Assessment Glossary

Browse 37 assessment terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

37 Assessment Terms

Black Box Testing
Black Box Testing is a security testing approach that evaluates a target without internal design knowledge, using only external behavior and exposed...
Code Quiz
A quiz or short assessment used to test coding knowledge, syntax familiarity, or conceptual understanding. In education and hiring culture, code quizzes are...
Ethical Hacking
Ethical Hacking is authorized offensive testing performed to identify weaknesses before they are exploited maliciously. Security teams use it to enforce trust,...
Gray Box Testing
Gray Box Testing is security testing performed with partial knowledge of the target such as architecture, credentials, or API documentation. Security teams use...
Host Scanning
The inspection of hosts to identify open services, installed software, vulnerabilities, or configuration state. Host scanning can be performed by defenders for...
Internal Penetration Test
A penetration test performed from the perspective of someone who already has access inside the network or environment, such as an insider, compromised user, or...
Offensive Security
Offensive Security is the practice of simulating attacker behavior to identify, validate, and communicate security weaknesses. Security teams use it to enforce...
Penetration Test
An authorized security assessment in which testers attempt to exploit weaknesses in systems, applications, or environments to demonstrate real attack paths and...
Penetration Testing
Penetration Testing (also called pentesting or ethical hacking) is a sanctioned, systematic process of probing a computer system, network, or web application...
Penetration Testing Methodology
A defensive security practice involving penetration testing methodology to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in...
Pentest Methodology
The planned approach used to conduct a penetration test, including reconnaissance, testing order, evidence standards, validation steps, and reporting...
Pen Test Report
The formal document produced after a penetration test, detailing discovered vulnerabilities, their severity, proof-of-concept exploits, and remediation...
Privacy Impact Assessment
A defensive security practice involving privacy impact assessment to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Real-Time Threat Detection
A defensive security practice involving real-time threat detection to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in...
Red Team
A group authorized to simulate real-world adversarial attacks against an organization's defenses, operating with the tactics, techniques, and procedures of...
Red Team Exercise
A defensive security practice involving red team exercise to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Regression Testing Security
A defensive security practice involving regression testing security to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in...
Risk Analysis
The process of examining threats, vulnerabilities, likelihood, and impact to understand how serious a security risk really is. Risk analysis helps...
Risk Assessment
A defensive security practice involving risk assessment to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application security,...
Risk Calculation
The method used to combine factors such as likelihood, impact, exploitability, and asset criticality into a risk estimate or score. Risk calculation can be...
Risk Factor
An element that influences how likely or impactful a security issue is, such as exposure, weak authentication, missing monitoring, asset criticality, or...
Risk Level
A summarized rating such as low, medium, high, or critical used to express the overall seriousness of a security risk. Risk level helps decision-makers compare...
Risk Profile
The overall pattern of risks associated with an organization, system, vendor, or initiative, including their types, severity, exposure, and concentration. A...
Risk Rating
A standardized label or score assigned to a risk after evaluation, often using categories like low, medium, high, or numeric scales. Risk ratings help with...
Security Audit
A defensive security practice involving security audit to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application security,...
Security Monitoring
A defensive security practice involving security monitoring to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Signature-Based Detection
A defensive security practice involving signature-based detection to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Software Composition Analysis
A defensive security practice involving software composition analysis to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in...
Steganography Detection
A defensive security practice involving steganography detection to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Tabletop Exercise
A defensive security practice involving tabletop exercise to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Threat Detection
A defensive security practice involving threat detection to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Threat Hunting
A defensive security practice involving threat hunting to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application security,...
Traffic Analysis
A defensive security practice involving traffic analysis to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Vulnerability Assessment
A defensive security practice involving vulnerability assessment to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
Vulnerability Scanner
An automated tool that probes systems, networks, or applications for known vulnerabilities by comparing configurations and versions against databases of known...
Vulnerability Scanning
A defensive security practice involving vulnerability scanning to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...
White Box Testing
A defensive security practice involving white box testing to measure exposure, improve controls, or find malicious activity. It shows up in application...

Related Topics