| Appliance |
Appliances are operational computers with application software. These are turnkey solutions consisting of hardware, software and licenses. Hard- and software are tuned to achieve optimum performance |
| ARP Spoofing/ ARP Poisoning |
ARP stands for "Address Resolution Protocol" which associates the network address (IP-Address) with the corresponding hardware address (Mac-Address). The ARP protocol allocates reference tables (mapping tables) that contain the referencing data. The intention of ARP spoofing (ARP-Manipulation) or ARP poisoning is to manipulate these mapping tables in order to divert and thus monitor data traffic between two computers. |
| Asset Management |
Asset Management is an information system to administrate and manage devices and software in the IT environment. It informs as to which systems are in productive use, when they were commissioned, and where they are (supposed to be) located. If properly maintained, it is a complete and consistent documentation of all IT components and applications in a network. |
| Authenticator |
The Authenticator is part of the 802.1X network access protocol. It is the entry point into the internal network be it via a switch, a WLAN access point, or a router - and forwards a clients authentication data (Supplicant) to the "Authentication Server" for assessment. If positive, the client receives an IP address and may then communicate with the network. |
| BSI-Grundschutzkatalog |
The German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik) has developed a comprehensive catalog of information security standards, putting forth recommendations of security measures for IT systems. Besides technical details, the security catalog also addresses organizational, workforce-related and infrastructural measures. A coveted certificate is granted for the successful implementation of the applicable measures. Only experienced and certified auditors are eligible to conduct the certification process. |
| Cluster |
In the IT world, a cluster denotes a multiplicity of servers accessing a common data pool. Cluster services may roam from one cluster node to another or may be provided by several cluster nodes in parallel, thus providing higher availability in the case of server failure. Performance can likewise be boosted. A special case is the "Share-Nothing Cluster", consisting, as a rule, of two nodes whose common data storage is achieved by mirroring a partition. |
| CMDB |
CMDB is short for Configuration Management Database and is a term stemming from ITIL. The CMDB models the IT infrastructure in the sense that all corporate asset data is identified, managed and verified. The data involved comprises workforce staff, hardware, software, applications, network infrastructure, contracts, licenses, prices, etc., including the relational association between these elements. The CMDB thus differs from a solely asset management or Helpdesk system. |
| DHCP |
DHCP is short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and enables the allocation of network configuration data by a server to attached devices. This facilitates network administration, since integration of a new device into an existing network is now possible without manual configuration. Besides the IP address, additional configuration information can be transmitted to the client, such as information about which Boot Image is to be loaded. This service must not necessarily be provided by servers. RFC2322 also describes a method to allocate IP addresses with the help of clothespins. |
| EAP |
Short for Extensible Authentification Protocol, EAP is a general authentication protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). This protocol employs numerous authentication measures such as Radius Server, electronic certification or SIM (Subscriber Identity Module). EAP was developed to enable a generic login into networks, without having to regard the infrastructure for each authentication anew. |
| Green IT |
Green IT reflects the efforts of the IT community to deal with issues of the environment, sustainable production, usage and disposal of IT devices. Also addressed are energy efficiency, reduction of hazardous materials and the ability to recycle decommissioned products. Green IT solutions increase the efficiency of IT devices by reducing power consumption. The latter is often also referred to as Power Management System. |
| IDC |
The International Data Corporation is a consulting and market research company specializing in information technology and telecommunications. With 110 worldwide affiliates, IDC offers clients better planning of entrepreneurial strategy based on detailed forecasts. |
| IDS |
Intrusion Detection Systems analyze network traffic or the behavior of software on a Host in real time. By detecting anomalies or known schemes in network traffic, attacks can be identified and reported. Intrusion Protection Systems (IPS, see below) can, in addition, initiate responsive action. |
| IEEE 802.1X |
The IEEE Standard 802.1X specifies network access proceedings, either via LAN or WLAN. Any device must successfully authenticate itself before being allowed access to the network. The authentication process may also be configured to grant the user or the device in question specific network resources such as bandwidth, filter rules, VLAN association, etc. , under the condition, that the network supports this feature (policy based network). |
| IPS |
Intrusion Protection Systems are systems that analyze traffic that not only detect and report attacks (see IDS) but in addition initiate countermeasures, such as removing data packets containing malicious code from the data stream. IPS systems are therefore mostly configured "inline" and are able to handle large data throughput. |
| ISMS |
An Information Security Management System is a set of corporate rules and proceedings that regulate information security in an enterprise. These mandatory regulations establish, control, and optimize information security. The German federal agency for IT security (BSI) to this end has developed a catalog of measures to assist enterprises and organizations in the establishment and implementation of such rules. The BSI set of rules has become a standard for Germany. |
| ITIL |
The IT Infrastructure Library is a set of published "Best Practice" examples for networked IT services, describing processes, organizational structures and definitions required to run an IT infrastructure. ITIL rules have become an international standard. |
| MAC-Address |
MAC stands for Media Access Control and represents the unique physical address of a LAN controller. MAC addresses serve to uniquely identify nodes in a network. The MAC address is usually burnt onto a chip on the hardware to be networked and can thus not be modified. |
| MAC-Spoofing |
MAC-Spoofing (MAC manipulation) is the intention to falsify or manipulate a MAC address in order to insert an unauthorized device into a network, with the intention of monitoring or manipulating data traffic. |
| Man-in-the-middle-attack |
The man-in-the-middle-attack, also known as Janus attack, is a form of attack by which data traffic is monitored and manipulated. Best known among these is ARP spoofing, whereby the ARP table is modified and the attacker detours data traffic through an infiltrated device so as to be able to monitor and manipulate the data. |
| NAC |
Network Access Control is a technology designed to protect networks against malware such as viruses, worms and trojans. Before a device is allowed into a network, a check against rule conformity is conducted to determine whether the device is authorized to participate in the network traffic. In the case that virus definition files should be outdated or important security updates be missing, this will lead to the device in question being temporarily diverted to a quarantine network, from where the required updates can be downloaded and installed. |
| Penetration Test |
Pentest stands for the effort to penetrate an extraneous computer or a whole network. It is the intention of a penetration test to uncover security gaps and configuration errors in a network. Hacker methods are usually employed in such tests in order to simulate a realistic attack scenario. |
| Power Management Systems |
Power Management Systems, also known as Green-IT solutions, are software solutions intended to effectively reduce the energy consumption of printers, workstations and notebooks. These solutions ensure that predefined energy options are not modified and are able to shut down any unused workstations in a network. |
| Quarantine Network |
The term quarantine originates from the French quarantaine de jours (fourty days) and originally stood for a defined period of time for which infected persons or animals were to be kept isolated to avoid contaminating others. In the IT world, computers suspected to be infected with malware (viruses, trojans, dialers, worms) are diverted away from the productive network into a quarantine network, and only allowed back when all malicious code has been removed and compliant security measures have been implemented. |
| Rack Unit (RU) |
Standardized physical height of electronic equipment. One RU corresponds to 1¾" or 44,45 millimeters. RU is especially relevant foe the common 19" cabinets found in most data centers, where server space is allocated in multiples of RU. |
| Radius |
Radius stands for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service, and describes the authentication process of users that dial into a network. Radius is a client-server protocol in charge of executing authentication, authorization and accounting. Radius is the de-facto standard when dialing into computer networks (Modem, ISDN, DSL, WLAN and VPN). |
| Remediation VLAN |
See quarantine network |
| SNMP |
The Simple Network Management Protocol allows the monitoring and managing of network components from a central workstation. |
| Supplicant |
Supplicant is the client software that executes 802.1X authentication in a network. Modern operation systems (Windows XP, Linux,..) contain such software. Older systems and simpler devices such as printers, Thin Clients, IP telephones etc. as a rule do not possess a supplicant. |
| TCP |
The Transmission Control Protocol is an integral component of the TCP/IP protocol and represents the fourth layer in the OSI layer model. It operates communication-oriented and requires a receipt-acknowledge for each sent data packet. |
| UDP |
The User Data Protocol is another layer-4 data transmission protocol. It is not communication-oriented like TCP and requires no ACK. UDP/IP is not as reliable as TCP/IP, but is nevertheless employed by a number of applications such as VoIP, SMB, DNS,... |
| VLAN |
A Virtual Local Area Network is a virtual network that allows the segmentation of networks independently of their physical structure, i.e. physical distribution of switches. Switch ports may be either statically assigned to a VLAN, or a dynamic association can be configured along MAC addresses, IP addresses or UDP- and TCP-Ports or higher protocols. VLANs offer multiple advantages, like reducing the broadcast load by segmenting large networks, or the easier assigning of user access rights by creating sub networks for printers and/or notebooks, or allowing the prioritization of certain packet types such as VoIP to increase the performance of certain applications. |
| VoIP |
Voice over IP employs the IP protocol to allow voice communication of networked users. As opposed to conventional telephony, no dedicated wires are used, but digital data packets that are transmitted over the Intra-/Internet. |
| VPN |
A Virtual Private Network allows data to be transmitted through an encrypted data tunnel between an internal secure network and an external partner situated outside of the network. The data tunnel as a rule is routed through a public network, be it the Internet or a wireless network. For the duration of the tunnel connection, the external participant is treated as a member of the internal network and is granted his own internal IP address. To implement a tunnel, a VPN gateway is required within the host network, and the external client requires specific software and a certificate to authenticate him. |
| WLAN |
A Wireless Local Area Network, often also termed Wi-Fi, operates locally along the standards of IEEE 802.11 network communication. The transmission performance if WLANs range from 1 to 300 MBit/s. Since wireless traffic can in principle be easily monitored, data security and encryption are essential considerations when operating a WLAN. Choice of an adequate encryption (currently WPA2) and use of complex passwords are crucial. |
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