CISSP Practice

Market analysis

Useful in the supply chain activities employing the chain-in-depth concept. Market analysis is conducted when the information system owner does not know who the potential suppliers or integrators are or would like to discover alternative suppliers or integrators or the suppliers of the suppliers or integrators. The market analysis should identify which companies can provide the required items or make suggestions for possible options. Some ways to gather information about potential suppliers or integrators include open sources (such as the press), Internet, periodicals, and fee-based services.

Marking

The process of placing a sensitivity designator (e.g., confidential) with data such that its sensitivity is communicated. Marking is not restricted to the physical placement of a sensitivity designator, as might be done with a rubber stamp, but can involve the use of headers for network messages, special fields in databases, and so on.

Markov models

They are graphical techniques used to model a system with regard to its failure states in order to evaluate the reliability, safety, or availability of the system.

Markup language

A system (as HTML or SGML) for marking or tagging a document that indicates its logical structure (as paragraphs) and gives instructions for its layout on the page for electronic transmission and display.

Masquerading

(1) Impersonating an authorized user and gaining unauthorized privileges. (2) An unauthorized agent claiming the identity of another agent. (3) An attempt to gain access to a computer system by posing as an authorized user. (4) The pretense by an entity to be a different entity. Synonymous with impersonating, spoofing, or mimicking.

Mass mailing worm

A worm that spreads by identifying e-mail addresses, often by searching an infected system, and then sending copies of itself to those addresses, either using the system’s e-mail client or a self-contained mailer built into the worm itself.

Master boot record (MBR)

A special region on bootable media that determines which software (e.g., operating system and utility) will be run when the computer boots from the media.

Maximum signaling rate

The maximum rate, in bits per second, at which binary information can transfer in a given direction between users over telecommunication system facilities dedicated to a particular information transfer transaction. This happens under conditions of continuous transaction and no overhead information.

Maximum stuffing rate

The maximum rate at which bits are inserted or deleted.

Maximum tolerable downtime

The amount of time business processes can be disrupted without causing significant harm to the organization’s mission.

Mean-time-between-failures (MTBF)

(1) The average length of time a system is functional or the average time interval between failures. (2) The total functioning life of an item divided by the total number of failures during the measurement interval of minutes, hours, and days. (3) The average length of time a system or a component works without fault between consecutive failures. MTBF assumes that the failed system is immediately repaired as in MTTR (repair). A high MTBF means high system reliability. MTBF = MTTF + MTTR (repair).

Mean-time-between-outages (MTBO)

The mean-time between equipment failures that results in a loss of system continuity or unacceptable degradation, as expressed by MTBO = MTBF/(1-FFAS), where MTBF is the nonredundant mean-time between failures, and FFAS is the fraction of failures for which the failed hardware or software is bypassed automatically. A high MTBO means high system availability.

Mean-time-to-data loss (MTTDL)

The average time before a loss of data occurs in a given disk array and is applicable to RAID technology. A low MTTDL means high data reliability.

Mean-time-to-failure (MTTF)

The average time to the next failure. It is the time taken for a part or system to fail for the first time. MTTF assumes that the failed system is not repaired. A high MTTF means high system reliability.

Mean-time-to-recovery (MTTR)

The time following a failure to restore a RAID disk array to its normal failure-tolerant mode of operation. This time includes the replacement of the failed disk and the time to rebuild the disk array. A low MTTR means high system availability.

Mean-time-to-repair (MTTR)

(1) The amount of time it takes to resume normal operation. (2) The total corrective maintenance time divided by the total number of corrective maintenance actions during a given period of time. A low MTTR means high system reliability.

Mean-time-to-restore (MTTR)