The FREE Cybersecurity Glossary by Thor Pedersen!

Capacity Stress Testing: The process of evaluating a system's ability to manage peak workloads by simulating heavy traffic or data loads. This testing helps identify performance bottlenecks or potential failure points, ensuring the system can maintain optimal performance during maximum usage periods.

Capital Expenditure/Expense (CAPEX): The spending of funds by an organization to acquire or upgrade physical assets such as buildings, equipment, or hardware infrastructure. In the context of digital security, it may include the purchase of servers, storage devices, security appliances, or other significant hardware tools that are used to enhance or maintain security measures within an organization.

Captive Portal: A web page that a user must view and interact with before accessing a public network. Upon connecting to the network, the user's browser is redirected to the captive portal, which may require authentication, payment, acceptance of EULA/usage policies, or other actions from the user. Captive portals are commonly used in public Wi-Fi networks to control access and ensure security.

Card Swipe: The action of reading the magnetic stripe of a card, such as a credit or debit card, through a card reader device. Card swipe technology is utilized to facilitate electronic transactions by securely transferring cardholder information to a point-of-sale (POS) system. Security measures are integral to card swipe systems to protect against fraud and unauthorized data breaches.

Carlisle Adams/Stafford Tavares (CAST): A series of symmetric encryption algorithms, including CAST-128 and CAST-256. Named after their developers, Carlisle Adams and Stafford Tavares, these algorithms are used to secure data during transmission or storage, ensuring confidentiality and preventing unauthorized access. CAST-128 is commonly used in various encryption protocols, including Secure Shell (SSH) and OpenVPN.

Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA): A protocol used for controlling traffic in wireless networks to prevent collisions or simultaneous data transmissions that can cause data corruption. Before sending data, devices using CSMA/CA first check if the transmission medium is free. If it's occupied, the device waits for a random period before checking again, reducing the likelihood of multiple devices transmitting simultaneously and causing a collision.