The FREE Cybersecurity Glossary by Thor Pedersen!

Forensics in the cloud: The application of digital forensics principles in a cloud computing environment. Due to the distributed nature of data in the cloud, standard forensic procedures may be adapted to accommodate specific cloud infrastructure characteristics, like multitenancy, data redundancy, and virtualization. It involves analyzing logs, recovering data, and investigating activities to reveal details about potential breaches, unauthorized access, or other suspicious activities within the cloud infrastructure.

Formal Access Approval: The process by which an individual is granted official permission to access specific data or areas within an organization, typically after meeting predetermined security requirements. This formal approval is often documented and is necessary for maintaining security protocols and ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to authorized personnel. This process is part of access control and is crucial for compliance, privacy, and data protection.

Formal Assessment: A structured evaluation process used to measure the efficiency, effectiveness, and compliance of operations or systems. This involves systematically reviewing controls, procedures, and policies to ensure they meet standards and guidelines, mitigate risks, and enhance the organization's security posture.

Fraggle Attack: A Fraggle attack is a type of denial of service (DoS) attack that targets a network by sending a large amount of spoofed UDP traffic to the network's broadcast address. Each packet prompts devices to respond, creating a flood of traffic that can overload and disrupt services. This exploit takes advantage of the amplification effect of broadcasting to multiple devices, thereby magnifying the attack's impact.

Frame relay: A high-speed, packet-switched telecommunications network technology that was designed for cost-efficient data transmission for intermittent traffic between local area networks (LANs) and between endpoints in a wide area network (WAN). Because of its nature, it's crucial to implement proper security measures, like encrypting data before transmission, to protect data integrity and prevent unauthorized access.

Freeware: Software that is available for use at no monetary cost, typically distributed with a license that allows users to download, install, and utilize the software without any payment. Freeware may be proprietary, with the source code not available for modification or redistribution by users. It is often supported by voluntary donations, advertisements, or as a strategy to entice users to purchase a more capable paid version. Unlike open-source software, the rights to copy, modify, and redistribute freeware are usually restricted by the developer. Popular examples of freeware include Adobe Reader and Skype.