Glossary

Microservices Threat Modeling

Applying threat modeling specifically to microservices systems, examining service-to-service trust, data flows, identity, and the many interfaces, to surface threats the architecture's distinct shape creates.

Mimikatz

A widely used post-exploitation tool that extracts credentials from Windows memory and authentication artifacts, infamous for retrieving plaintext passwords, hashes, and Kerberos tickets that attackers use to escalate and move laterally.

Misconfigurations

Mistakes in how systems or services are configured, in the cloud, things like public storage, open ports, missing encryption, or overly permissive IAM, that create exploitable weaknesses without any traditional vulnerability.

Mixed Content

A web security issue where an HTTPS page loads some resources (scripts, images) over insecure HTTP, undermining the page's protections by letting attackers tamper with or read the insecure parts.

Monte Carlo Risk Analysis

Using Monte Carlo simulation to combine probability distributions of risk inputs (frequencies, impacts) into a distribution of probable losses, giving a richer view of risk than single-point estimates.

Monte Carlo Simulation

A computational technique that runs many randomized trials from input probability distributions to estimate the distribution of an outcome. In FAIR, it combines factor estimates into a quantified loss distribution.

Multi-Account Strategy

Deliberately structuring cloud usage across many accounts (or subscriptions) to isolate workloads, environments, and blast radius, so a compromise or mistake in one account is contained from the others.

Multi-Cloud

Using services from more than one cloud provider.

Multi-Cloud Coverage

Ensuring cloud workload protection extends consistently across all clouds the organization uses, AWS, Azure, GCP, and others, so visibility and controls are not strong in one and weak in another.

Multi-Cloud vs Single-Cloud

The architectural choice between using one cloud provider or several. Multi-cloud avoids lock-in and adds resilience but increases complexity; single-cloud is simpler but ties the organization to one provider.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Authentication that requires more than one type of proof before access is granted.

Multi-Framework Approach

Operating a compliance program under several frameworks at once, treating them coherently rather than separately by leveraging overlap and shared evidence, so the organization satisfies many obligations without duplicated effort.

Multi-Framework Architecture

An organizing model for operating multiple security frameworks, with a unified control set, evidence repository, and mapping layer underneath, so frameworks are layered on a common foundation rather than implemented separately.

Multi-Framework Audit Strategy

Planning audits across the several frameworks an organization is subject to, so audit cycles, evidence, and assessor engagement are coordinated rather than run as separate, redundant efforts that strain the business.

Multi-Framework Control Mapping

Mapping the organization's controls to several frameworks at once so each control's evidence can be claimed against every framework it satisfies, the practical core of running multi-framework compliance.

Multi-Framework Reality

The unavoidable fact that most organizations must comply with several security frameworks at once, regulatory, contractual, and customer-driven, shaping how programs must be designed rather than choosing a single framework.

Multi-Jurisdiction Compliance

Meeting compliance obligations across multiple countries or regions at once, since cloud and global operations subject organizations to different, sometimes conflicting, regulations whose requirements must all be satisfied.

Multi-Source Correlation

A SIEM technique that combines events from multiple log sources to reveal what no single source shows alone, an attack whose footprint spans endpoints, identity, and network, connecting them into one picture.

Multi-Team Coordination

Coordinating multiple teams during an incident, IR, SOC, IT, legal, communications, business units, so they act in concert under unified leadership rather than working at cross purposes.

Multi-Year Cycles

Audit and compliance activities that operate on multi-year rather than annual cycles, such as a three-year ISO 27001 recertification cycle, requiring plans and effort that span years rather than fitting one calendar.

Mutating Webhooks

Kubernetes admission controllers that can modify incoming requests before they take effect, automatically adjusting workloads, for instance injecting sidecars or enforcing required settings, as part of cluster security and policy.

NAT

Network Address Translation lets multiple private devices share one or more public IP addresses by rewriting address information as traffic crosses a boundary.

NIST CSF Structure

The high-level structure of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, organized around core functions (Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover), categories, and subcategories, with profiles and tiers for risk-based management.

NIST Cybersecurity Framework

A framework for organizing cybersecurity outcomes across identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover functions.

NIST RMF

The NIST Risk Management Framework: a structured process (categorize, select, implement, assess, authorize, monitor) for managing security and privacy risk for systems, widely used in US federal government and influential more broadly.

NIST SP 800-207

NIST Special Publication 800-207, the influential definition of zero-trust architecture from NIST, laying out core principles, components, and deployment models that have become the reference for understanding zero trust.

NIST SP 800-53

NIST Special Publication 800-53: a comprehensive catalog of security and privacy controls used by US federal systems and as a reference across the broader framework ecosystem. It is the canonical detailed control catalog.

NIST SP 800-53 Structure

The organization of NIST 800-53, control families, individual controls, control enhancements, and prepared baselines, that lets practitioners navigate the large catalog and pick the controls relevant to their system.

Nation-State Actors

Threat actors backed by national governments, well-resourced, persistent, often highly skilled, who pursue strategic objectives like espionage, sabotage, or geopolitical influence and pose the most capable adversary class.

Near-Miss Reporting

Encouraging staff to report close calls, like a phishing email almost clicked, a process nearly bypassed, so the organization learns from situations that did not become incidents but could have, strengthening culture and defenses.

Negligent Insiders

Insiders who cause harm through carelessness or mistakes rather than malice, such as misconfiguring a system, falling for phishing, or mishandling data, a major source of incidents despite no malicious intent.