Glossary | Impetra Learning Center

CMMC — Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification for the defense industrial base.
NIST SP 800-171 — Security requirements for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information.
SSP (System Security Plan) — Document describing how an organization implements security controls.
POA&M — Plan of Action and Milestones for remediating control gaps.
CUI — Controlled Unclassified Information requiring safeguarding.
FCI — Federal Contract Information protected under basic safeguarding rules.
SPRS — Supplier Performance Risk System scoring used in DoD supply chain.
MFA — Multi-factor authentication for stronger identity verification.
Entra ID — Microsoft’s cloud identity platform (formerly Azure AD).
Conditional Access — Policy-based access control in Microsoft Entra ID.
EDR — Endpoint detection and response for modern endpoint threats.
Zero Trust — Security model that continuously verifies access.
SIEM — Security information and event management for log correlation.
RPO — Recovery Point Objective—how much data loss is tolerable.
RTO — Recovery Time Objective—how quickly systems must return.
Phishing — Social engineering attacks that trick users into revealing credentials or taking unsafe actions.
Ransomware — Malware that encrypts or steals data and demands payment.
Firewall — Network control that allows or blocks traffic based on policy.
VPN — Virtual private network for encrypted remote access.
Least privilege — Grant only the access required to perform a role.
Patch management — Process for applying security and stability updates.
Business email compromise — Fraud abusing email trust relationships.
DLP — Data loss prevention controls for sensitive data movement.
SOC — Security operations center for monitoring and response.
MDM — Mobile device management for policy on phones and tablets.
Microsoft Secure Score — A Microsoft metric and recommendation set for improving security configuration.
Legacy authentication — Older sign-in methods that often cannot enforce modern MFA challenges.
SharePoint — Microsoft’s team content and intranet platform in Microsoft 365.
OneDrive — Personal cloud file storage in Microsoft 365.
Defender for Office 365 — Microsoft’s advanced email and collaboration threat protection.
Passkey — A phishing-resistant credential model based on FIDO standards.
Break-glass account — Emergency admin account used only when normal admin access fails.
OAuth — An authorization framework used by apps to access resources with consent.
FIDO2 — Open standards for passwordless, phishing-resistant authentication.
Session hijacking — Abuse of an authenticated session token to impersonate a user.
Microsoft Intune — Cloud endpoint management for PCs and mobile devices.
Windows Autopilot — Cloud provisioning for Windows devices.
MAM — Mobile application management protecting app data.
Group Policy — Windows policy management traditionally used on-premises.
Company Portal — End-user app for Intune enrollment and company apps.
ePHI — Electronic protected health information.
BAA — Business Associate Agreement under HIPAA.
HIPAA Security Rule — Federal standards for protecting ePHI.
Minimum necessary — Limit PHI use and disclosure to what is needed.
HITECH — Law that strengthened HIPAA enforcement and breach rules.
Covered entity — Health plan, clearinghouse, or provider under HIPAA.
MTPD — Maximum tolerable period of disruption.
Immutable backup — A backup that cannot be changed or deleted for a set period.
DMARC — Email authentication policy and reporting standard.
DKIM — Email cryptographic signing standard.
SPF — Sender Policy Framework for authorized email senders.
Lookalike domain — A deceptive domain similar to a real brand domain.
Shadow AI — Unapproved AI tool use by staff.
Prompt injection — Attacks that manipulate AI system instructions via untrusted input.
VLAN — Virtual LAN segment on a switch network.
DNS — Domain Name System.
DHCP — Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for automatic IP addressing.
SSID — Wi-Fi network name.
TCP/IP — Foundational internet networking protocols.
SD-WAN — Software-defined wide area networking.