Cybersecurity Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms that matter most in preemptive security, OT protection, and Automated Moving Target Defense.
AMTD (Automated Moving Target Defense)
Continuously shifts network characteristics so attackers can never map a stable target. Each scan returns different results, making reconnaissance a cost instead of a free pass.
Preemptive Security
Acting before an attacker completes reconnaissance or reaches target systems. Not faster detection. A fundamentally different philosophy: stop the attack before it lands.
Inline Enforcement
Stopping threats in the actual traffic path at wire speed. The security tool sits in the flow of traffic, not beside it. If it cannot block, it is not inline.
Detection-Only Security
Security that observes and alerts but cannot stop threats in real time. Common in most traditional tools. Useful for visibility, insufficient for protection.
Deceptive Responders
Fake services that engage and misdirect attackers, revealing their tactics while wasting their time. Purpose-built for network-layer AMTD, not traditional honeypots.
Sensors
Contextual tripwires that fire on unauthorized activity with configurable actions including block, alert, and tarpit. Conditions can be set by country, ASN, time of day, and traffic rate.
Lateral Movement
An attacker moving through a network after initial compromise, looking for high-value targets. PacketViper detects and blocks lateral movement at first contact inside the environment.
Flat Network
A network with little or no internal segmentation, where an attacker who gets in can move freely. Flat OT networks are among the highest-risk environments in critical infrastructure.
OT (Operational Technology)
Hardware and software that monitors and controls physical processes, equipment, and infrastructure. Power grids, water systems, and manufacturing lines all run on OT.
ICS (Industrial Control Systems)
Systems used to control industrial processes like manufacturing, power generation, and water treatment. Often decades old and never designed with cybersecurity in mind.
SCADA
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. A type of ICS used to monitor and control distributed infrastructure like pipelines, electrical grids, and water distribution networks.
Air Gap
Physical isolation of a network from unsecured networks including the internet. Air gaps reduce exposure but are not absolute protection, especially against insider threats and removable media.
Blast Radius
How far an attack can spread if an attacker gets in. Preemptive security minimizes blast radius by stopping attackers before they can move or escalate.
Assume Breach
A security philosophy that accepts attackers will eventually get in and focuses on limiting the damage they can do. Often used to justify more detection tooling. Preemptive security challenges this assumption.
Moving Target Defense
A strategy of continuously changing attack surfaces to increase attacker cost and uncertainty. AMTD is the automated, network-layer implementation of this strategy.
Agentless Security
Security that operates without installing software on protected endpoints or devices. Critical for OT environments where endpoints are PLCs, sensors, and embedded controllers that cannot run agents.
Federation
Coordinated policy and threat intelligence sharing across multiple PacketViper nodes. Allows distributed environments to operate as a unified defense rather than isolated sensors.
Global Network Lists
PacketViper’s accumulated intelligence on known scanners, malicious IPs, and suspicious ASNs. Updated continuously and applied at the network layer before threats reach internal systems.
See These Concepts in Action
Talk to someone who can show you how PacketViper applies each of these in a real environment.