The FREE Cybersecurity Glossary by Thor Pedersen!

SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission): A U.S. government agency that regulates the securities industry and oversees the stock and options exchanges. The SEC is responsible for enforcing federal securities laws and protecting investors from fraudulent or misleading practices. For example, the SEC might investigate a company for insider trading or issuing false financial statements.

Secure communications: The use of cryptographic techniques to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of communication between two or more parties. It is used to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information and to protect against man-in-the-middle attacks. Examples include using encryption to protect the contents of an email, using digital signatures to verify the authenticity of a message, and using secure protocols to establish a secure channel between two parties.

Secure Cryptoprocessors: Hardware components designed to securely handle sensitive data such as cryptographic keys and personal identification numbers (PINs). They are embedded in tamper-resistant packaging to prevent physical attacks and are integral to the security of systems processing transactions, authentication credentials, and other critical data.

Secure defaults (or secure-by-default): The practice of setting security settings to the most secure option as the default so that users do not have to manually adjust them. This is used in software and system design, as well as in network and device configuration. For example, a password manager may have a secure default password length requirement, or a router may have a secure default firewall configuration.

Secure Electronic Transaction (SET): An early protocol designed to secure electronic credit card transactions. While SET introduced mechanisms to safeguard payment information, it is now considered obsolete and has been largely replaced by more versatile and widely supported standards such as TLS and EMV for online and offline credit card transaction security.

Secure FTP (SFTP): A secure protocol for transferring files over a network, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of the transferred files and preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information. Examples include transferring sensitive documents between two parties, financial data between a client and a server, and software updates to a network of devices.