| Name |
Description |
| Application | A service that allows A user to interact electronically with government. |
| AUTHENTICATION OF A MESSAGE | the process of adding one or more additional data elements to communications traffic (or files) to ensure the integrity of the traffic (or files). Such additional elements are often called “message authenticator(s)” and would be an example of an integrity |
| Accessibility | Accessibility indicates the degree (ease or barrier) of access and usability of ICT systems, service offers, applications and information via ICT (information and communication technology). Barriers to accessibility refer to technical, audio, visual, sema |
| Accountability | Accountability is a concept originating from the field of ethics and bearing several implications and various nuances. In the specific field of governance and public management studies, accountability means that those who work in the public sector must be |
| Advanced Encryption Standard | The Advanced Encryption Standard is a standard for the symmetrical encryption of data (AES). |
| American Standard Code for Information Interchange | The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an ISO standard for text files, in which 128 characters can be represented with a 7-bit code. These are numerics, the letters of the alphabet in upper and lower cases as well as special cha |
| Application Program | An application program is a piece of software which helps users to carry out given tasks by providing helpful functions, for example programs for word processing, spreadsheet analysis and graphics editing, web browsers and specific applications of individ |
| Authentication | Authentication is the process of determining whether someone or something is, in fact, who or what it is declared to be. In the virtual world, it refers to verifying the digital identity of a person in a communication or transaction with the purpose to co |
| Avatar | Avatar is an Internet users representation of himself or herself, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model (used in computer games), a two-dimensional icon or picture (used on Internet forums and other communities), or a text construct found on ea |
| Abstract Syntax Notation One | The Abstract Syntax Notation One is a notation for the definition of abstract syntaxes to describe structured data (ASN.1). |
| ACCESS (to a system, to data, to a software process) | in general, the right to enter or make use of. In a computer context, entry granted to a software path that establishes the right to use a system and its resources; to read, write, modify, or delete data; and/or to use software processes with various capa |
| Access authorisation | In regard to e-government: giving access to the possibility to communicate electronically |
| Accessibility | Accessibility refers to the accessibility of web pages to all users. People with impaired sight, hearing, manual dexterity or cognitive function encounter barriers when they attempt to use the internet. |
| Accesskey | Accesskeys are combinations of keys which directly initiate particular actions. Under Windows, they are invoked by the combination ALT key + letter. |
| Acquirer | The department of the trader in charge of credit cards. An acquirer handles the _ authorisation and settlement of accounts of credit card payments for the trader. |
| Acronym | Acronyms are short words that are made up from the initial letters or other significant letters of several words e.g. FAQ (= Frequently Asked Questions), GIF (= Graphics Interchange Format) or WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative). |
| ADSL (Asymmetrical Data Subscriber Line) | Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (also known as xDSL) a technology that allows the use of a copper line to send a large quantity of data (e.g. a television picture) in one direction and a small quantity (e.g. a control channel and a telephone call) in t |
| Advanced signature | _Electronic signature, advanced. |
| ALGORITHM AND KEY LENGTH | combination of cryptographic algorithm and its key length(s) often used to establish the strength of an encryption process. |
| ALT text | Alternative text should be inserted as a supplementary attribute of a graphic and to describe the picture with as informative a text as possible. ALT text is especially important to blind people, who can have a spoken version of the ALT attribute read out |
| Anchor | The term “anchor” refers to the link to a defined place within an HTML document. Long pages can be broken up by having the anchor for certain areas of the page appear at the beginning of the document, allowing the user to jump around the page. |
| Animated GIF | Animated GIFs consist of a sequence of static individual images in GIF format which are played rapidly one after the other. In this way the viewer gains the impression that the image is moving. |
| Applet | Applets are small modules that are programmed in Java and can be integrated into HTML pages (e.g. to present moving displays). The program is executed if the browser is Java-capable. As Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is not integrated into all browsers, it ha |
| Archive | Archives are files which contain other files, normally compressed. The commonest format used for archiving services is the ZIP file. |
| Assistive technologies | Assistive technologies comprise software and hardware that is intended to assist disabled people with their daily activities. In the area of information technology, some examples are screen readers, screen magnifying glasses, special keys and speech input |
| ASYMMETRIC CRYPTOGRAPHY (also public-key cryptography) | cryptography based on algorithms that enable the use of one key (a public key) to encrypt a message and a second, different, but mathematically related, key (a private key) to decrypt a message. Asymmetric cryptography can also be used to perform digital |
| Asymmetric encryption | Also known as public key encryption. _Encryption during which the public key is used to convert information into “ciphertext”, which cannot be read and can only be restored to its original form by means of the secret (private) key. See also _ symmetric en |
| Attachment | File attachment to an e-mail (e.g. audio, video, text or programme files). |
| Attribute value | Commands in programming languages can be defined in more detail through the use of attributes. The attributes are defined more precisely through value specifications. For example, the image tag can be supplemented by the ALT attribute providing the descri |
| Authentication | Authentication entails one communication partner providing evidence that he is actually the person he claims to be. |
| AUTHENTICATION (OF IDENTITY) | an adjunct step to identification that confirms an asserted identity with a specified, or understood, level of confidence. Authentication can be used to provide high assurance that the purported identity is, in fact, the correct identity associated with t |
| Authentication procedure | The authentication procedure refers to the verification of an _ authentication, i.e. a check to determine whether a communication partner is actually the person he claims to be. |
| AUTHENTICITY | a security service that provides a user with a means of verifying the identity of the sender of a message, a file, a computer system, a software process, or even a database or individual software component. |
| Authenticity | ( _ IT security objective) The term authenticity refers to the characteristic that guarantees that the communication partner is actually the person he claims to be and/or that the information supplied was created by the specified source. |
| AUTHORISATION | determining whether a subject (a user or system) is trusted to act for a given purpose, for example, allowed to read a particular file. |
| Authorisation | After a check is performed, the communication partner is authorised to carry out certain operations, e.g. accessing data. With regard to payment transactions, authorisation refers to the approval of a payment amount. |
| AVAILABILITY | the property that a given resource will be useable during can be decrypted when necessary. |
| Availability | ( _ IT security objective) Guarantee that whenever information and services are needed by users, they can be called and used as required and at the required speed. |