CompTIA Security+: Acronyms Cheat Sheet

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Useful Acronyms You Should Know

The world of cybersecurity and the CompTIA Security+ certification course is filled with a plethora of acronyms, each representing essential concepts, technologies, and standards. In this post, we present a comprehensive list of these acronyms to serve as a quick reference and guide for both newcomers and seasoned cybersecurity professionals.

Acronym Definition
3DES Triple Data Encryption Standard
AAA Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
ABAC Attribute-based Access Control
ACL Access Control List
AD Active Directory
AES Advanced Encryption Standard
AES256 Advanced Encryption Standards 256bit
AH Authentication Header
AI Artificial Intelligence
AIS Automated Indicator Sharing
ALE Annualized Loss Expectancy
AP Access Point
API Application Programming Interface
APT Advanced Persistent Threat
ARO Annualized Rate of Occurrence
ARP Address Resolution Protocol
ASLR Address Space Layout Randomization
ASP Active Server Pages
ATT&CK Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge
AUP Acceptable Use Policy
AV Antivirus
BASH Bourne Again Shell
BCP Business Continuity Planning
BGP Border Gateway Protocol
BIA Business Impact Analysis
BIOS Basic Input/Output System
BPA Business Partnership Agreement
BPDU Bridge Protocol Data Unit
BSSID Basic Service Set Identifier
BYOD Bring Your Own Device
CA Certificate Authority
CAPTCHA Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart
CAR Corrective Action Report
CASB Cloud Access Security Broker
CBC Cipher Block Chaining
CBT Computer-based Training
CCMP Counter-Mode/CBC-MAC Protocol
CCTV Closed-Circuit Television
CERT Computer Emergency Response Team
CFB Cipher Feedback
CHAP Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol
CIO Chief Information Officer
CIRT Computer Incident Response Team
CIS Center for Internet Security
CMS Content Management System
CN Common Name
COOP Continuity of Operations Planning
COPE Corporate-owned Personally Enabled
CP Contingency Planning
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRL Certificate Revocation List
CSA Cloud Security Alliance
CSIRT Computer Security Incident Response Team
CSO Chief Security Officer
CSP Cloud Service Provider
CSR Certificate Signing Request
CSRF Cross-Site Request Forgery
CSU Channel Service Unit
CTM Counter-Mode
CTO Chief Technology Officer
CVE Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
CVSS Common Vulnerability Scoring System
CYOD Choose Your Own Device
DAC Discretionary Access Control
DBA Database Administrator
DDoS Distributed Denial-of-Service
DEP Data Execution Prevention
DER Distinguished Encoding Rules
DES Data Encryption Standard
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHE Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral
DKIM Domain Keys Identified Mail
DLL Dynamic-link Library
DLP Data Loss Prevention
DMARC Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance
DNAT Destination Network Address Transaction
DNS Domain Name System
DNSSEC Domain Name System Security Extensions
DoS Denial-of-Service
DPO Data Protection Officer
DRP Disaster Recovery Plan
DSA Digital Signature Algorithm
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol
ECB Electronic Code Book
ECC Elliptic-curve Cryptography
ECDHE Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral
ECDSA Elliptic-curve Digital Signature Algorithm
EDR Endpoint Detection and Response
EFS Encrypted File System
EIP Extended Instruction Pointer
EOL End of Life
EOS End of Service
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
ESN Electronic Serial Number
ESP Encapsulating Security Payload
ESSID Extended Service Set Identifier
FACL File System Access Control List
FDE Full Disk Encryption
FIM File Integrity Monitoring
FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array
FTP File Transfer Protocol
FTPS Secured File Transfer Protocol
GCM Galois/Counter Mode
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
GPG GNU Privacy Guard
GPO Group Policy Object
GPS Global Positioning System
GPU Graphics Processing Unit
GRE Generic Routing Encapsulation
HA High Availability
HDD Hard Disk Drive
HIDS Host-based Intrusion Detection System
HIPS Host-based Intrusion Prevention System
HMAC Hash-based Message Authentication Code
HOTP HMAC-based One-time Password
HSM Hardware Security Module
HSMaaS Hardware Security Module as a Service
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
HVAC Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service
IAM Identity and Access Management
ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol
ICS Industrial Control Systems
IDEA International Data Encryption Algorithm
IDF Intermediate Distribution Frame
IdP Identity Provider
IDS Intrusion Detection System
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IKE Internet Key Exchange
IM Instant Messaging
IMAP4 Internet Message Access Protocol v4
IoC Indicators of Compromise
IoT Internet of Things
IP Internet Protocol
IPS Intrusion Prevention System
IPSec Internet Protocol Security
IR Incident Response
IRC Internet Relay Chat
IRP Incident Response Plan
ISA Interconnection Security Agreement
ISFW Internal Segmentation Firewall
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ISP Internet Service Provider
ISSO Information Systems Security Officer
ITCP IT Contingency Plan
IV Initialization Vector
KDC Key Distribution Center
KEK Key Encryption Key
L2TP Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
LAN Local Area Network
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LEAP Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol
MaaS Monitoring as a Service
MAC Media Access Control
MAM Mobile Application Management
MAN Metropolitan Area Network
MBR Master Boot Record
MD5 Message Digest 5
MDF Main Distribution Frame
MDM Mobile Device Management
MFA Multifactor Authentication
MFD Multifunction Device
MFP Multifunction Printer
ML Machine Learning
MMS Multimedia Message Service
MOA Memorandum of Agreement
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching
MSA Measurement Systems Analysis
MS-CHAP Microsoft Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol
MSP Managed Service Provider
MSSP Managed Security Service Provider
MTBF Mean Time Between Failures
MTTF Mean Time to Failure
MTTR Mean Time to Repair
MTU Maximum Transmission Unit
NAC Network Access Control
NAS Network-attached Storage
NAT Network Address Translation
NDA Non-disclosure Agreement
NFC Near-field Communication
NFV Network Function Virtualization
NGFW Next-generation Firewall
NG-SWG Next-generation Secure Web Gateway
NIC Network Interface Card
NIDS Network-based Intrusion Detection System
NIPS Network-based Intrusion Prevention System
NIST National Institute of Standards & Technology
NOC Network Operations Center
NTFS New Technology File System
NTLM New Technology LAN Manager
NTP Network Time Protocol
OCSP Online Certificate Status Protocol
OID Object Identifier
OS Operating System
OSI Open Systems Interconnection
OSINT Open-source Intelligence
OSPF Open Shortest Path First
OT Operational Technology
OTA Over-The-Air
OTG On-The-Go
OVAL Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language
OWASP Open Web Application Security Project
P12 PKCS #12
P2P Peer-to-Peer
PaaS Platform as a Service
PAC Proxy Auto Configuration
PAM Privileged Access Management
PAM Pluggable Authentication Modules
PAP Password Authentication Protocol
PAT Port Address Translation
PBKDF2 Password-based Key Derivation Function 2
PBX Private Branch Exchange
PCAP Packet Capture
PCI DSS Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
PDU Power Distribution Unit
PE Portable Executable
PEAP Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol
PED Portable Electronic Device
PEM Privacy Enhanced Mail
PFS Perfect Forward Secrecy
PGP Pretty Good Privacy
PHI Personal Health Information
PII Personally Identifiable Information
PIN Personal Identification Number
PIV Personal Identity Verification
PKCS Public Key Cryptography Standards
PKI Public Key Infrastructure
PoC Proof of Concept
POP Post Office Protocol
POTS Plain Old Telephone Service
PPP Point-to-Point Protocol
PPTP Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
PSK Preshared Key
PTZ Pan-Tilt-Zoom
PUP Potentially Unwanted Program
QA Quality Assurance
QoS Quality of Service
PUP Potentially Unwanted Program
RA Registration Authority
RAD Rapid Application Development
RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service
RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
RAM Random Access Memory
RAS Remote Access Server
RAT Remote Access Trojan
RC4 Rivest Cipher version 4
RCS Rich Communication Services
RFC Request for Comments
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
RIPEMD RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest
ROI Return on Investment
RPO Recovery Point Objective
RSA Rivest, Shamir, & Adleman
RTBH Remotely Triggered Black Hole
RTO Recovery Time Objective
RTOS Real-time Operating System
RTP Real-time Transport Protocol
S/MIME Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
SaaS Software as a Service
SAE Simultaneous Authentication of Equals
SAML Security Assertions Markup Language
SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
SCAP Security Content Automation Protocol
SCEP Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol
SDK Software Development Kit
SDLC Software Development Life Cycle
SDLM Software Development Life-cycle Methodology
SDN Software-defined Networking
SDP Service Delivery Platform
SDV Software-defined Visibility
SED Self-Encrypting Drives
SEH Structured Exception Handling
SFTP SSH File Transfer Protocol
SHA Secure Hashing Algorithm
SIEM Security Information and Event Management
SIM Subscriber Identity Module
SIP Session Initiation Protocol
SLA Service-level Agreement
SLE Single Loss Expectancy
SMB Server Message Block
S/MIME Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
SMS Short Message Service
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SMTPS Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Secure
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol
SOAR Security Orchestration, Automation, Response
SoC System on Chip
SOC Security Operations Center
SPF Sender Policy Framework
SPIM Spam over Instant Messaging
SQL Structured Query Language
SQLi SQL Injection
SRTP Secure Real-time Transport Protocol
SSD Solid State Drive
SSH Secure Shell
SSID Service Set Identifier
SSL Secure Sockets Layer
SSO Single Sign-on
STIX Structured Threat Information eXpression
STP Shielded Twisted Pair
SWG Secure Web Gateway
TACACS+ Terminal Access Controller Access Control System
TAXII Trusted Automated eXchange of Intelligence Information
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TGT Ticket Granting Ticket
TKIP Temporal Key Integrity Protocol
TLS Transport Layer Security
TOTP Time-based One Time Password
TPM Trusted Platform Module
TSIG Transaction Signature
TTP Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures
UAT User Acceptance Testing
UDP User Datagram Protocol
UEBA User and Entity Behavior Analytics
UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
UEM Unified Endpoint Management
UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
URL Universal Resource Locator
USB Universal Serial Bus
USB OTG USB On-The-Go
UTM Unified Threat Management
UTP Unshielded Twisted Pair
VBA Visual Basic for Applications
VDE Virtual Desktop Environment
VDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
VLAN Virtual Local Area Network
VLSM Variable-length Subnet Masking
VM Virtual Machine
VoIP Voice over IP
VPC Virtual Private Cloud
VPN Virtual Private Network
VTC Video Teleconferencing
WAF Web Application Firewall
WAP Wireless Access Point
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy
WIDS Wireless Intrusion Detection System
WIPS Wireless Intrusion Prevention System
WORM Write Once Read Many
WPA WiFi Protected Access
WPS WiFi Protected Setup
XaaS Anything as a Service
XML Extensible Markup Language
XOR Exclusive OR
XSRF Cross-site Request Forgery
XSS Cross-site Scripting

This list is pretty exhaustive and serves as a valuable starting point for anyone navigating the complex world of cybersecurity and the CompTIA Security+ certification.

  • Bookmark this resource for quick reference as you continue your journey in this ever-evolving field.

You can find all of our CompTIA Sec+ guides here: CompTIA Sec+

We also have guides for the CompTIA A+ here: CompTIA A+

Recommendation:

Basic Security Testing with Kali Linux: https://amzn.to/3S0t7Vq

Luke Barber

Hello, fellow tech enthusiasts! I'm Luke, a passionate learner and explorer in the vast realms of technology. Welcome to my digital space where I share the insights and adventures gained from my journey into the fascinating worlds of Arduino, Python, Linux, Ethical Hacking, and beyond. Armed with qualifications including CompTIA A+, Sec+, Cisco CCNA, Unix/Linux and Bash Shell Scripting, JavaScript Application Programming, Python Programming and Ethical Hacking, I thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of coding, computers, and networks. As a tech enthusiast, I'm on a mission to simplify the complexities of technology through my blogs, offering a glimpse into the marvels of Arduino, Python, Linux, and Ethical Hacking techniques. Whether you're a fellow coder or a curious mind, I invite you to join me on this journey of continuous learning and discovery.

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