Internet abbreviations

(Updated: October 7, 2023)

Below is a listing of abbreviations related to internet technology, with the abbreviations of some general terms and of some more specific ones which can be seen in several disclosed documents from NSA.

See also the list of Abbreviations and Acronyms related to SIGINT and COMSEC

This listing is work in progress and will be expanded/corrected frequently.



Fiber-optic cable abbreviations:

CWDM - Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing
DCO - Direct Cable Ownership
DWDM - Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing
FP - Fiber Pair
IRU - Indefeasible Right of Use
LC - Leased Capacity
MMF - Multi-Mode Fibers
RFS - Ready For Service
SMF - Single-Mode Fibers
WDM - Wavelength-Division Multiplexing


Internet abbreviations:

ABAC - Attribute-based access control
ACL - Access Control List
ADC - Application Delivery Controllers
AH - Authentication Header
APT - Advanced Persistant Threats
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
AS - Autonomous System
ASA - Adaptive Security Appliance (Cisco device)
ASN - Autonomous System Number (for internet providers)
ASON - Automatically Switched Optical Network
ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATP - Advanced Threat Protection

BGAN - Broadband Global Area Network
BGP - Border Gateway Protocol

CA - Certificate Authority
CBB - Common BackBone (AT&T internet backbone)
C&C - Command & Control
CDP - Cisco Discovery Protocol
CIDR - Classless Inter-Domain Routing
CSCG - Cyber Security Coordination Group (Europe)

DDoS - Distributed Denial of Service
DLP - Data Loss Prevention
DMZ - Demilitarized Zone
DNS - Domain Name System

EB - ExaByte (1000 Petabyte)
eIDAS - electronic IDentification and Signature (Europe)
ELT - Extract, Load, Transform
EoIP - Everything over Internet Protocol
ESP - Encapsulating Security Payload (security protocol for VPN)
ETL - Extraction, Transformation and Loading

FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt
FQN - Fully Qualified Name

GB- GigaByte (1000 Megabyte)
GRE - Generic Routing Encapsulation
GTP - GPRS Tunneling Protocol

IAM - Identity & Access Management
ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol
IDS - Intrusion-Detection System
IED - Intelligent Electronic Device
IKE - Internet Key Exchange (used in IPSec)
IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol
IOC - Indicator of Compromise (hacking)
IoE - Internet of Everything
IoT - Internet of Things
IP - Internet Protocol
IPS - Intrusion-Prevention System
IRC - Internet Relay Chat
ISAKMP - Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol
ISP - Internet Service Provider

KB - KiloByte

MAC - Media Access Control
MCM - Multi-Chip Module (probably from AMD)
MDM - Mobile Device Management
MB - MegaByte (1000 Kilobyte)
MPLS - MultiProtocol Label Switching

NAS - Network Attached Storage
NAT - Network Address Translation
NCC - Network Control Center
NGFW - Next-Generation FireWall
NIC - Network Interface Controller
NRTM - Near Real Time Mirror
NTP - Network Time Protocol

OTN - Optical Transport Network
OTN - Open Transport Network

PB - PetaByte (1000 Terabyte)
PCB - Printed Circuit Board
PIA - Privacy Impact Assessment
PII - Personally Identifiable Information
PIX - Private Internet eXchange (Cisco device)
PLC - Programmable Logic Controller
POP - Post Office Protocol
PPTP - Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol

RADIUS - Remote Authentication Dial In User Service
RAT - Remote Access Tool (a Trojan)
RTP - Real-time Transport Protocol (for audio and video streams over IP)

SCADA - Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition
SDAS - Software-Defined Application Services
SDN - Software-Defined Networking
SIEM - Security Information and Event Management
SIP - Session Initiation Protocol (for VoIP)
SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol
SMB - Server Message Block
SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SNRC - Service Node Routing Complex (AT&T internet hubs)
SONET - Synchronous Optical Networks
SSH - Secure SHell protocol
SSL - Secure Sockets Layer

TACACS - Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System
TB - TeraByte (1000 Gigabyte)
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
TDF - Trusted Data Format
TLS - Transport Layer Security
TOR - The Onion Router

UTM - Unified Threat Management

VLAN - Virtual Local Area Network
VM - Virtual Machine
VPN - Virtual Private Network
VTY - Virtual Terminal (lines of a router used to control inbound Telnet connections)

WAP - Wireless Access Point
WDM - Wavelength Division Multiplexing
WiFi - Wireless Fidelity

YB - YottaByte (1000 Zettabyte)

ZB - ZettaByte (1000 Exabyte)

Megabyte (MB): Gigabyte (GB): Terabyte (TB): Petabyte (PB): Exabyte (EB):

1.000 Kilobyte 1.000.000 Kilobyte 1.000.000.000 Kilobyte 1.000.000.000.000 Kilobyte 1.000.000.000.000.000 Kilobyte