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surge protector A device that protects electrical components from momentary or instantaneous increases (called spikes) in a power line.

switched A network that has multiple routes to get from a source to a destination. Switching allows for higher speeds.

SWP See Secure WLAN Protocol (SWP).

symmetrical keys The keys used when the same key encrypts and decrypts data.

SYN flood A denial of service attack in which the hacker sends a barrage of spoofed SYN packets. The receiving station tries to respond to each SYN request for a connection, thereby tying up all the resources. All incoming connections are rejected until all current connections can be established.

system architecture Documents that provide you with the blueprint of your organization’s software and hardware infrastructure.

T

tap A type of connection that directly attaches to a cable.

TCP See Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

TCP ACK attack An attack that begins as a normal TCP connection and whose purpose is to deny service. It’s also known as a TCP SYN flood.

TCP sequence attack An attack wherein the attacker intercepts and then responds with a sequence number similar to the one used in the original session. The attack can either disrupt a session or hijack a valid session.

TCP SYN flood See TCP ACK attack.

TCP wrapper A low-level logging package designed for Unix systems.

TCP/IP See Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

TCP/IP hijacking An attack in which the attacker commandeers a TCP session from a legitimate user after the legitimate user has achieved authentication, thereby removing the need for the attacker to authenticate himself.

teardrop attack A DoS attack that uses large packets and odd offset values to confuse the receiver and help facilitate a crash.

Telnet A protocol that functions at the Application layer of the OSI model, providing terminal emulation capabilities. See also Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model.

Temporal Key Interchange/Integrity Protocol (TKIP) A wrapper that works with wireless encryption to strengthen WEP implementations.

Terminal Access Controller Access Control System (TACACS) An authentication system that allows credentials to be accepted from multiple methods, including Kerberos. The TACACS client/server process occurs in the same manner as the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) process.

terminal emulator A program that enables a PC to act as a terminal for a mainframe or a Unix system.

termination policy A clear process of informing affected departments of a voluntary or involuntary termination.

test account An administrator-created account for confirming the basic functionality of a newly installed application, for example. The test account has equal rights to accounts that will use the new functionality. It’s important to use test accounts instead of administrator accounts to test new functionality. If an administrator account is used, problems related to user rights might not manifest themselves because administrator accounts typically have full rights to all network resources.

TFTP See Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP).

thin client Systems that don’t provide any disk storage or removable media on their workstations.

third party A party responsible for providing assurance to the relying party that a subscriber is genuine.

threat Any perceivable risk.

three-tier model A system that effectively isolates the end user from the database by introducing a middle-tier server.

time to live (TTL) A field in an IP packet that indicates how many routers the packet can cross (hops it can make) and how long it takes before it’s discarded. TTL is also used in Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) tables to indicate how long an entry should remain in the table.

TLS See Transport Layer Security (TLS).

token A piece of data holding information about the user. This information can contain group IDs, user IDs, privilege level, and so on.

Traceroute See Tracert.

Tracert The command-line utility that