SecPod's CyberSecurity Glossary
We believe clarity is the first step toward preventing security risks. That’s why we’ve curated definitions for the most important cybersecurity terms, best practices, and essential overviews, all in one place. Whether you’re analysing vulnerability data, creating security policies, or deciphering threat reports, this glossary is your trusted resource. From patching and CVEs to misconfigurations and attack vectors understand the language that powers proactive defence.
Welcome to the SecPod Cybersecurity Glossary!
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Botnets
Botnets are networks of compromised devices controlled remotely by attackers. They are often used to flood targets with traffic, steal data, or rent out access. Once a device is infected, it quietly follows remote instructions along with thousands of others, acting as part of a larger swarm.
Bring Your Own Device - BYOD
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has shifted from a workplace experiment to a standard expectation across industries. Employees want the freedom to use their personal devices to complete business tasks, while organizations see opportunities to cut costs and support flexible work. At the same time, BYOD introduces a range of security, compliance, and management challenges that businesses cannot ignore.
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Continuous Vulnerability and Exposure Management Essentials
The need for exposure management tools has skyrocketed, and every organization is looking for exposure management software to safeguard its network. But is exposure management alone enough?
Continuous Posture Anomaly Management Essentials
Posture Anomalies (PA) are outliers and deviations present in devices against known-good when the system’s security postures are evaluated collectively. The anomalies are either statistically determined, machine learning computed, or deviations derived out of security best practices.
Cloud Based Vulnerability Management
Cloud based vulnerability management tool offers a universal view of cloud-enabled IT infrastructure, which might be prone to vulnerabilities. It also helps to secure the devices distributed across various locations. It helps IT admins monitor vulnerabilities in the network at the comfort of their place. In terms of managing them, cloud vulnerability scanners allow enterprises to discover and report security gaps in their IT network. However, cloud scanners are just a part of a holistic vulnerability management platform.
Cloud Security Posture Management
Cloud security posture management (CSPM) is a set of IT security tools and practices designed to identify cloud misconfiguration issues and compliance risks. By proactively identifying and addressing security issues, businesses can maintain a strong security posture and improve compliance using CSPM tools.
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform
Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) is a unified cloud-based security and compliance solution built to defend cloud-native applications — from code to cloud. It helps security teams monitor, detect, and fix vulnerabilities or cyber threats that could lead to potential data leaks.
Cloud Security Asset Exposure
CSAE is an evolving framework that is reshaping the conversation around cloud security. Its clear focus is on addressing asset vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. By evaluating vulnerabilities in response to the ever-changing landscape of emerging threats, it takes a more nuanced approach than simply identifying assets. It’s about understanding the risks before they become problems and ensuring a more secure, proactive cloud environment.
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management
The explosive growth of cloud adoption has created unprecedented challenges in managing and securing access rights across today’s complex digital environments. Organizations now grapple with millions of entitlements spanning multiple cloud platforms, making traditional access management approaches obsolete.
Cloud Security Posture Anomaly
Cloud Security Posture Anomaly (CSPA) involves detecting and managing irregularities in cloud environments’ security configurations. It mostly uses continuous monitoring, machine learning (ML), and automated scans to identify and address misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and unexpected changes, ensuring a secure, compliant, and resilient cloud infrastructure.
Cloud Security Remediation Management Essentials
Cloud computing growth has created complex security challenges that require sophisticated response and remediation strategies. As companies move workloads to the cloud, automated and intelligent security remediation becomes necessary. This guide examines CSRM’s fundamentals and its role in maintaining strong cloud security postures.
Cloud Workload Protection Platform
CWPPs are integral for organizations that enjoy the benefits of cloud environments in today’s highly sophisticated threat landscape. These platforms help address the security requirements of workloads, providing organizations with the ability to handle vulnerabilities, maintain compliance, and manage their security posture effectively.
Cloud Sprawl
Cloud sprawl refers to the uncontrolled expansion of an organization’s cloud-based resources, like instances, services, data stores, and identities, across one or more providers without centralized visibility or governance. Such unplanned growth typically happens when teams deploy new resources to meet immediate needs without considering the broader environment. As a result, redundant workloads accumulate, configurations become inconsistent, and costs spiral in ways that are hard to forecast.
Cloud-Based Patch Management
With remote and hybrid work environments gaining prominence in recent times, apps, software, and businesses had to adapt. Cloud-based patch management tools are the ‘solution’ to this problem, and sure enough, organizations have started to incorporate and adopt cloud based solutions in the work environment.
Cloud Access Security Broker Essentials
As enterprises adopt an ever growing array of cloud services, they face new challenges in managing user access, protecting data and maintaining visibility over application usage. A cloud access security broker (CASB) provides a centralized checkpoint between users and cloud providers. By offering policy enforcement, continuous monitoring, and granular controls, CASBs help organizations address shadow IT, data loss and emerging threats while mapping to regulatory obligations.
What Is Continuous Threat Exposure Management
Modern attack paths run through misconfigurations, unpatched software, weak identities, and third-party services. Teams need a repeatable program that keeps exposure visible every day and moves fixes on time. Continuous Threat Exposure Management, often shortened to CTEM, gives security and IT a shared rhythm to scope what matters, assess exposures with business context, validate what can be abused, and push changes through normal maintenance windows. Independent coverage in 2024 and 2025 shows steady momentum for exposure programs that connect discovery, prioritization, validation, and remediation in one operating loop rather than a quarterly scramble.
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Linux Vulnerability Management
Linux vulnerability management scans, detects, prioritizes, and remediates the flaws in the Linux environment. Every enterprise defines it in various ways. The unknown or known threats will exploit the flaws in the systems. It will aid in huge data loss and affects the whole enterprise without a vulnerability management tool. Now, let us know some weaknesses in Linux systems.
Linux Patch Management
Like patching operating systems, Linux patch management is a process of managing patches (or) updates in Linux systems. Patch Management Tool for Linux starts with scanning every Linux endpoint, detecting missing patches, downloading from their respective vendors, and deploying them.
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MacOS Vulnerability Management
Cyber-attacks are rising day by day. Hackers target the endpoints accessing the internet to intrude into the network. Hence, large enterprises should extend their vulnerability management program to multiple operating systems. It will help them manage and secure their endpoints and run without hassles. In this article, we will focus on MAC vulnerability management tool.
macOS Patch Management
Apple’s macOS devices are one of the most famous work machines in the world, taking up to 15% of the OS market share. And with the devices becoming popular, it’s quintessential for IT admins to ensure they are working fine. Here’s where the macOS patch management tool comes into play. Do you want to know “what is patch management for MacOS?” and “why do we need it?” Read along.
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Network Security How it Works
Network security is the foundation of protecting modern organizations from data breaches, downtime, and costly disruptions. A strong network security program protects connections, devices, and information across offices, home networks, and cloud services. It limits who and what can connect, monitors for unusual behavior, and enables fast recovery when incidents occur.
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Patch Management Essentials
Patch Management Process
Before you start patching, it is good to have a strategic approach for applying patches rather than just deploying without knowing the impact. Every patch management tool will have a detailed step-by-step patch management process. It should be implemented in such a way that it is both cost-effective and security-focused.
Automate Patch Management
Nowadays, with the number of apps increasing, it is becoming tougher to apply patches manually. If you automate patch management, the repetitive tasks of scanning, downloading and deploying patches become easier. With an efficient patch management software, we can apply these patches efficiently.
Patch Management Best Practices
Patch Deployment
Patch deployment is an essential aspect of software maintenance, involving the deployment of small software updates, known as patches, to address issues such as bugs, security vulnerabilities, or other problems in existing software systems discovered by a vulnerability management software.
Pass The Hash Attack
Cybercriminals are constantly refining their methods to exploit weaknesses in enterprise systems. One such technique that continues to challenge IT and security teams is the Pass-the-Hash (PtH) attack. Despite being around for decades, it remains one of the most effective ways attackers gain unauthorized access to corporate networks.
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Risk Based Vulnerability Management
Vulnerability and risk are two different worlds, but they are used interchangeably as vulnerability risk, which can be managed by a vulnerability management tool. The difference between risk and vulnerability is that risk refers to the potential impact of cyber-crimes. The combination of these words refers to the flaws and their adverse effects posing on an enterprise. On the other hand, vulnerability refers to weakness in the enterprise devices prone to cyber-crimes.
Risk Prioritization in Cybersecurity
Risk prioritization in cybersecurity is the process of identifying, assessing, and ranking risks based on their potential impact and likelihood of exploitation. Prioritizing risks is largely based on two key factors: how likely they are to be exploited, and how severe the consequences would be if they were.
Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory compliance is the practice of aligning your business operations with relevant laws, rules, and standards set by governments and industry bodies. In plain terms, it means following the rules so you avoid penalties, reduce risk, and build trust with customers, regulators, and partners.
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Third Party Patch Management
An efficient patch management solution is always crucial for IT organizations. Many organizations would have a patch management tool installed to look after their OS patches but are you also implementing third-party patching for applications?You would have been familiar with supply-chain attacks. Most attackers targeted third-party applications as their loophole to exploit a vulnerability in organizations.
Types Of Cyberattacks
Cyberattacks are evolving fast. What used to be the work of isolated hackers is now a global industry powered by sophisticated threat actors, nation-states, and cybercrime syndicates. Whether you’re a cybersecurity professional, an IT admin, or just someone who wants to protect your organization or personal data, understanding the types of cyberattacks is step one.
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Vulnerability Management Essentials
Vulnerability is the weakness within an organization’s devices that are prone to cyber-attacks. In addition, it poses an opportunity for hackers to invade the network. Open vulnerability will create a path for cyber-attacks. Hence, it affects the financial status and fame of the organization. One can expose these vulnerabilities with an efficient vulnerabilities management software
Vulnerability Assessment Overview
Vulnerability Assessment is a process of identifying, assessing, and prioritizing vulnerabilities. It involves analyzing IT to find potential risks present in organizational assets and aids in the remediation of vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability Scanning
Vulnerability scanning is needed to carry out scans across network devices. It is an automated platform that serves the vulnerability management tool. Once after detecting, an enterprise can quickly proceed with further remediation steps of the vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability Management Process
The vulnerability management process is all about identifying, assessing, prioritizing, remediating, and reporting network critical vulnerabilities. The process involves various IT security tactics, essential to overcome the cyberattacks that harm businesses and operations.
Vulnerability Management Benefits
Cyber security threats are continuously evolving in today’s information world. It is affecting sensitive business data and devices. Identifying the security flaws in assets and exploiting them is a well-known attacking method for hackers. Therefore, discovering these weak spots in a computing network and protecting them against exploits is one of the main objectives for an enterprise. This can be done by using a vulnerability management software.
Vulnerability Management Lifecycle
A cyber security plan includes vulnerability identification, detection, prioritization, and remediation with a vulnerability management software. The mitigation of these flaws will keep the enterprise safe and secure. The vulnerability management lifecycle ensures and verifies the enterprise is not at risk.
Vulnerability Remediation Best Practices
A growing number of businesses understand the importance of patch management software. In an extensive IT network of organizations, the complexity of the devices is constantly growing. As the number of devices, applications, and other IT assets increases, they become vulnerable to attacks, negatively impacting business revenue and operations. It is hard to monitor large computing environments constantly and remediate security flaws. Therefore, proven methods or practices in remediating vulnerabilities using a vulnerability management tool is necessary for organizations.
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Windows Vulnerability Management
Businesses use technologies to transmit and store valuable information. They are responsible for safeguarding sensitive business data against any cyber-attacks. Hackers can invade a company’s network with the sole objective of causing cyber security issues. Therefore, vulnerability management software and various vulnerability scanners are necessary for an enterprise to protect its business environment from attacks.
Windows Patch Management
Did you know that 75% of all the PCs in the world have Windows installed? So, patching and keeping these Windows devices up to date becomes essential. And with Microsoft releasing patches regularly, it is crucial to have a patch management tool for Windows.
Web Server Logs
In today’s digital environment, websites generate an enormous amount of data with every user interaction. Among the most critical yet often overlooked sources of this data are web server logs. These logs provide a detailed record of every request made to a web server, enabling organizations to monitor performance, enhance security, and gain valuable operational insights.
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Zero-day
A zero-day vulnerability is a security flaw in software that the enterprises don’t know about yet. Since people don’t know about the flaw, they haven’t had a chance to fix it. Cyber-attackers can exploit this flaw to attack systems before the vendors release a patch. Making zero-day is a race against time to find and fix the problem. Think of zero-day like a hole in the fence around your house that you didn’t know is there, but a burglar does. Burglars can easily sneak in until you discover and repair the hole.
