The FREE Cybersecurity Glossary by Thor Pedersen!

Manipulative Communications: The deceptive methods used to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information or to influence their actions, often for malicious purposes. Techniques could include phishing, spear-phishing, or social engineering tactics, which are designed to exploit human vulnerabilities and bypass conventional security measures.

Mantrap: A physical security access control system comprising a small space having two sets of interlocking doors such that the first set of doors must close before the second set opens. Mantraps ensure that only one person can pass through at a time, and they provide an effective mechanism for controlling and monitoring access to secure environments.

Masking: A process used to protect sensitive data by replacing it with random characters or other dummy information. It enables users to carry out operations without exposing the actual data, thus preserving confidentiality. It's a technique often used in environments where data needs to be used for testing or analysis but where the original data contains sensitive details.

Masqueraders: Individuals who pretend to be another user or entity to gain unauthorized access to systems or data. They might employ a range of techniques, from simple password guessing to sophisticated social engineering, in order to mislead systems or people into granting them access. Masquerading is a significant threat to both the integrity and confidentiality of data.

Master Boot Record (MBR): The first sector of a hard drive that contains the bootloader program and the partition table. It is used to boot the operating system on a computer. Examples -A computer's BIOS uses the MBR to boot the operating system, a bootable USB drive contains an MBR, and a disk repair utility can fix a corrupted MBR.

Materiality: A concept used in risk assessment and audit planning to define the significance of a risk or a discrepancy. If the effect of a risk or discrepancy is large enough to impact decisions made based on the outcome, it is considered material. This principle guides the identification of relevant issues and ensures that time and resources are allocated to manage the most impactful risks.