw exists, on the ease of exploiting it, and what level of control or compromise it would provide; prioritized list directs a penetration attack against the system

Flood: Condition in which there is partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from: a) overflow of inland or tidal waters, b) unusual or rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters; or c) mudslides/mudflows caused by accumulation of water

Flood Hazard Management: Program that includes all local, state, and Federal activities taken before, during, and after a flood to reduce flood losses or in response to a flood disaster

Flood Plain/Flood-Prone Area: Land area susceptible to flooding by water from any source

Flood Warning: Advance notice, whether in hours or days, depending on the situation, that flooding is imminent or in progress along a river or stream

Flooding: Computer operations attack that attempts to cause a failure (especially in security) in a computer system or other data processing entity by providing more input than the entity can process properly

Flow Control: See also Information Flow Control

Flycrew: A hand crew of predetermined size transported to an incident via helicopter

Fomites (singular Fomes): Articles that convey infection to others because they have been contaminated by pathogenic organisms; examples: handkerchief, drinking glass, door handle, clothing, toys

Food Dispenser: Any vehicle capable of dispensing food to incident personnel Food Unit: Functional unit within Service Branch of Logistics Section responsible for providing meals for incident and or EOC personnel

Forensic Programming: Process that analyzes computer code for evidence of intent, program identity, or authorship; often referred to as code analysis. See also Digital Forensics

Forest: Set of Active Directory domains that replicate their databases with each other

Fork Bomb: Works by using the “fork” call to create new processes that are copies of the original; used repeatedly, all available processes on a machine can be used up

Form-Based Authentication: Process using web page forms that asks users to input their username and password information

Formal Access Approval: Documented approval by a data owner to allow access to a particular category of information

Formal Proof: Complete and convincing mathematical argument, presenting the full logical justification for each proof step, for the truth of a theorem or set of theorems

Formal Security Policy Model: Precise statement of a security policy; such a model must represent the initial state of a system, the way in which the system progresses from one state to another, and a definition of a "secure" state of the system. See also Bell-La Padula Model and Security Policy Model.

Formal Top-Level Specification (FTLS): High-level specification written in a formal mathematical language that offers theorems showing correspondence of a system specification to its formal requirements to be hypothesized and formally proven

Formal Verification: Process that uses formal proofs to demonstrate the consistency between a formal system specification and a formal security policy model (design verification) or between the formal specification and its high-level program implementation (implementation verification)

Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST): International consortium of CSIRTs (Computer Security Incident Response Teams) that collaborate to handle computer security incidents and promote preventive activities; founded in 1990 and has over 70 members globally; provides members with technical information, tools, methods, assistance, and guidance; coordinate proactive liaison activities and analytical support; encourages development of quality products and services; improves national and international information security for government, private industry, academia, and the individual; and enhances image and status of CSIRT community

Forward Liaison Element: Component of a regional ERT team deployed at an early stage of a potential or developing extraordinary situation that monitors and assesses a situation to make recommendations on potential need for ERT deployment

Forward Lookup: Process that uses an Internet domain name to find an IP address

Forward Proxy: Designated server through which all requests are made

Forward Recovery: Process of recovering a database to the point of failure by applying active journal or log data to the current backup files of the database

Forward Secrecy: Based on an agreement protocol using asymmetric cryptography, property that ensures that a session key derived from a set of long-term public and private keys will not be compromised if one of the private keys is compromised in the future

Fragment Offset: Field in a data packet that tells the sender where a particular fragment falls in relation to other fragments in the original larger packet

Fragment Overlap Attack: TCP/IP fragmentation attack is possible because IP allows packets to be broken down into fragments for more efficient transport across various media; TCP packet (and its header) are carried in the IP packet; this attack has incorrect data in the second fragment such that when the packet is reconstructed, the port number is overwritten

Fragmentation: Process of storing a data file in several "chunks" or fragments rather than in a single contiguous sequence of bits in one place on the storage medium

Frames: Data transmitted between network points as a unit complete with addressing and necessary protocol control information; usually transmitted serial bit by bit and contains a header field and a trailer field that "frame" the data

Freeware: Software to which the author or developer still retains copyright (unlike public domain) but carries no charge (unlike shareware or commercial software). See also Open Source

Friends and Relatives Reception Center: Secure area set aside by emergency services or local authority for use and the interview of friends and relatives arriving at the scene of a major incident

Front-End Security Filter: Security filter, implemented in hardware or software, that is logically separate from remainder of a system to protect system's integrity

FRP: See also Federal Response Plan

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): Used to copy files between computers

Fuel Tender: Vehicle capable of supplying fuel to ground or airborne equipment

Fujita Scale: Used to measure the strength of tornadoes; F5 is the most dangerous tornado

Full Backup: Creates copy of all data and/or software on a system; needed for a complete system restoration, and takes the longest to complete. See also Differential Backup, Incremental Backup

Full Disclosure: States that information about any vulnerability should be released to the general public with no restrictions; may also hold that announcements of vulnerabilities should be accompanied by working exploit code, possibly demonstrating the most dangerous possible exploit

Full Duplex: Communications channel that transmits data in both directions simultaneously; both sender and receiver can transmit at the same time

Full Rehearsal: Simulation exercise involving a business continuity incident where the organization or some of its component parts are suspended until the exercise is completed. See also Exercise, Desktop Exercise

Fully Qualified Domain Name: Server name with a host name followed by the full domain name; in www.abc.com www is the host, abc is the second-level domain, and .com is top-level domain

Function: Refers to five major activities in the Incident Command System – Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics and Finance/Administration; also used when describing the activity involved, e.g., "the planning function"

Functional Element: Refers to a part of the incident, EOC or DOC team such as section, branch, group or unit

Functional Testing: Segment of security testing in which the advertised system security mechanisms are tested, under operational conditions, for correct operation

CPM Dictionary
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