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  • Search engine
    A "robot" or "crawler" that goes to every page or representative pages on a Web site, or the whole Web, and creates an index; or, a program that receives your search request, compares it to the entries in the index, and returns results to you.
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  • Secret key
    A key known only to authorized parties. It can be used to authenticate the sender or recipient of a message. See secret key cryptography.
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  • Secret Key Cryptography
    Also known as symmetric key cryptography. A method of cryptography in which the sender and receiver of a message both use the same key, which is known only to them. Usually, the sender uses it to encrypt the message and the receiver uses it to decrypt the message. The sender can also use the key to generate a message digest to accompany a message being sent; the receiver can then check the message's integrity by generating another digest and comparing the two. Sender and receiver usually keep their copies of this key in files on their respective machines, known as secret key files. Compare with public key cryptography.
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  • Secret Key File
    In secret key cryptography, a file in which a user stores a copy of a key that is used for encryption, decryption, or checking integrity.
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  • Security architecture
    A plan and set of principles that describes how to implement the security services a system should provide to deal with the system's threat environment. A complete security architecture must deal with both intentional, intelligent threats and accidental kinds of threats. Tupically includes a firewall to protect against Internet threats as well the basics of computer, personnel, physical, and procedural security, such as classifying and labeling data according to sensitivity, protecting access to workstations, running anti-virus software, and tracking removable media.
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  • Security perimeter
    The boundary of the domain in which an organization's security policy applies. An organization establishes a security perimeter to separate its own computing resources from external threats.
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  • Security policy
    A set of rules and practices that regulate how a system provides security services to protect sensitive and critical resources. A firewall implements a security policy that defines the services and access to be permitted from the restricted network. A firewall policy must balance between protecting the network from known risks while still providing users reasonable access to network resources. It is important to define the policy before implementing a firewall.
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  • Self Service
    Providing individual users with personalized access to information that pertains specifically to them. Commonly used for checking financial account information or customer support problem resolution status.
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  • Semantic Web
    The predicted evolution of the current HTML-based World Wide Web, in which information will be stored in machine-readable formats for easy retrieval by software applications, computer agents, and virtual assistants.
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  • Serial port
    The communications port on your computer: Also called the COM or RS-232 port.
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  • Server
    Software that processes and fulfills requests from client software. Common servers include HTTP and FTP servers. May also refer to the hardware on which the server software runs.
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  • Server Farm
    Secure facility that hosts a large number of Web servers. See also Internet Data Center.
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  • Service Provider
    See ISP.
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  • session identifier
    A random value generated by a client that identifies itself across multiple hits to a particular server. The session identifier can be thought of as a code word that both parties use to access a recorded secret key (such as a session key). If both parties remember the session identifier then the implication is that the secret key is already known and need not be negotiated. Compareto Session Identifier.
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  • Session Identifier (SI)
    When capitalized, a a ticket assigned to an individual (client) when beginning a server session. It allows the individual's hits to be uniquely identified among all the current server clients. Session Identifiers are refreshed due to expiration or by following an absolute URL. Session Identifiers are used in a commerce service provider to provide access to subscription-based content, as they allow content trees to pass authentication and authorization information in relative URLs.
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  • SET (Secure Electronic Transaction)
    A draft industry standard for securely conducting payment card transactions on the Internet, developed by MasterCard and Visa, together with Genuity, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape, SAIC, andVerisign.
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  • Settlement
    The stage of the credit card payment process during which the cardholder's account is debited, and the merchant's account is credited.
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  • Shareware
    Try-before-you-buy-software. Shareware is a distribution method rather than a type of software.
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  • Shared hosting
    A form of Web hosting in which the hosting provider uses a single machine to host Web sites for multiple customers' Web sites.
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  • Shell account
    A connection that enables an end-user's computer to act as a terminal on an Internet hostThe terminal user is not directly on the Internet but is using a machine that is. This means that to complete functions such as transferring files require an extra "hop"; users must first transfer the file to the Internet host, then download it through the terminal connection to their desktop.
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  • Shopping cart
    Electronic order form that buyers may use in electronic commerce visit when they wish to select multiple items for possible purchase.
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  • Shortcuts
    Key strokes that enact the same commands available in the menus of a program. They are quicker and more direct, and usually involve two or three keys depressed simultaneously.
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  • S-HTTP (Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol)
    An encryption protocol used to allow private communication on the Web. Allows encryption, digital signatures, authentication, or any combination of these, at the application level. Contrast with SSL.
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  • SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol)
    Serial Line Internet Protocol is the other popular protocol for connecting a computer to the Internet over a dial-up phone line.
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  • Smart card
    A card endowed with a means to store monetary value or private information electronically, typically on a chip. Smart cards look like credit cards. Sometimes also called stored-value cards or cash cards.
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  • Smiley
    Smiling faces used in mail and news to indicated humor and irony. The most common smiley is :).
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  • Soft goods
    Industry synonym for electronic goods.
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  • Spam
    The act of posting inappropriate and unsolicited messages to large numbers of e-mail recipients and Usenet news groups. Also refers to the message itself.
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  • Squeezing
    An quantum state of light which possesses sub-shot noise fluctuations in one dimension (and increased fluctuations in a conjugate dimension, in accordance with the Uncertainty Principle). Squeezing has applications in overcoming fundamental noise limits in precision measurement and sensing applications.
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  • SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
    Use of PKI technology to protect application-layer data and protocols (HTTP, FTP, Telnet) Transparently.
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  • Staging
    The process of bringing new content to the Web. New Web pages can be changed incrementally or altogether, and may have a preview period.
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  • Static
    Unchanging. When referring to Web pages, pages that are created once, and served as-is. They may be updated at any time, but are not recreated each time they are requested, as dynamic pages are. When referring to IP addresses, a static IP address is one that is permanently assigned to a particular system, and not re-assigned every time the system is booted.
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  • Statistics
    Generally, processed reports based on information recorded in a Web server's log file(s). They may include the number of page views, the amount of data transferred, the most popular pages, the most popular viewing times, etc.
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  • Storefront
    The home page of an online store.
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  • Streaming Media
    Media files (sound or video) that play on the user's system as they arrive. By streaming a media file to an end user, it alleviates the delay of waiting for the whole (often rather large) file to download before it can be played.
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  • Subscription
    A transaction wherein the buyer purchases a product or service for a period of time. For example, a subscription to an online magazine, where a buyer purchases the right to access a collection of online content comprising the magazine for a period of months.
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  • Subnetting
    A means of making a splitting a single IP address into multiple network addresses. It is accomplished by mathematically combining an IP address with another set of numbers called a network mask. Subnetting increases the number of networks an organization can have but decreases the number of hosts that can be on each network.
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  • Superconductor
    A metal which makes a phase transition to zero-resistance state below some critical temperature (typically <10K for computation applications). They have potential applications in low heat dissipation, high speed classical computation, and in superconducting Josephson Junction circuits for quantum processing.
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  • Supernetting
    A means of combining multiple network addresses into a single network address. It is accomplished by mathematically combining an IP address with another set of numbers called a network mask. Supernetting decreases the number of networks an organization can have, but increases the number of hosts that can be on each network.
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  • Superposition
    A quantum system which is simultaneously in a combination of distinct states (with weighted probabilities). This occurs routinely in small (atomic scale) objects, however, quantum information researchers have begun to observe these in macroscopic objects as well (such as superconducting quantum circuits).
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  • Surf
    To browse the Web, especially to visit new pages.
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  • Symmetric Secret Key
    Synonym for secret key.
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  • Sysop
    Systems operator. A person responsible for the operations of a computer system or network. Part of such operations are security checks and routine maintenance.
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  • Small Vocabulary System
    A speech recognition system that can perform limited functions using vocabularies ranging from a few hundred words to a few thousand words.
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  • Speaker Adaptive
    The ability of a speech recognition system to increase its recognition rate by learning from the corrections made by the speaker.
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  • Speaker Dependent
    A voice input system that requires an enrollment period (usually 15-60 minutes) in which it is trained to recognize each word by each individual user.
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  • Speaker Identification
    The use of speech analysis to determine who spoke a recorded example.
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  • Speaker Independent
    A voice input system that does not need an enrollment period to recognize words, but comprehends any person who speaks into the system as soon as they start speaking.
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  • Speaker Verification
    The use of speaker identification technology to verify a person's identity through voice input.
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  • Speech Recognition
    The process in which software digitizes spoken words, then uses mathematical models to identify and transcribe the words. Voice-recognition software is used with an increasingly wide range of business software.
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  • Speech-to-Text
    The field of computerized voice recognition/speech recognition.
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