Computer Acronyms

A

ACL – Access Control List

AES – Advanced Encryption Standard

AH – Authentication Header

AIS – Automated Information System

AP – Access Point

API – Application Programming Interface

APXS – APache eXtenSion  

ARP – Address Resolution Protocol

ARPANET – Advanced Research Projects Agency Network

ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASN .1 – Abstract Syntax Notation One

ATM – Asynchronous Transfer Mode

B

BBS – Bulletin Boards

BCP – Business Continuity Plan

BER – Basic Encoding Rules

BGP – Border Gateway Protocol

BIA – Business Impact Analysis

BIOS – Basic Input/Output System

BMP – Bitmap Image

Bps – Bits per second

C

CA – Certificate Authority

CAI – Computer Assisted Instruction

CBI – Computer-Based Instruction

CCP –  Classified Control Point 

CD-I – Compact Disc (Interactive)

CD-R – Compact Disk (Recordable)

CD-ROM – Compact Disk-Read Only Memory

CERT – Computer Emergency Response Team

CGI – Common Gateway Interface

CHAP – Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol

CHS – Cylinder/Head/Sector

CI – Counterintelligence 

CIK – Crypto Ignition Key 

CIO – Chief Information Officer 

CIP – Critical Infrastructure Protection 

CIPB – Counterintelligence Programs Branch 

CIVA – Counterintelligence Vulnerability Assessment 

COM port – Communication or serial port

COMSEC – Communications Security

COMPUSEC – Computer Security

CPU – Central Processing Unit

CRL – Certificate Revocation List

CSS – Cascading Style Sheets

CSU /DSU – Customer Service Unit/Digital Service Unit

CT – Counterterrorism 

CVE – Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Vulnerability Naming Scheme

D

DAA – Designated Approving Authority

DAC – Discretionary Access Control

DAP – Directory Access Protocol

DAS – Deputy Assistant Secretary 

DCIO – Departmental Counterintelligence Official 

DCIP – Departmental Counterintelligence Program 

DCS – Defense Courier System 

DDOS – Distributed Denial of Service

DES – Data Encryption Standard

DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DHTML – Dynamic HTML

DLC – Data Link Control

DMZ – Demilitarized Zone

DN – Distinguished Name

DNS – Domain Name System

DOC – Department of Commerce 

DOS – Denial of Service

DOS – Disk Operating System

DPI – Dots Per Inch

DPL – Degausser Products List

DSA – Digital Signature Algorithm

DSL – Digital Subscriber Line

DSO – Dynamic Shared Object

DSS – Digital Signature Standard

DTLS – Descriptive Top-Level Specification

DV – Digital Video

DVI – Digital Video Interactive

DVTC – Desktop Videoconferencing

DWord – Double Word

E

EBRs – Extended Boot Records

ENFI – Electronic Networks for Interaction

EOD – Entry on Duty

EPL – Evaluated Products List

ESP – Encapsulation Security Payload

ETL – Endorsed Tools List

F

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

FastCGI – Fast Common Gateway Interface Protocol

FAX – Facsimile

FDDI – Fiber Distributed Data Interface

FIS – Foreign Intelligence Service 

FQDN – Fully Qualified Domain Name

FRD – Formerly Restricted Data

FTLS – Formal Top-Level Specification

FTP – File Transfer Protocol

G

GAO – General Accounting Office 

GB – Gigabyte

GIF – Graphic Information File

GLB – Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

GUI – Graphical User Interface

H

HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

HTML – HyperText Markup Language

HTTP – HyperText Transfer Protocol

HTTPS – Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure

I

IA – Information Assurance

ICMP – Internet Control Message Protocol

IDE – Integrated Drive Electronics

IM – Instant Messaging 

IMAP4 – Internet Message Access Protocol Version 4

IP – Internet Protocol

IPP – Internet Presence Provider

IPS – Intrusion Prevention System

IPSec – Internet Protocol Security

IRC – Internet Relay Chat

ISDN – Integrated Services Digital Network

ISO – International Organization for Standardization

ISOO – Information Security Oversight Office 

ISP – Internet Service Provider

ISSO – Information System Security Officer

IT – Information Technology 

ITFS – Instructional Television Fixed Service

ITSO – Information Technology Security Officer   

J

JDK – Java Development Kit

JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group

JRE – Java Runtime Environment

JVM – Java Virtual Machine

K

KB – Kilobyte

L

L2TP – Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol

LAN – Local Area Network

LATA – Local Access and Transport Area

LBA – Logical Block Addressing

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display

LDAP – Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

LSP – Layered Service Provider

M

MAC – Mandatory Access Control

MAC – Media Access Control

MB – Megabyte

MBONE – Multicast Backbone

MBR – Master Boot Record

MCU – Multi-Point Control Unit

MIB – Management Information Base

MIME – Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

MIPS – Millions of instructions per second

MPEG – Moving Pictures Experts Group

MUD – Multiple User Dimension

N

NAT – Network Address Translation

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization 

NDP – National Disclosure Policy 

NIACAP – National Information Assurance Certification & Accreditation Process

NISPOM – National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual 

NIST – National Institute of Standards and Technology

NNTP – Network News Transfer Protocol

NOS – Network Operating Systems

NREN – National Research and Education Network

NSA – National Security Agency 

NSI – National Security Information 

NTP – Network Time Protocol

O

OADR – Originating Agency Determination Required 

OCA – Original Classification Authority

OCR – Optical Character Recognition

OID – Object Identifier

OPSEC – Operations Security

OSI – Open Systems Interconnection

P

PC – Personal Computer

PDF – Portable Document Format

PING – Packet Internet Groper

PKI – Public Key Infrastructure

PNG – Portable Network Graphics

POP – Point of Presence

POP or POP Mailer – Post Office Protocol

POP 3 – Post Office Protocol, version 3

PPP – Point-to-Point Protocol

PPPoE – Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet

PSAPI – Presentation Space Application Programming Interface

Q

QWord – Quad Word

R

RACF – Resource Access Control Facility

RAM – Random Access Memory

RBAC – Role Based Access Control

RD – Restricted Data 

RFC – Request for Comments

ROM – Read Only Memory

RSS – Really Simple Syndication

RTF – Rich Text Format

RTP – Real-Time Transfer Protocol

S

SCI – Secure Compartmented Information

SCIF – Secure Compartmented Information Facility

SCSI – Small Computer System Interface

SGML – Standard Generalized Markup Language

SHA – Secure Hash Algorithm

SIMS – Security Information Management System 

SLIP – Serial Line Internet Protocol

S/MIME – Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

SMTP – Standard Mail Transfer Protocol

SNMP – Simple Network Management Protocol

SSH – Secure Shell

SSID – Service Set Identifier

SSL – Secure Socket Layer

SSO – System Security Officer

T

TA – Threat Analysis 

TCB – Trusted Computing Base

TCP – Transmission Control Protocol

TCP /IP – Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

TIFF – Tagged Image File Format

TOS – Top of Stack

TSCM – Technical Surveillance Countermeasures 

TSS – Telecommunications Standardization Sector

TTL – Time-to-Live

U

UDP – User Datagram Protocol

UL – Underwriters' Laboratories, Inc.

URL – Universal Resource Locator

USB – Universal Serial Bus

UTC – Universal Coordinated Time

V

VPN – Virtual Private Network

VRML – Virtual Reality Markup Language

W

W3C – World Wide Web Consortium

WAIS – Wide-Area Information System

WAN – Wide Area Network

WAP – Wireless Application Protocol

WebDAV – Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning

WEP – Wired Equivalent Privacy

WPA – Wi-Fi Protected Access

WTLS – Wireless Transport Layer Security

WWW or W3 – World Wide Web

WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get

X

XHTML – Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language

XML – Extensible Markup Language