The following is a list of acronyms that appear on the CompTIA Security+ exam. Candidates are encouraged to review the complete list and attain a working knowledge of all listed acronyms as part of a comprehensive exam preparation program.
ACRONYM DEFINITION 3DES Triple Data Encryption Standard AAA Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting ABAC Attribute-based Access Control ACL Access Control List AD Active Directory AES Advanced Encryption Standard AES256 Advanced Encryption Standards 256bit AH Authentication Header AI Artificial Intelligence AIS Automated Indicator Sharing ALE Annualized Loss Expectancy AP Access Point API Application Programming Interface APT Advanced Persistent Threat ARO Annualized Rate of Occurrence ARP Address Resolution Protocol ASLR Address Space Layout Randomization ASP Active Server Pages ATT&CK Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge AUP Acceptable Use Policy AV Antivirus BASH Bourne Again Shell BCP Business Continuity Planning BGP Border Gateway Protocol BIA Business Impact Analysis BIOS Basic Input/Output System BPA Business Partnership Agreement BPDU Bridge Protocol Data Unit BSSID Basic Service Set Identifier BYOD Bring Your Own Device CA Certificate Authority CAPTCHA Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart CAR Corrective Action Report CASB Cloud Access Security Broker CBC Cipher Block Chaining CBT Computer-based Training CCMP Counter-Mode/CBC-MAC Protocol CCTV Closed-Circuit Television CERT Computer Emergency Response Team CFB Cipher Feedback CHAP Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol CIO Chief Information Officer CIRT Computer Incident Response Team CIS Center for Internet Security CMS Content Management System CN Common Name COOP Continuity of Operations Planning COPE Corporate-owned Personally Enabled CP Contingency Planning CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check CRL Certificate Revocation List CSA Cloud Security Alliance CSIRT Computer Security Incident Response Team CSO Chief Security Officer CSP Cloud Service Provider CSR Certificate Signing Request CSRF Cross-Site Request Forgery CSU Channel Service Unit CTM Counter-Mode CTO Chief Technology Officer CVE Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVSS Common Vulnerability Scoring System CYOD Choose Your Own Device DAC Discretionary Access Control DBA Database Administrator DDoS Distributed Denial-of-Service DEP Data Execution Prevention DER Distinguished Encoding Rules DES Data Encryption Standard DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol DHE Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral DKIM Domain Keys Identified Mail DLL Dynamic-link Library DLP Data Loss Prevention DMARC Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance DNAT Destination Network Address Transaction DNS Domain Name System DNSSEC Domain Name System Security Extensions DoS Denial-of-Service DPO Data Protection Officer DRP Disaster Recovery Plan DSA Digital Signature Algorithm DSL Digital Subscriber Line EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol ECB Electronic Code Book ECC Elliptic-curve Cryptography ECDHE Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral ECDSA Elliptic-curve Digital Signature Algorithm EDR Endpoint Detection and Response EFS Encrypted File System EIP Extended Instruction Pointer EOL End of Life EOS End of Service ERP Enterprise Resource Planning ESN Electronic Serial Number ESP Encapsulating Security Payload ESSID Extended Service Set Identifier FACL File System Access Control List FDE Full Disk Encryption FIM File Integrity Monitoring FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array FRR False Rejection Rate FTP File Transfer Protocol FTPS Secured File Transfer Protocol GCM Galois/Counter Mode GDPR General Data Protection Regulation GPG GNU Privacy Guard GPO Group Policy Object GPS Global Positioning System GPU Graphics Processing Unit GRE Generic Routing Encapsulation HA High Availability HDD Hard Disk Drive HIDS Host-based Intrusion Detection System HIPS Host-based Intrusion Prevention System HMAC Hash-based Message Authentication Code HOTP HMAC-based One-time Password HSM Hardware Security Module HSMaaS Hardware Security Module as a Service HTML Hypertext Markup Language HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure HVAC Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning IaaS Infrastructure as a Service IAM Identity and Access Management ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol ICS Industrial Control Systems IDEA International Data Encryption Algorithm IDF Intermediate Distribution Frame IdP Identity Provider IDS Intrusion Detection System IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IKE Internet Key Exchange IM Instant Messaging IMAP4 Internet Message Access Protocol v4 IoC Indicators of Compromise IoT Internet of Things IP Internet Protocol IPS Intrusion Prevention System IPSec Internet Protocol Security IR Incident Response IRC Internet Relay Chat IRP Incident Response Plan ISA Interconnection Security Agreement ISFW Internal Segmentation Firewall ISO International Organization for Standardization ISP Internet Service Provider ISSO Information Systems Security Officer ITCP IT Contingency Plan IV Initialization Vector KDC Key Distribution Center KEK Key Encryption Key L2TP Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol LAN Local Area Network LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LEAP Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol MaaS Monitoring as a Service MAC Media Access Control MAM Mobile Application Management MAN Metropolitan Area Network MBR Master Boot Record MD5 Message Digest 5 MDF Main Distribution Frame MDM Mobile Device Management MFA Multifactor Authentication MFD Multifunction Device MFP Multifunction Printer ML Machine Learning MMS Multimedia Message Service MOA Memorandum of Agreement MOU Memorandum of Understanding MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching MSA Measurement Systems Analysis MS-CHAP Microsoft Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol MSP Managed Service Provider MSSP Managed Security Service Provider MTBF Mean Time Between Failures MTTF Mean Time to Failure MTTR Mean Time to Repair MTU Maximum Transmission Unit NAC Network Access Control NAS Network-attached Storage NAT Network Address Translation NDA Non-disclosure Agreement NFC Near-field Communication NFV Network Function Virtualization NGFW Next-generation Firewall NG-SWG Next-generation Secure Web Gateway NIC Network Interface Card NIDS Network-based Intrusion Detection System NIPS Network-based Intrusion Prevention System NIST National Institute of Standards & Technology NOC Network Operations Center NTFS New Technology File System NTLM New Technology LAN Manager NTP Network Time Protocol OCSP Online Certificate Status Protocol OID Object Identifier OS Operating System OSI Open Systems Interconnection OSINT Open-source Intelligence OSPF Open Shortest Path First OT Operational Technology OTA Over-The-Air OTG On-The-Go OVAL Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language OWASP Open Web Application Security Project P12 PKCS #12 P2P Peer-to-Peer PaaS Platform as a Service PAC Proxy Auto Configuration PAM Privileged Access Management PAM Pluggable Authentication Modules PAP Password Authentication Protocol PAT Port Address Translation PBKDF2 Password-based Key Derivation Function 2 PBX Private Branch Exchange PCAP Packet Capture PCI DSS Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard PDU Power Distribution Unit PE Portable Executable PEAP Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol PED Portable Electronic Device PEM Privacy Enhanced Mail PFS Perfect Forward Secrecy PGP Pretty Good Privacy PHI Personal Health Information PII Personally Identifiable Information PIN Personal Identification Number PIV Personal Identity Verification PKCS Public Key Cryptography Standards PKI Public Key Infrastructure PoC Proof of Concept POP Post Office Protocol POTS Plain Old Telephone Service PPP Point-to-Point Protocol PPTP Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol PSK Preshared Key PTZ Pan-Tilt-Zoom PUP Potentially Unwanted Program QA Quality Assurance QoS Quality of Service RA Registration Authority RAD Rapid Application Development RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks RAM Random Access Memory RAS Remote Access Server RAT Remote Access Trojan RC4 Rivest Cipher version 4 RCS Rich Communication Services RFC Request for Comments RFID Radio Frequency Identification RIPEMD RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest ROI Return on Investment RPO Recovery Point Objective RSA Rivest, Shamir, & Adleman RTBH Remotely Triggered Black Hole RTO Recovery Time Objective RTOS Real-time Operating System RTP Real-time Transport Protocol S/MIME Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions SaaS Software as a Service SAE Simultaneous Authentication of Equals SAML Security Assertions Markup Language SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition SCAP Security Content Automation Protocol SCEP Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol SDK Software Development Kit SDLC Software Development Life Cycle SDLM Software Development Life-cycle Methodology SDN Software-defined Networking SDP Service Delivery Platform SDV Software-defined Visibility SED Self-Encrypting Drives SEH Structured Exception Handling SFTP SSH File Transfer Protocol SHA Secure Hashing Algorithm SIEM Security Information and Event Management SIM Subscriber Identity Module SIP Session Initiation Protocol SLA Service-level Agreement SLE Single Loss Expectancy SMB Server Message Block SMS Short Message Service SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol SMTPS Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Secure SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol SOAR Security Orchestration, Automation, Response SoC System on Chip SOC Security Operations Center SPF Sender Policy Framework SPIM Spam over Instant Messaging SQL Structured Query Language SQLi SQL Injection SRTP Secure Real-time Transport Protocol SSD Solid State Drive SSH Secure Shell SSID Service Set Identifier SSL Secure Sockets Layer SSO Single Sign-on STIX Structured Threat Information eXpression STP Shielded Twisted Pair SWG Secure Web Gateway TACACS+ Terminal Access Controller Access Control System TAXII Trusted Automated eXchange of Intelligence Information TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol TGT Ticket Granting Ticket TKIP Temporal Key Integrity Protocol TLS Transport Layer Security TOTP Time-based One Time Password TPM Trusted Platform Module TSIG Transaction Signature TTP Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures UAT User Acceptance Testing UDP User Datagram Protocol UEBA User and Entity Behavior Analytics UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface UEM Unified Endpoint Management UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply URI Uniform Resource Identifier URL Universal Resource Locator USB Universal Serial Bus USB OTG USB On-The-Go UTM Unified Threat Management UTP Unshielded Twisted Pair VBA Visual Basic for Applications VDE Virtual Desktop Environment VDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure VLAN Virtual Local Area Network VLSM Variable-length Subnet Masking VM Virtual Machine VoIP Voice over IP VPC Virtual Private Cloud VPN Virtual Private Network VTC Video Teleconferencing WAF Web Application Firewall WAP Wireless Access Point WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy WIDS Wireless Intrusion Detection System WIPS Wireless Intrusion Prevention System WORM Write Once Read Many WPA WiFi Protected Access WPS WiFi Protected Setup XaaS Anything as a Service XML Extensible Markup Language XOR Exclusive OR XSRF Cross-site Request Forgery XSS Cross-site Scripting