The FREE Cybersecurity Glossary by Thor Pedersen!

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) or Mean Time To Failure (MTTF): Measures of reliability typically used in the context of hardware or systems. MTBF is the average time between system breakdowns or failures, while MTTF refers to the average time it takes for a non-repairable system or component to fail. Both metrics are crucial in planning maintenance schedules, resource allocation, and system design to improve reliability and availability.

Mean Time to Detect (MTTD): The average time it takes to identify an issue or anomaly within a system or network, often a security incident or breach. Shorter MTTD values are preferred as they allow for quicker incident response, minimizing potential damage or disruption. It's an important metric for monitoring system health and the effectiveness of security controls.

Mean Time To Repair/Restore (MTTR): The average time it takes to repair a faulty component or restore a system to full functionality after an outage. It's a valuable metric in evaluating the efficiency of repair processes, and a shorter MTTR generally correlates with decreased downtime and improved system availability.

Media: The various methods or devices used for data storage or transmission, including physical items like hard drives, solid-state drives, optical discs, and virtual concepts like cloud storage. Effective media management is crucial for ensuring data integrity, availability, and confidentiality.

Media Access Control (MAC): Media Access Control (MAC) refers to the sublayer of the data link layer in the OSI model that is responsible for controlling how devices in a network gain access to the medium and permission to transmit data. A MAC address is a hardware identifier that uniquely identifies each device on a network. MAC addresses are typically 48 bits in length, expressed in hexadecimal format. In some cases, MAC addresses can also be 64 bits, particularly with modifications for use in IPv6 networking environments.

Media Management: The comprehensive process of managing, archiving, and tracking digital and non-digital media to ensure its availability, integrity, and security. This includes processes such as data backup, version control, archiving, retrieval, and disposal, often managed using specialized software to ensure efficiency and reliability.