Glossary

The IronSights Cyber Glossary.

Clear explanations of cyber security terms, frameworks and technologies used across modern businesses.

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64 terms

Detection & response

Attack Surface ReductionASR

A set of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint rules that block common attack techniques — such as Office macro execution of child processes, credential dumping, and malicious script execution — at the endpoint level.

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Frameworks & standards

Australian Cyber Security CentreACSC

The Australian government's lead agency for cyber security advice, threat intelligence, and incident reporting, operated by the Australian Signals Directorate.

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Frameworks & standards

Australian Signals DirectorateASD

Australia's national intelligence and cyber security agency, responsible for foreign signals intelligence, cyber warfare, and protecting Australian government systems from cyber threats.

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General

Bring Your Own DeviceBYOD

A policy that permits employees to use their personal devices — smartphones, laptops, tablets — to access corporate systems and data, introducing security challenges around device management and data separation.

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Threats & attacks

Business Email CompromiseBEC

A type of cyber fraud where attackers impersonate or compromise a business email account to redirect payments, steal sensitive information, or commit payroll fraud.

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Frameworks & standards

CREST

An international not-for-profit body that certifies cyber security service providers and practitioners, particularly in penetration testing and incident response, to globally recognised standards.

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Threats & attacks

Command and controlC2

Infrastructure used by attackers to communicate with and control malware or compromised systems within a target network, issuing commands and receiving exfiltrated data.

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Identity & access

Conditional Access

A Microsoft Entra ID feature that enforces context-aware access controls — evaluating signals such as user identity, device compliance, location, and risk level before granting access to corporate resources.

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Threats & attacks

Credential harvesting

The process of capturing login credentials — usernames and passwords — through phishing sites, malware, data breaches, or other means, typically for use in account takeover or sale on dark web markets.

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Compliance & governance

Cyber insurance

An insurance product that covers financial losses arising from cyber incidents — including business interruption, ransomware payments, data breach notification costs, legal liability, and regulatory fines.

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Network & infrastructure

DKIM

An email authentication method that adds a cryptographic digital signature to outgoing emails, allowing receiving mail servers to verify that the message has not been tampered with in transit.

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Network & infrastructure

DMARC

An email authentication protocol that builds on SPF and DKIM to instruct receiving mail servers how to handle emails that fail sender verification — helping prevent domain spoofing and phishing from your domain.

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Network & infrastructure

DNS filtering

A network security control that blocks access to malicious, inappropriate, or policy-violating domains at the DNS resolution layer — before a connection to the destination is established.

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Microsoft 365 & cloud

Data Loss PreventionDLP

A set of policies and controls that detect and prevent sensitive data from being shared, transferred, or accessed in ways that violate organisational security or compliance requirements.

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General

Encryption

The process of converting readable data into an unreadable format using a cryptographic algorithm, ensuring that only authorised parties with the correct decryption key can access the original information.

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Detection & response

Endpoint Detection and ResponseEDR

A security solution that continuously monitors endpoint activity — processes, network connections, file changes — and provides detection, investigation, and response capabilities for advanced threats that evade traditional antivirus.

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Identity & access

Entra ID

Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management platform — formerly Azure Active Directory — used to manage user accounts, enforce authentication policies, and control access to Microsoft 365 and third-party applications.

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Frameworks & standards

Essential Eight

A set of eight baseline cyber security mitigation strategies published by the ACSC that, when implemented, significantly reduce the risk of the most common cyber threats facing Australian organisations.

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Detection & response

Extended Detection and ResponseXDR

A security solution that extends endpoint detection to correlate threat data across endpoints, email, identity, and cloud applications, providing a unified view of an attack across the entire environment.

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Identity & access

FIDO2

An open authentication standard that enables passwordless and phishing-resistant login using hardware security keys, device biometrics, or passkeys stored in the operating system.

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Compliance & governance

Gap analysis

An assessment that compares an organisation's current security posture against a target framework or standard, identifying the specific controls that are missing, partially implemented, or not meeting required maturity levels.

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Frameworks & standards

ISO/IEC 27001ISO 27001

The international standard for information security management systems (ISMS), specifying requirements for establishing, implementing, and continuously improving information security controls.

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Detection & response

Incident responseIR

A structured approach to detecting, containing, eradicating, and recovering from cyber security incidents, including forensic investigation, stakeholder communication, and post-incident review.

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Frameworks & standards

Information Security Registered Assessors ProgramIRAP

An Australian Signals Directorate program that certifies qualified individuals to assess the security of government systems against the Information Security Manual (ISM).

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Threats & attacks

Insider threat

A security risk that originates from within an organisation — a current or former employee, contractor, or business partner who misuses their authorised access, whether intentionally or accidentally.

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Penetration testing

Kill chain

A model describing the sequential phases of a cyber attack — from initial reconnaissance through to the attacker achieving their objective — used to understand attack progression and identify defensive intervention points.

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Detection & response

Lateral movement

The technique used by attackers to progressively move through a network after initial compromise, gaining access to additional systems, data, and credentials en route to their ultimate target.

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Compliance & governance

Legal hold

A directive to preserve all electronically stored information relevant to an anticipated or ongoing legal matter, preventing its deletion or alteration until the hold is lifted.

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Threats & attacks

Malware

Software intentionally designed to cause harm to a computer system, network, or data — including viruses, trojans, ransomware, spyware, and adware.

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Compliance & governance

Maturity model

A framework for assessing the sophistication and completeness of an organisation's security controls across defined levels, typically from 0 (not implemented) to 3 or 5 (fully optimised).

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Microsoft 365 & cloud

Microsoft 365M365

Microsoft's cloud-based productivity and security platform, combining Office applications, Exchange email, Teams collaboration, SharePoint, OneDrive, and an integrated suite of security and compliance tools.

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Microsoft 365 & cloud

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Microsoft's enterprise endpoint security platform providing antivirus, endpoint detection and response (EDR), attack surface reduction, and threat and vulnerability management for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android devices.

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Microsoft 365 & cloud

Microsoft Defender for Office 365MDO

A Microsoft 365 security product that protects against advanced email threats including phishing, malware, and business email compromise through Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and anti-phishing policies.

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Microsoft 365 & cloud

Microsoft Intune

Microsoft's cloud-based unified endpoint management platform that enrolls, configures, and enforces compliance policies on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices — both corporate-owned and BYOD.

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Microsoft 365 & cloud

Microsoft Purview

Microsoft's data governance, compliance, and information protection platform that discovers, classifies, and protects sensitive data across Microsoft 365 environments and connected cloud services.

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Microsoft 365 & cloud

Microsoft Secure Score

A Microsoft-provided security posture measurement for Microsoft 365 environments, scored from 0–100%, with recommended improvement actions ranked by impact and implementation effort.

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Identity & access

Multi-factor authenticationMFA

A security control that requires users to verify their identity using two or more factors — something they know, something they have, or something they are — before accessing a system or application.

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Frameworks & standards

NIST Cybersecurity FrameworkNIST CSF

A voluntary US government framework providing a common language and structured approach to managing cyber security risk across five functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.

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Frameworks & standards

Notifiable Data Breaches schemeNDB

Australian legislation under the Privacy Act 1988 requiring organisations with annual turnover above $3 million to notify the OAIC and affected individuals when a data breach is likely to cause serious harm.

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Frameworks & standards

Office of the Australian Information CommissionerOAIC

The Australian government agency responsible for administering the Privacy Act 1988 and the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, and for handling privacy complaints and data breach notifications.

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Network & infrastructure

Open Source IntelligenceOSINT

The practice of collecting and analysing publicly available information — from websites, social media, job postings, public records, and technical data — to build intelligence about a target.

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Penetration testing

An authorised, simulated cyber attack against an organisation's systems, networks, or applications, conducted to identify vulnerabilities before malicious attackers can exploit them.

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Compliance & governance

Personally Identifiable InformationPII

Any information that can be used — alone or in combination with other data — to identify a specific individual, including names, email addresses, tax file numbers, health identifiers, and financial account details.

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Threats & attacks

Phishing

A social engineering attack in which attackers send fraudulent communications — typically emails — designed to trick recipients into revealing credentials, clicking malicious links, or transferring funds.

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People & awareness

Phishing simulation

A controlled exercise in which security teams send realistic but harmless fake phishing emails to employees to measure click rates, identify vulnerable individuals, and deliver targeted training.

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Threats & attacks

Pretexting

A social engineering technique where an attacker fabricates a believable scenario or identity to manipulate a target into providing information, access, or performing an action.

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Detection & response

Privilege escalation

A technique used by attackers to gain higher levels of system access than initially obtained, moving from a standard user account to administrator or SYSTEM-level privileges.

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Identity & access

Privileged Access ManagementPAM

A security discipline that controls and monitors access to accounts with elevated permissions, ensuring privileged access is granted only when needed, for the minimum time required, and with full audit trails.

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Threats & attacks

Ransomware

Malicious software that encrypts a victim's files or systems and demands a ransom payment — typically in cryptocurrency — in exchange for the decryption key.

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Penetration testing

Reconnaissance

The first phase of a cyber attack or penetration test, in which the attacker or tester gathers information about the target — including infrastructure, staff, technology stack, and potential vulnerabilities — before attempting exploitation.

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Network & infrastructure

SPF

An email authentication protocol that specifies which mail servers are authorised to send email on behalf of a domain, allowing receiving servers to reject email from unauthorised sources.

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Detection & response

Security Information and Event ManagementSIEM

A security platform that aggregates log and event data from across an IT environment, correlates it in real time, and generates alerts when suspicious patterns indicate a potential threat.

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Detection & response

Security Operations CentreSOC

A centralised function — either internal or outsourced — responsible for continuously monitoring an organisation's security posture, detecting threats, and coordinating incident response.

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People & awareness

Security awareness training

A program that educates employees about cyber threats, safe behaviours, and organisational security policies — helping them recognise and respond correctly to phishing, social engineering, and other attacks.

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Identity & access

Single sign-onSSO

An authentication method that allows users to log in once with a single set of credentials and gain access to multiple applications without re-authenticating for each one.

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Threats & attacks

Smishing

A phishing attack delivered via SMS text message, typically impersonating parcel delivery services, banks, or government agencies to lure recipients into clicking malicious links.

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Threats & attacks

Social engineering

The use of psychological manipulation to trick people into divulging confidential information, granting access, or performing actions that compromise security — exploiting human behaviour rather than technical vulnerabilities.

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Threats & attacks

Spear phishing

A targeted phishing attack tailored to a specific individual or organisation, using research and personalisation to appear more credible and increase the likelihood of success.

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Threats & attacks

Tailgating

A physical security attack where an unauthorised person gains entry to a secured area by following closely behind an authorised person through an access-controlled door.

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Detection & response

Threat intelligence

Evidence-based knowledge about existing or emerging cyber threats, including attacker tactics, techniques, procedures, indicators of compromise, and contextual information used to inform defensive decisions.

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Threats & attacks

Vishing

A social engineering attack conducted over the phone, where attackers impersonate trusted entities — such as the ATO, Microsoft support, or a bank — to extract sensitive information or gain remote access.

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Penetration testing

Vulnerability

A weakness in a system, application, or process that could be exploited by an attacker to gain unauthorised access, cause disruption, or achieve other malicious objectives.

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Threats & attacks

Zero-day vulnerability

A software vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no patch available, leaving systems exposed to exploitation with no vendor-supplied defence.

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Compliance & governance

eDiscovery

The process of identifying, collecting, preserving, and reviewing electronically stored information (ESI) for use in legal proceedings, regulatory investigations, or internal enquiries.

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