IT Glossary
Key Terms To Know In The IT Industry
Fog-to-Cloud (F2C) Computing
An architecture that integrates fog computing and cloud computing to optimize resource allocation and processing across cloud-to-edge environments.
You will find this term commonly used in Cloud Computing, Networking
Forensic Analysis
The process of examining digital media in a forensically sound manner with the aim of identifying, preserving, recovering, analyzing, and presenting facts and opinions about the digital information.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, Legal
Forensics (Digital)
The process of uncovering and interpreting electronic data. The goal of digital forensics is to preserve any evidence in its most original form while performing a structured investigation by collecting, identifying, and validating the digital information for the purpose of reconstructing past events.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity
Fork (in Software Development)
The act of creating a new project from the source code of an existing software project. Forking allows developers to develop the software independently from the original codebase, often leading to divergent features or entirely new projects.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Fork Bomb
A type of denial-of-service attack where a process continuously replicates itself to exhaust the available system resources.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, System Performance
Forking (Software Development)
The process of creating a copy of an existing project or source code from one software development environment to another, often to develop it in a new direction.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Open Source
Form Factor
In design, the form factor of a piece of electronic equipment is its size, shape, and other physical specifications. Different form factors are often more or less suitable for various applications.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, General IT
Form-Based Code Injection
A security vulnerability where an attacker can insert malicious code into forms within web applications to exploit backend systems.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, Web Development
Formal Methods
Techniques used in computer science to apply rigorous mathematical methods for the specification, development, and verification of software and hardware systems.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, System Verification
Formal Verification
The process of using mathematical methods to prove or disprove the correctness of a system's algorithms with respect to a certain formal specification or property.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, AI
Formware
Malicious software that specifically targets the firmware of devices to embed itself deeply in the system, often evading traditional antivirus solutions.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity
Forward Chaining
An algorithm used in artificial intelligence, where inference rules are applied to the known data to extract more data until a goal is reached.
You will find this term commonly used in AI, Logic Programming
Forward Engineering
The traditional process of moving from high-level abstractions and logical, implementation-independent designs to the physical implementation of a system.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Systems Engineering
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
A technique used in data transmission where the sender adds redundant data to its messages. This allows the receiver to detect and correct errors without needing to request retransmission of data, improving the reliability of communication channels.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Data Communication
Forward Lookup Zone
In DNS (Domain Name System), a part of the DNS database that maps domain names to IP addresses. Forward lookup zones are used to resolve human-readable domain names into machine-readable IP addresses.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Internet
Forward Proxy
A server that sits between a group of client machines and the internet. It is used to forward requests for content from the clients to the internet. Forward proxies can provide anonymity and are used to bypass network restrictions.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security
Forward Secrecy
A feature of certain key agreement protocols that ensures a session key derived from a set of public and private keys will not be compromised if one of the private keys is compromised in the future.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity
Forward Secrecy (FS)
A property of secure communication protocols where session keys cannot be compromised even if the private key of the server is compromised in the future. Forward Secrecy ensures that session keys for encryption are not derived from a set of long-term keys, enhancing security.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cryptography
FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)
Software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software. Anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Software Development
FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array)
An integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing – hence "field-programmable".
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, General IT
FPGA Configuration
The process of loading a design into an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) after it has been powered on. The configuration data defines how the FPGA operates, enabling it to perform specific digital logic functions.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, General IT
FPGA Programming
The process of configuring or programming a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device using hardware description languages like VHDL or Verilog. FPGA programming enables the creation of custom hardware configurations for specific applications.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, Software Development
FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)
The complete domain name for a specific computer, or host, on the Internet. The FQDN consists of two parts: the hostname and the domain name. It is used to address nodes in a network.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, General IT
FQDN Expansion
The process of converting a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) into its corresponding IP address during DNS resolution. This is necessary for network communications as computers use IP addresses, whereas humans use domain names for convenience.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
FQDN Hijacking
A type of cyber attack where the attacker manipulates DNS records to redirect users from a legitimate fully qualified domain name to a malicious website.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity
FQDN Mapping
The process of associating a Fully Qualified Domain Name with its corresponding IP address. This mapping is crucial for the DNS system to resolve domain names into IP addresses that can be used to route internet traffic.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Internet
FQDN Resolution
The process of translating a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) into its corresponding IP address using the Domain Name System (DNS). FQDN resolution is essential for internet communication, as it allows users to access websites using human-readable names instead of numerical IP addresses.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Internet
FQDN Spoofing
The malicious act of impersonating a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to mislead users or systems, often used in phishing attacks to mimic legitimate websites.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity
Fractal Compression
A method of image compression that uses fractals or mathematical formulas to encode images. It is based on the principle that parts of an image often resemble other parts of the same image. Fractal compression can achieve high levels of compression.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Graphics
Fragment Allocation
In file systems, the process of assigning disk space to store file fragments. Fragment allocation strategies affect the efficiency and performance of file access, especially in systems where files are frequently modified and can become fragmented.
You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems, Storage
Fragment Shader
A type of shader used in 3D graphics rendering that calculates the colors and other attributes of each pixel. Fragment shaders are a core element of many graphics processing units (GPUs) and are used to add effects such as lighting and texture mapping to 3D scenes.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Graphics
Fragmentation
In computing, fragmentation is the process where storage space is used inefficiently, reducing capacity or performance and often both. The phenomenon whereby storage space is used inefficiently, reducing capacity or performance and often both.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Networking
Fragmentation (Computing)
The division of digital information or media content into smaller parts or fragments, often to improve transmission over a network or to work around limitations in protocols or systems.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Data Storage
Fragmentation (Disk)
The condition of a disk in which files are divided into pieces scattered around the disk. Fragmentation occurs when the operating system cannot allocate contiguous space to a file as it grows. This can degrade system performance as it increases the head seek time.
You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems, Storage
Fragmentation (Memory)
The breaking up of a file into many pieces that are stored in non-contiguous clusters on a disk. As files are deleted and new ones are saved, it can result in free spaces being scattered throughout the disk, which can lead to increased access times and reduced performance.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Storage
Fragmentation (Networking)
The process of breaking down data packets into smaller pieces (fragments) to be transmitted across a network that cannot support the original packet size. This is common in IP networks.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Fragmentation Threshold
A networking parameter that determines the maximum packet size that can be sent over a network without requiring fragmentation.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Frame (Networking)
A digital data transmission unit in computer networking and telecommunication. In packet switched systems, a frame is a simple container for a single network packet. Frames are used to deliver data packets between connected network points.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Frame Analysis
In network analysis, frame analysis refers to the detailed examination of data packets or frames transmitted over a network. This can involve looking at header information, payload, and trailers to diagnose issues, ensure security, and optimize performance.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security
Frame Buffer
A portion of RAM containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is used to store the current viewable frame in computer graphics. Frame buffers help in rendering images, including the composition of multiple images or the display of video or animation.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, Graphics
Frame Dropping
The process of intentionally discarding frames in a video stream or network traffic to manage bandwidth or processing limitations. Frame dropping can help maintain the overall flow of data by reducing the load when the system cannot process all incoming frames in real-time.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Multimedia
Frame Rate
The frequency at which frames in a sequence of images or video are displayed, critical in video streaming and gaming applications for smooth motion.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Multimedia
Frame Relay
A standardized wide area network technology that specifies the physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology. It was designed for telecommunication service providers to transport data over wide area networks.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Frame Sniffing
Capturing and analyzing network packets at the frame level, often used for network troubleshooting, security analysis, and malicious interception.
You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, Networking
Frame Synchronization
In telecommunications and computing, a process by which receiving devices align their data frames or packets with the sender's frame structure. Frame synchronization is essential for error-free data transmission over networks.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Telecommunications
Frame Type
A classification used in networking to identify the format and structure of frames sent over a network, indicating how data is packaged for transmission.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Data Communication
Frame Type Identification
The process of analyzing network traffic to identify the types of frames being transmitted, useful in network management and security.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Cybersecurity
Framework
In software development, a framework is a concrete or conceptual platform where common code with generic functionality can be selectively specialized or overridden by developers to provide specific functionality.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Framework (in Programming)
An abstraction in which common code providing generic functionality can be selectively overridden or specialized by user code providing specific functionality. Frameworks take the form of libraries or software development kits (SDKs).
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Free Cooling
A technique used in data centers and other facilities to reduce the energy consumed by cooling systems by using naturally cool air or water instead of mechanical refrigeration. This approach can significantly lower operating costs and energy consumption.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, Data Centers
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